Point Blank

Mm-hmm.

And so on that basis, I thought that I would show us Point Blank-

Mm

... uh, which is a 1967 John Boorman movie, right? Um-

It's called the SCUM system.

It stands for SMUT, cultural insensitivity, unnecessary violence, and misogyny.

On a scale of zero to seven, how SMUT-y is Point Blank?

Hmm.

And then perhaps we'll finish with another one of our favourites, which again is about one specialist whose whole mission is about one.

directive nobody gets in his way and that course is point blank yeah um again a brilliant delivery uh single-minded driven it's all about the job yeah that's true from start to finish that's very true relationships a little bit people he knew a little bit but essentially it's you know it's you know where's my where's my money yeah yeah absolutely yeah And the game finishes with a similar sort of bleak type of thing.

It does, yeah.

You feel empty.

And, and yet I think the argument the documentary mazes, makes is it was still worth it.

And not only that, I don't think you get a Point Blank or a Deliverance or an Excalibur if you don't allow directors to make a movie like Exorcist II, because you don't get the good stuff unless you take the risks.

And yeah, the risks maybe didn't go well with this film for a lot of reasons, uh, some of which were, were on John and some of which really weren't.

Mm-hmm.

So we've got a documentary called Borman and the Devil.

And after directing Point Blank and Deliverance, John Borman is offered to direct The Exorcist 2.

The film becomes a massive failure and nearly ends his career.

Years later, the cast and filmmakers discuss its ambition and artistic value in this documentary.

Yeah.

I think Point Blank is an amazing film.

And I think it shows you what happens when a visionary filmmaker takes over a kind of average premise and an average...

I don't want to be mean to Lee Marvin, but he never did much for me.

He made a film with Dave Clark Five.

He very memorably made Point Blank, which kind of redefines a certain kind of noir crime movie.

It adds a layer of kind of abstraction and artistic style to it.

But Deliverance is like, you can kinda do whatever you want after that.

I'm too.

I haven't seen everything he's ever made.

I haven't either, but i- if it were just Point Blank and Deliverance, I mean, he's, he, he's in that second tier.

Yeah.

Let me rattle off a few of them.

Point Blank.

Now, Point Blank from 1967 is almost the ur-case for what I'm talking about, which is this social media revisionist sort of performative appreciation for films that really aren't that good.

Like, point blank is all style and very little substance to my eyes and ears.

You may disagree.

People vociferously disagree.

They love point blank, or more importantly, they think they love point blank.

Now, Borman famously also directed Deliverance.

It is a testament to Mel Gibson's star power and Brian Helgeland's directorial vision.

While it may not reach the artistic heights of its predecessor, Point Blank, it remains a compelling watch for fans of the crime drama genre.

The film's exploration of loyalty, betrayal and the quest for justice resonates, making it a memorable entry in the pantheon of late 1990s action films.

Well, that's my review of Payback, and I'm giving it three stars out of a possible five.