Anybody notice the conceptual gimmick in this film? (SPOILER)
In the entire movie, Walker never kills anybody.
...apparently not.
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MovieChat Forums > Point Blank (1967) Discussion > Anybody notice the conceptual gimmick in...
You are correct. Walker is the agent of their death. An avenging angel. One valid interpretation is that he is dead.
shareDoesn't he kill Mal Reese by throwing him off the building? I know he said Mal fell down, but with all the heavy editing in that scene it was hard to tell.
shareA line of dialog after the fall goes something like this-
Chris:" You let him fall? You should have killed him!"
Doesn't he kill Mal Reese by throwing him off the building? I know he said Mal fell down, but with all the heavy editing in that scene it was hard to tell.
Reese jumped in a suicide bid. If you listen carefully to his scream while falling he seems to say "Don't hate me, Walker!", which to me always suggested that he deliberately jumped. When Walker tells Chris that Reese fell he's trying to make it sound like an accident to probably ease his own conscience -- which makes sense if you buy into the theory that the movie is Walker's dying death wish fantasy. Keep in mind that these guys were in a war together and bonded in a way that goes beyond standard friendship. Reese was a part of Walker which is why the betrayal was so bitter, and one probably owed the other his life a couple times over, each way. Walker also says to Reese "We're going to do this one together" which implies that Walker had no intention of actually killing Reese on the spot. He wanted names and wanted Reese to help him get to the people above him to get back his money. share
I just finished watching this fiom twice, once with the terrifically educational director commentary.I don't know what you were drinking when you saw this film but a) his falling was an accident, not a suicide and b) his scream did not say anything. I never caught any reference to them having served together but maybe i just missed that. and yes, walker had no intention of killing reese, just like you said.
The way to have what we want
Is to share what we have.
Pointblank is my all-time favorite film and have worn out several VHS copies (can hardly wait for the DVD-- finally!)
The question that's always surfaced for me is symbolic identity of Keenan Wynn's character. Especially his introductory on the tourist boat at Alcatraz. I keep getting Charon and the river Styx in my head. The fact he just seems to appear out of thin air in some scenes strikes at odd as well.
Fascinating stuff. Guess I'll just have to keep on watching.
"Avenging Angel" or "Son of Satan"...When Keenan Wynn "appears" it is he who directs Walker to his targets like Satan directing the grim reaper to take another soul...and he never kills anyone...the horror and despair in the faces of his "victims" must be like looking death in the face! Then they die....
This film is just superb!!!
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Lee Marvin has more character in one stare in Point Blank than Gibson manages in a whole movie.
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...Heck, he has more character in one stare than Gibson manages in a whole CAREER!
Gak is best when eaten live.
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The film is metaphysical, and both theories are indeed correct. It is a revenge fantasy, and "the Walker" we see is dead both emotionally and physically. When Angie Dickinson slaps him repeatedly he feels nothing. Notice how his clothes take on the colors of his surroundings. Could a man shot twice (and exhibiting the twitch of the death nerve) survive a swim in Frisco Bay with two bullet holes? He often gets by unnoticed;a phantom. In the end he winds up back on Alcatraz where he died.
shareSTOP IT WITH THE "HE'S DEAD" NONSENSE. The whole film is built around the premise that he's alive. The dead theory simply doesn't stand up. The Lee Marvin character doesn't engage with people much beyond violence. His only progression to intimacy is with dickinson late in the film in the LA mansion... even that sex actually follows the pastiche of a married couple rowing, when he sits down to watch TV and she makes a noise in the kitchen. How does that make him dead? And so what he walked into the bay...he's supposed to be hard. he oculd have been picked up by a boat. It's a movie.
STOP IT WITH THE "HE'S DEAD" NONSENSE. The whole film is built around the premise that he's alive. The dead theory simply doesn't stand up.
The "he's dead" theory is perfectly valid. Just because Boorman doesn't spell it out with a big, bliking neon sign like M. Night Shyamalan in The Sixth Sense doesn't mean it's not true.
I think he died on the Rock and in the rest of the movie he's an avenging spirit. Once the Organization's elliminated, he disappears.
*/\*Goonies never say die!*/\* share
but the Organization was not eliminated. Fairfax became the new head of the Organization.
The way to have what we want
Is to share what we have.
stick to the sixth sense ,buddy boy.
When Demons are at the Door, you have to let em' in... Let em' in and kill em!
Notice how his clothes take on the colors of his surroundings.
I'm not refuting the overall theory about Walker being dead, but the coordination of colors and clothes goes for several of the characters, including Angie Dickinson's. share
Good for you! Near the end of the movie, I was about to total up the people that Walker had killed, when I realized that he hadn't killed anyone (directly)--I thought it was a nice touch, for Walker's kind of character in this kind of movie.
shareFor me In Point Blank Walker is alive he's a hardend pro and knows as in the novel what needs to be done to stay alive. What's to say he hadn't been slowly working his way back into the professional spectrum when Wynn showed up asking him if he wanted revenge. In my mind what works is that he was slowly rebuilding his way through the professional circut and when the time came for revenge he went through it without having to kill anyone. That made it easier thereby making himself completely unknown to any law enforcement.
When he's referencing the dream vision though it could be just that instead of walking toward the light as was shown in one of the flash backs he was walking away from it. Which makes sense to the vantage point of how he got off the island. My feeling is that he worked his way up the ladder again just enough to draw out someone like Wynn to allow him to garner the money. In that respect when he had the chance to take the money I think it was more to his horror.
He'd watched a friend die, his wife betray him, and lost the respect of one of the women he so dearly loved for the taste of $93,000 and I think it sent ice water through him. All through the movie it seemed that he was destined to stay with Chris and I think in the end he decided on the money over her and could only feel foolish and depraved in that respect. Now, the real aspect centering on that is that he'd allowed a friend to talk him into the hiest and he lost everything in a split second.
Then when he'd decided to get his revenge he wasn't really a killer but a professional thief he only believed in violence to a certain extent. So, now he's lead men into double crosses and watched his one true love completely fade away from him as he takes the money and the Outfit knows that Chris betrayed them. To me what he's showing at the end is the horror of knowing that everything dear to him slipped away from $93,000 and the dream was a walk away from the light.
He lived and I think the fade away was his inner demons tearing him in half for what he'd done. Just to get the money back.
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The way i think about it, he's only emotionally dead. The 93,000 was his only reason to keep on going, and once he got it he just sort of turned off. It's a great movie, and him being dead didn't occur to me at first but it's an interesting theroy.
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Chris tells Walker straight up at one point "You really did die on Alcatraz".
Figuratively or literally, Walker died on the Rock. The flashback showing his first meeting with Lynn shows him as a completely different man.Not just visually but emotionally. Walker doesn't even really seem to be angry at his tormentors. Even Reese gets off the hook as far as that goes. He looked to me like a victim of his own clumsiness...or fate.
I doubt if many here have seen it, but this movie is a lot like an old Boris Karloff horror/gangster film "The Walking Dead". Karloff is the fall guy for a bunch of gangsters who is executed but then brought back from the grave as an emotionless automaton. Like Walker, he never actually kills the guys who set him up, but whenever he appears, they inevitably die. Walker and John Elman (Karloff's character) are instruments of fate and vengeance.
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Actually, that's the signature of a Donald Westlake story post
Death Wish, where the protagonist kills numerous people. People
may die in his stories but not by the hand of the lead character.
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