Lee Marvin might have
fallen into his acting career, but he was a natural as a hardboiled tough guy.
He became one of Hollywood’s iconic leading men and parlayed the power he wielded
to work with the directors he wanted on the projects he wanted. Point Blank was one of those projects.
Filmed in the Sixties, the movie hyper-focused
on a particular look, Mod, from the word Modernist. The clothing, furniture,
and art were the most recent in style and production. Clean sharp lines, shapes,
and textures created the look. The mod scene consisted of coffee houses, jazz
music, cocktails, and a desire to look graceful with simplicity, fueled by America’s
post-WWII economic boom and mass production. It’s in this glossy utopian
world that Point Blank is set. The
clothing, props, and buildings show little of the past nor any hint of the
emerging hippy esthetic. When such breaches do occur,
they are for a reason. Alcatraz, from which our hero emerges at the beginning
of the movie, sits on the bay like a tombstone of past mobsters in a cemetery. A
careful viewing of Point Blank will
show the importance of the imagery to the underlying tone and message of the
film. The creative world-building is just one of many elements that turned a
fairly decent, hardboiled thriller into a cult classic thoroughly enjoyed by
film critics and fans. Point Blank
might be a time capsule to a specific look from the ‘60s, but the underlying
story in this work of thrilling suspense gives it legs. And it is one of
several films that provide a worthy legacy to Lee Marvin and the others
involved in its production.
