Of course I'm really fond of '70's-style revenge flicks (who isn't?), however something that I'm not very fond of are John Boorman directed movies. Even his best movies are somewhat disappointing ones. It's because he always picks and takes his own approach with his movies, which too often means that the storytelling is lacking and very messy.
This really was the problem as well with "Point Blank". It has a very straightforward main plot line in it, that however gets told in such a confusing and messy way that you often really don't understand what is happening all on screen. It takes away so much of the pleasure of the movie and I would had been totally confused by it all if it weren't for the fact that I'm very familiar with the 1999 movie "Payback", which can be seen as a remake of this movie and pretty much features the same main plot line.
It still remains a good movie to look at. It has a very typical '70's approach and style to it. Yes, I know this is a movie from 1967 but the thing that we regard and call '70's movie style now days, is something that actually started out already back in the mid '60's. This means that the movie has lots of dynamic camera-work and visual- and editing tricks in it, that provide the movie with a good quick and hip pace, which is really the most positive thing I can say about this movie and is really its big, main, redeeming quality,
Not to sound like I hated it too much but simple fact remains that it was a disappointing movie to watch. Instead of a cool revenge flick I got a very confusing and messy movie, filled with characters I couldn't tell apart and a simple main plot line that got told needlessly hard. It just wasn't a very good or pleasant viewing experience, despite of the great visual style and potentially good main story in it.
Because of this all, Lee Marvin also never really shines. It seems on paper a perfect casting choice but because of the way of storytelling, he and his character fail to make really an impact. He potentially could had been such a cool and tough memorable main hero but all his potential gets ruined pretty quickly. Same goes for all of the other characters and great actors in this really.
Not a completely horrible movie but still a very disappointing one and one that I probably won't ever want to watch again. I prefer a simple and far more straightforward, with its approach and way of storytelling, Charles Bronson revenge flick over this one.
6/10
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