Kelly WandTargets
December 30th 2006 02:59
“Targets” is a rare beast in the world of cinema. It is smartly and knowingly written to a standard that these days we only see in the work of Charlie Kaufman. Mixing realities into a fictional story is dangerous ground especially when it involves a movie showing elements of movie making. The spectre of naval gazing can lay heavy on the final film but, fortunately, there is enough wit here to carry the day.
Boris Karloff plays horror star Byron Orloff, an actor who wants to retire. He feels like a dinosaur in a world where real life violence makes his career of Victorian melodrama look absurd. A young director named Sammy (played by the film’s director Peter Bogdanovich) claims he has a script that will turn around everybody’s perception of him. Orloff is resistant, planning on doing one final personal appearance and being done with it. Orloff’s fall from grace is so complete that that appearance is to be held at a drive-in movie theatre. Who could blame the legend for wanting out of the game?
Meanwhile, an all American boy is going nuts in the sterile world of suburbia. The family home is a nightmare of mediocrity but he just keeps on smiling – smiling and collecting guns. His only release is shooting cans with his monstrous father (a man he still calls sir) but soon cans will not be enough.
This character is drawn from elements of the life of Charles Whitman. Whitman climbed to the top of a Texas clock tower and proceeded to take pot shots at passers by. This film is filled with tiny details from the case that just add to the creepiness. This is real horror made all the more horrible by its banality.
The two stories move towards their inevitable connection at the personal appearance with the kind of seat gripping tension modern film makers have all but forgotten. Apparently, Bogdanovitch was told by producer Roger Corman that he had two days with Karloff, a pile of stock footage and a week to shoot other actors; go make a movie. There can’t be many film makers who could have come up with such an elegant solution given those ingredients. The fact that he made a modern classic out of such adversity is even more amazing.
Boris Karloff plays horror star Byron Orloff, an actor who wants to retire. He feels like a dinosaur in a world where real life violence makes his career of Victorian melodrama look absurd. A young director named Sammy (played by the film’s director Peter Bogdanovich) claims he has a script that will turn around everybody’s perception of him. Orloff is resistant, planning on doing one final personal appearance and being done with it. Orloff’s fall from grace is so complete that that appearance is to be held at a drive-in movie theatre. Who could blame the legend for wanting out of the game?
Meanwhile, an all American boy is going nuts in the sterile world of suburbia. The family home is a nightmare of mediocrity but he just keeps on smiling – smiling and collecting guns. His only release is shooting cans with his monstrous father (a man he still calls sir) but soon cans will not be enough.
This character is drawn from elements of the life of Charles Whitman. Whitman climbed to the top of a Texas clock tower and proceeded to take pot shots at passers by. This film is filled with tiny details from the case that just add to the creepiness. This is real horror made all the more horrible by its banality.
The two stories move towards their inevitable connection at the personal appearance with the kind of seat gripping tension modern film makers have all but forgotten. Apparently, Bogdanovitch was told by producer Roger Corman that he had two days with Karloff, a pile of stock footage and a week to shoot other actors; go make a movie. There can’t be many film makers who could have come up with such an elegant solution given those ingredients. The fact that he made a modern classic out of such adversity is even more amazing.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Tension filled and solidly directed I love this film. The folklore behind it helps too.