Tribute to Point Blank?

Finally saw in on DVD -- missed it at the cinema as it was only on for 5 days or so.

Amazing film.

Actually, I didn't expect a thriller, though I did expect the film to be the revenge dream of the main character just before he dies, which I don't think it was.

The style is very much Point Blank -- and he even instils this idea in the audience's mind by naming the production company PointBlank so those are the first words that come up, like an alternative title.

Also, I think the suits he wares go in reverse order to the suits lee marvin wears in PB, then he puts on a green sports top, which from an old PB poster I have is what marvin wears before he becomes the killing machine in PB. And he obviously copies Boorman's colour matching idea to blend lone man into the background like a ghost.

And actually I'm pretty sure the lone man's refraining from sex during work comes from parker in the novel, except parker/walker works for himself.

Interestingly, because I went to the film assuming it was going to be a sort of retelling of PB in the sense that it was to be the revenge dream of a dying man, I got the feeling the film was running backward from the first meeting with the man with Violin, which is when I assumed he got shot -- but like I said I now don't think that happened, though I do think that like PB it was a dream.

There were some 'clues' I misread which originally inforced my belief that he had been shot. Violin walks towards him rather oddly while the music seems like it's reversed, giving me the impression he was remembering it backwards. Pidgeons suddenly take flight and Violin says 'Its very noisy here', which it wasn't, as it perhaps a gunshot had occurred but lone man doesn't hear it because he's been shot. I was just putting pieces together to fit my assumption.

But much of the plot did look like it was in reverse, ending in killing the man who had sent him, and much of the fim does fit that dreams of a dying man. Many allusions to the nature of life and death, esp the line about 'going to the cemetary to see what life is, a handful of dirt' which increase towards the end: the landscape, the girl appearing to be dead, the blank canvas.

But afterwards it seemed more like the characters he spoke to and the guy he killed were merely representational in his dream.

Another way to see it perhaps, is the man undergoes an opposite transformation to the one undergone by marvin: by defeating his ego, as some have said, he becomes human wheras marvin starts off as human then when he is shot and seeks revenge he changes into this emotionless, very controlled ghost.

Anyway, have to watch it again, especially since my first viewing was a bit skewed by my expectations.

Brilliant film.