Point Blank

In Point Blank, double-crossed crook Lee Marvin wants his $93,000, and damned if he doesn't kill any man who stands in his way. It becomes a series of repetitive encounters with various head honchos, all of them connected in some way to an ominous organized crime outfit known, blandly, as the Organization. Director John Boorman manages to create some very clever set pieces in this 1967 thriller, which has developed an avid following of fans. One particular scene is lifted from the film noir classic The Big Sleep (1946), where the wrong guy is sent into the path of the hired gun. It's those scenes that may sustain your interest, and may keep you hoping that the movie will really go somewhere. Boorman always seems to pull back just as the film's about to get rolling, and so it never really comes to a head. But it's interesting as a sort of case study of male revenge fantasies, and who better to enact a male revenge fantasy than Lee Marvin, using sex-kitten Angie Dickinson as a pawn in his game of vengeance? The supporting cast includes Keenan Wynn, Lloyd Bochner, John Vernon, Carroll O'Connor, Michael Strong, Sharon Acker, and James Sikking.