MovieChat Forums > Point Blank (1967) Discussion > I think Walker is... Here's why SPOILER...

I think Walker is... Here's why SPOILERS

posted 19 years ago by duffmason1
28 replies | jump to latest

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I think he is dead, and it's just like in High Plains Drifter. He comes back to the world of the living long enough to exact his revenge, and for that time he is able to interact with people who still think he's alive.

After he was shot in Alcatraz, he "haunted" the place just like a ghost. You saw him in various locations around the prison just standing there passively, at one point just hanging on to the barb wire fence, not moving. If he was alive, don't you think he'd be acting like it? He'd be moving around trying to get help, leave the island and mend his wounds.

When he gets into the water, he isn't actually swimming. Just rolling around. This could mean he's entering the next plane, the ocean symbolizing the great void.

When he tells Carrol O'Conner's character he wants his money, he looks uncharacteristically noncommittal. What good is money to a dead man? It mattered to him when he was alive, and you can think of it as a last gasp of his mortal life. He's still getting used to the idea that he's dead and that money doesn't matter anymore.

In the last scene at Fort Point they reveal that Keenan Wynne is actually a real person because Carrol O'Conner knows him. Walkers work is done. He's punished all the people who wronged him and he simply fades away into the void.

Gak is best when eaten live.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] duffmason1 19 years ago

I'm not sure what you mean.

Gak is best when eaten live.

[–] jamieleefan1 19 years ago

That's really interesting. There's also that wideshot of him in the graveyard when he's interrupted by the new grave being excavated

[–] joekiddlouischama 18 years ago

I was just thinking to myself that Walker is less of a character and more of a ghostly specter haunting the narrative, or a displaced soul, a man searching for the soul that has left his body, vulnerable and yet detached from that vulnerability. I guess that that analysis would square with your analogy to High Plains Drifter, and Walker is indeed elusive, moving and reappearing like a spook.

I was also comparing Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967) to Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971), in the sense that one could read the ending as a hollow, token victory amidst a greater loss (of life, values, and individualism), winning the battle yet losing the war. That notion is clearer in Dirty Harry because there the protagonist-cop throws away his badge, but one receives the same sensibility from Point Blank's highly ambiguous, nearly paradoxical, and coldly grim ending.

[–] davegering 18 years ago

Can't buy that.

Walker is quite a bit older when he goes on his revenge spree, than when he got shot at Alcatraz. Do ghosts age?

[–] Woodyanders 18 years ago

That's an interesting assessment of Marvin's character. I think you might be right. He does come across as very cold and unfeeling throughout the movie, which suggests that he's no longer alive and emotional.

Q: What's the biggest room in the world? A: The room for improvement.

[–] TheMemphian 17 years ago

Walker's dead. Everyone else is just getting their just desserts, as the dominos fall. Walker was the catalyst. It isn't literal. It just works.

[–] Bonifacij 17 years ago

What about that "romantic" scene with him and his wife's sister? How would you explain that? She is having fantasies about a man she met only a couple times (even this a few years back)?

Though some things might indicate that he is a ghost, one substantial contradiction kind of ruins it, don you think?

[–] El_Guapo_Caballo 16 years ago

hes not exactly a ghost in the classic term, all is a proyection fantasy hes having while dying in alcatraz, that would explain the love making with his wife's sister, i mean wouldnt you(if yer old lady looked like angie)?

When Demons are at the Door, you have to let em' in... Let em' in and kill em!

[–] LTUM 14 years ago

but hey remember that clint eastwood had the romantic period with the hotel owners wife in high plains drifter, which would be consistent with the OP's theory

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behold, sublime genius: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLPe0fHuZsc

[–] TheMemphian 14 years ago

Oh no, she (Chris) is dead too. Killed along with her boyfriend... by the organization. They're souls are floating around trying to figure out what happened.

"What rotten sins I've got working for me. I suppose it's the wages." -Bedazzled (1967)

[–] noblesse_oblige 16 years ago

John Boorman actually confirmed your theory. "Point Blank" is literally Walker's dying dream.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dave_wlogan 15 years ago

So kinda like Donnie Darko?

"You haven't got the feel of this at all, lad. Use all your voices. When I bellow, bellow back."

[–] noblesse_oblige 15 years ago

Sort of. Remember when Lee Marvin's wife and best friend shot him in the beginning? Well, according to Boorman, Marvin really died right then and the whole movie was a revenge fantasy-dream that he had in the few seconds as he lay dying. Make sense?

Link: http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=741

There's actually an interview that I read where Boorman confirmed this; I am looking for it. If I find it, I'll post it here in a reply.

[–] rozroz 14 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soA0_5oZ8LY

Boorman says "he comes back from the dead to take revenge on the living"..
or something

[–] rozroz 14 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soA0_5oZ8LY

Boorman says "he comes back from the dead to take revenge on the living"..
or something

[–] davekingman 15 years ago

That's an interesting theory which explains a lot about the weirdness of this film, the flashbacks, the symbolism, Marvin's recklessness, his zombielike hellbent determination and expressionless attitude. The creepy music reminds me of the music in "High Plains Drifter". You made some good observations. His role is a bit like the main character in the old cult film "Carnival Of Souls". I was expecting this to be just a good crime film but it's much deeper than that. I like it but it's not what I expected.

[–] mcfaddensflats 15 years ago

I saw a tv show a while back when Boorman said that Walker was a "ghost".

[–] solesister 15 years ago

Interesting theory, but have you read the book on which it was based? In the novel "The Hunter" (it was re-released as Point Blank after the film came out,) Stark makes it quite clear that "Walker" (he's called Parker in the book) survived the shooting - the bullet hit his belt buckle. Parker goes on to many more capers in many more novels, although I just read an interview with the late Donald Westlake - a/k/a Richard Stark, the novel's author - and he said he was a little surprised when his editor asked him to keep the main character alive and keep him going in a series; Westlake originally saw The Hunter/Point Blank as a one-off.