THE EMPIRE MASTERPIECE
Point Blank
JOHN BOORMAN AND LEE MARVIN’S HUGELY INFLUENTIAL NOIR THRILLER
WORDS PRISCILLA PAGE
Clockwise from main: Car trouble for dealer Stegman (Michael Strong) and Walker (Lee Marvin);
“DID IT HAPPEN? A dream. A dream.”
The premise of Point Blank is a familiar one: a double-cross, the basis for countless noir films. A criminal named Walker (Lee Marvin) is betrayed by his wife (Sharon Acker) and friend (John Vernon) after a score, and he wants his share. The source material, 1963 pulp novel The Hunter by Richard Stark (the pen name of Donald E. Westlake), was seminal but straightforward; John Boorman’s film adaptation, though, would adopt a nonlinear structure and become otherworldly, singular.
Lee Marvin agreed to do the 1967 picture with Boorman on one condition: that the original script be rewritten. In a now legendary gesture, he tossed the screenplay out the window. After Alexander Jacobs helped Boorman pen a less conventional draft, Marvin recognised the challenges the director would face in getting it through the system and called a meeting with his agent, the producers, and MGM’s head. When it was confirmed he had script and cast approval, he announced, “I defer those approvals to John.”