Point Blank (DVD)

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Yet, while Walker is a tough, brutal guy, he sometimes appears to have a head on his shoulders and at other times is pretty dense. All he seems to care about is getting his money. The fact that the whole Organization is standing in his way doesn't bother him. He's obviously a man on a mission.

Incidentally, it's fascinating to see Carroll O'Connor ("All in the Family") in an early role as a Mob boss, as well as to spot Bill Hickman (who would later show up as one of the hit men in "Bullitt") doing some uncredited stunt work. I was never quite sure why one of the Organization's top operatives (Michael Strong) was a used-car dealer, though.

The movie was directed by Englishman John Boorman, who had done only a couple of films before this one. Still, it set the stage for a fine career that would include "Hell in the Pacific," "Excalibur," "Hope and Glory," and the pick of the litter, "Deliverance." His only two outright duds were "Zardoz" and "Exorcist II: The Heretic," but we can excuse the occasional mind fade in anyone. With "Point Blank" he more than makes up for the lapses.

Video:
The film's wide Panavision dimensions (OAR: 2.35:1) are mostly preserved in Warner Bros.' anamorphic transfer, which measures a ratio about 2.20:1 across a standard television. The colors are appropriately bright (this is a late 60's film, after all, when garish colors were all the rage), but they are a tad dark on facial tones. The bit rate used is fairly ordinary, so I supposed WB thought the colors and contrasts of the original print could take care of themselves. The picture is slightly soft in spots, and slightly grainy as well, lending an overall roughness to the image that perhaps complements the jagged edges of the script.

Audio:
I was not too pleased with the Dolby Digital rendering of the 1.0 mono soundtrack. It's undoubtedly as good as it can be, but that isn't saying much. The audio is quite dynamic, but it often appears overly bright, hollow, and pinched, with a touch of background noise intruding on the quiet moments. In its own distorted way, it, too, may complement the movie with its cold, aggressive stance.

Extras:
The outstanding feature here is the audio commentary with director John Boorman and filmmaker Stephen Soderbergh. Soderbergh introduces the older director by saying he'd stolen from "Point Blank" so many times it was a pleasure to be able to talk with the director about how it all came about. So what we get is a series of questions and answers between the two men. In one case, for instance, Soderbergh asks Boorman what it was like to shoot a noir film in color. Boorman replies that Hollywood noirs developed out of the experience of German Expressionist cameramen who migrated to America before the Second World War, bringing with them the kind of black-and-white lighting techniques that he tried replicating in nighttime color shots.

The other bonuses are not as advantageous. There are two related vintage featurettes, "The Rock Pt. 1" and "The Rock Pt. 2," seven and eight-minute promos for the movie telling a little about Alcatraz as a shooting location and hyping the film along the way. In addition, there are twenty-four scene selections, but no chapter insert; a widescreen theatrical trailer; English and French spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.

Parting Thoughts:
It's hard not to like "Point Blank," yet it's not the kind of film a viewer can get very close to, either. It's rather chilly, emotionless--its characters, its plot, its look, its music. Marvin is perfectly cast as the obsessed tough guy, who is at once brilliant yet slow, dispassionate yet warmhearted. The character and the movie are fraught with contradictions, which, of course, is just the way its fans like it. Watch it back-to-back with Caine's "Get Carter" and/or McQueen's "Bullitt" for a real treat in effectively minimalist, crime-caper filmmaking.

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