490. TARGETS (1968)

Running Time: 90 minutes
Directed By: Peter Bogdanovich
Written By: Polly Platt, Peter Bogdanovich
Main Cast: Boris Karloff, Tim O'Kelly, Peter Bogdanovich

THERE ARE THINGS IN THE WORLD SCARIER THAN MOVIES

Having realized that I have yet to watch a movie from the decade of the 60s, I sat down and scoured through the movies from that decade that were available to watch instantly on Netflix, and came up with "Targets", the first film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and a very effective thriller, which stars Boris Karloff and Tim O'Kelly.

The film follows two different plotlines, which in the end are tied together. First off, we have Byron Orlok (Karloff, essentially playing himself), an aging actor, who in his prime was the main man when it came to horror films. After screening his most recent picture, Orlok comes to the assumption that his career is winding down and although he is scheduled to shoot another movie, decides to throw in the towel and retire. This angers up and coming director, Sammy Michaels, who is quite proud of his newest screenplay and was counting on Orlok to make it a success. Later Orlok also cancels an appearance that he was supposed to make at a local drive-in, where they'll be screening his new movie "The Terror". He eventually changes his mind, suggesting that this could be his final swan song before bowing out of the movie business for good.

Meanwhile, we also follow the day to day life of Bobby Thompson (O'Kelly), who lives a pretty basic life. It's just about as "Leave it to Beaver" as you can get, as the family, consisting of Bobby's wife, mother and father, crowd around the television watching the late night shows, going to work and gathering at the dinner table each evening to talk about their day. As clean cut as that all sounds, Bobby has some demons lurking in his mind in the form of morbid thoughts about murdering people. He keeps a small arsenal of guns in the trunk of his car and one day finally snaps, murdering his mother, his wife and the grocery boy. He types a letter, basically saying that these murders are only the beginning and before he is caught, more people will die. He heads to an oil refinery, with a staircase leading to the top of a large platform and with his guns in tow begins to snipe out drivers on the freeway. When the cops arrive on scene, Bobby flees and ends up at the Reseda Drive-In, the same drive-in where Byron Orlok plans to say his goodbye to the movie business in just a few hours.

You don't have to dig very deep into the film to realize the motives behind the story. In the world there are pretend monsters, like Orlok and there are indeed real monsters like Bobby Thompson. While Orlok can turn his evil on and off, the evil that lurks inside Bobby is an evil that will only grow bigger and bigger until it manifests itself in the form of murderous actions. I loved the idea behind this movie, because its all so true. There is nothing that we can witness on a television or movie theatre screen that could possibly compare to the real terrors that are on the streets everyday. While watching "Targets" it was that very idea that bounced around my head for most of the ninety minute runtime. I've never really had much experience with the directing skills of Peter Bogdanovich, but this was a great directorial debut, despite its floundering success at the box office. I loved all the little eerie nuances that Bogdanovich put into play to make the film that much more creepy. The fact that there is no score during scenes of major suspense, the close-ups of Bobby's itchy trigger finger, the herky-jerky editing style (which I thought was brilliant) and the subtlety of Bogdanovich trying to tell us all a little something about life, like no matter how clean cut and well brought up you are, evil can still creep into your psyche and eventually your actions.

RATING: 7/10 Nothing really bad here, just really only felt like a '7', but I'll definitely keep an eye out for more Peter Bogdanovich.

MOVIES WATCHED: 140
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 861

September 10, 2010 11:32pm