movies (subject to tumblr's inconsistent search engine. for more complete results, try the archive): badlands, blow out, bring me the head of alfredo garcia, cadavres exquis, charley varrick, chinatown, dog day afternoon, il conformista, klute, le cercle rouge, marathon man, mean streets, night moves, point blank, prime cut, save the tiger, serpico, sisters, straight time, the day of the jackal, the don is dead, the driver, the friends of eddie coyle, the getaway, the harder they come, the hot rock, the killing of a chinese bookie, the last of sheila, the long goodbye, the mackintosh man, the onion field, the organization, the parallax view, the spook who sat by the door, the sting, the taking of pelham one two three, the yakuza, three days of the condor, villain, wanda
Point Blank (1967)
Double-crossed and left for dead on the island of Alcatraz after a heist job, con man Walker (Lee Marvin) returns to hunt down the man who shot him and stole his wife and $93,000. With that as motivation—and with the help of his wife’s sister—Walker relentlessly stalks a perverse L.A. underworld looking for retribution.
Point Blank (1967) trailer
Point Blank (1967)
“In Point Blank, Walker smashes a shelf of primary-colored bath oils into Sharon’s white tub, creating a near-Expressionist pattern of colored ooze, which briefly exerts a hypnotic hold on him, a form both tangible and intensively subjective. Yellows, oranges, and browns form insistent patterns throughout the film, resisting carefully assigned meanings. Color has no transcendent function in these films. On the contrary, it seems to swallow the characters. No wonder at the end of Point Blank, Walker retreats into the more traditional world of shadows at Alcatraz rather than face the intense light and color ofL.A. …”
-Joe McElhaney, “Neo-Noir on Laser” from Bright Lights Film Journal
Point Blank (1967)
Heralding the crime drama of the 1970s—especially the great neo-noirs of the decade, e.g., Chinatown, The Long Goodbye, and Taxi Driver—were a trio of films from 1967: Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde, Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai, and John Boorman’s Point Blank.
