Point Blank (1967)

Film noir, crime dramas, and revenge movies all tend to be branches on the same tree. They influence each other, borrow from each other, and sometimes come together in a fantastic blend. "Point Blank" takes nods from 1940s film noir and gives it what was then a "modern" makeover.

The movie jumps right into violence with gunshots echoing across a prison cell, and flashbacks reveal the story that led to that moment. A man is reunited with an old college friend, and is brought into a money-making scheme involving a helicopter drop at Alcatraz. A double betrayal turns Walker (Lee Marvin) into a man hell-bent on revenge. He joins forces with a mysterious partner who wants to take down the entire organization, while Walker just wants his money.

Lee Marvin just spends an hour and a half beating the hell out of everyone, which is completely satisfying for me. He works his way from the bottom to the top, beating up the hired goons on his way to the pressed suit higher-ups. Cars are wrecked, people are beaten, some are killed, bullets fly, just general violence abounds.

It might be a weird thing to park on, but I really enjoyed the sound of this movie. It had a lot of noisy moments, but that added to the intensity. Walker already had the stress of trying to get back a substantial amount of money, and adding in loud music and screeching tires and police sirens made everything more tense.

If I had watched this in 1967, I might've felt like it was very modern, even pushing boundaries of the crime genre. Looking back it feels a bit dated, and even if it might not necessarily stand the test of time, I could still see the styles of noir and French New Wave that influenced it, and at the same time see how it influenced later films.