Etienne Borgers (freeweb@rocketmail.com)
Fri, 30 Jul 1999 22:47:48 -0700 (PDT)
I think you just saw these as two stories and not as two
*films*... cinema has other imperative necessities, and is
far more complex, than that to be a success or a miss!
Gibson a good actor? In Playback? I doubt. He seemed to be
just preoccupied by his own promotion in that film and his
act was an uninterrupted sequence of grimaces. If the goal
was to make Parker looks like a bloody psycho, then he
succeded! The filming was professional of course, but mostly
pedestrian, as aimed to a TV public.
What you call artsy in Point Blank was certainly the part
that made the difference in the way to convey about the
surreal side of the plot, possible only in a close universe
(the one of the mob). Violence was deconstructed in that film
and the feeling was passed over to the viewer (even if he
never heard about deconstruction...). Of course the story was
not linear there, making it maybe a little bit more difficult
to follow.
What works again Point Blank is that this film was constantly
pillaged by less inspired script writers or film makers, not
as a whole, but for its typical sequences of violence and the
rendition of some characters. So for new viewers an
inpression of "deja-vu" must certainly erode the quality of
this film.
Now, about your last suggestion, what do you prefer:
.38, .45, or a very professional .22LR with revolver?
E.Borgers Hard-Boiled Mysteries http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
---Kevin Smith <kvnsmith@colba.net>
wrote:
>
> I just saw both these films, almost back to
back.
It may be sacreligious to
> say, but I thought PAYBACK was superior in
almost
every way. Lee Marvin was
> great in the role, but Gibson was even scarier,
and
the more recent film
> was tighter, told the story better and was
less
preoccupied with being
> artsy (although the blue-ish tint of PAYBACK
made
it look almost like an
> old black and whiter noir at times).
>
> So shoot me.
>
> Kevin Burton Smith
>
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