Targets

This article is about the film. For other uses, seeTarget (disambiguation).

Targets
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Peter Bogdanovich
Screenplay by	Peter Bogdanovich
Story by	Polly Platt Peter Bogdanovich Sam Fuller(uncredited)
Produced by	Peter Bogdanovich
Starring	Boris Karloff Tim O'Kelly Nancy Hsueh James Brown Sandy Baron
Cinematography	László Kovács
Edited by	Peter Bogdanovich
Music by	Charles Greene Brian Stone
Production company	Saticoy Productions
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	August 13, 1968(1968-08-13)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$130,000 (estimated)

Targetsis a 1968 Americancrimethriller filmdirected byPeter Bogdanovichin histheatrical directorial debut,and starringTim O'Kelly,Boris Karloff,Nancy Hsueh,Bogdanovich,James Brown,Arthur PetersonandSandy Baron.The film depicts two parallel narratives which converge during the climax: one follows Bobby Thompson, a seemingly ordinary and wholesome young man who embarks on an unprovoked killing spree; the other depicts Byron Orlok, an iconichorror filmactor who is disillusioned by real-life violence and is contemplating retirement.

Produced byRoger Cormanand written byPolly Plattand Bogdanovich, the film was loosely inspired byCharles Whitman,a mass shooter who committed theTower shooting at the University of Texasin 1966.The film was shot in late 1967 in the Los Angeles area.

Despite its release byParamount Picturesshortly after the assassinations ofMartin Luther King Jr.andRobert F. Kennedy,and the timing and tie-in to those events, it was ultimately abox-office bomb.Despite its commercial failure, the film was well-received by critics, and was included in the 2003 book1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

Plot

Byron Orlok, an aged, embittered horror movie actor, abruptly announces his decision to retire fromHollywoodand return to his nativeEnglandto live out his final days. Orlok considers himself outdated because he believes that people are no longer frightened by old-fashioned horror, citing real-life news stories as more horrifying than anything in his films. However, after much persuasion, particularly from young director Sammy Michaels, Orlok agrees to make a final in-person promotional appearance at aResedadrive-in theaterbefore leaving Hollywood for good.

Bobby Thompson is a young, quiet, clean-cut insurance agent who lives in the suburbanSan Fernando Valleyarea with his wife and his parents. Thompson is also deeply disturbed and an obsessive gun collector, but his family takes little notice. One morning, after his father leaves for work, Thompson murders his wife, his mother, and a delivery boy at his home. That afternoon, Thompson continues the killing spree, shooting people in passing cars from atop an oil storage tank that sits alongside a heavily-travelled freeway. When an employee at the storage tank comes up to investigate the gunshots, Thompson shoots him as well. Leaving some of his guns and ammo at the crime scene, Thompson flees to the very same drive-in theater where Orlok is set to appear that evening.

After sunset, Thompson kills the theater's projectionist and perches himself on the framing inside the screen tower. While the Orlok film is shown, Thompson aims and shoots at the patrons in and around the parking lot via a hole in the projection screen. After Thompson wounds Orlok's secretary, Jenny, Orlok confronts Thompson, who is disoriented by Orlok's simultaneous appearance before him and on the large movie screen behind him, allowing the actor to disarm Thompson using his walking cane. Looking at the now-defeated Thompson, a visibly shaken Orlok remarks, "Isthatwhat I was afraid of? "Moments later, police officers arrive to arrest Thompson for the murders he has committed; as they lead him away, Thompson states with apparent satisfaction that he" hardly ever missed. "

Cast

• Tim O'Kellyas Bobby Thompson
• Boris Karloffas Byron Orlok
• Nancy Hsuehas Jenny
• Peter Bogdanovichas Sammy Michaels
• Arthur Petersonas Ed Loughlin
• James Brownas Robert Thompson Sr.
• Tanya Morgan as Ilene Thompson
• Mary Jacksonas Charlotte Thompson
• Sandy Baronas Kip Larkin
• Monte Landisas Marshall Smith
• Paul Condylis as Drive-In Manager
• Stafford Morgan as First Gun Shop Salesman
• Mark Dennis as Second Gun Shop Salesman
• Jay Daniel as Snack Bar Attendant
• Gary Kentas Gas Tank Worker
• Frank Marshallas Ticket Boy
• Mike Farrellas Man in Phonebooth
• Warren White as Grocery Boy

Production

Development

The character and actions of Bobby Thompson are patterned afterCharles Whitman,who perpetrated theUniversity of Texas tower shootingin 1966. The character of Byron Orlok, named afterMax Schreck's vampireCount Orlokin 1922'sNosferatu,was based on Karloff himself, with a fictional component of being embittered with the movie business and wanting to retire. The role was Karloff's last appearance in a major American film.

Karloff gives a celebrated 100-secondsingle-takeperformance ofW. Somerset Maugham's retelling of theBabylonianfableAppointment in Samarra.

In the film's finale at a drive-in theater, Orlok—the old-fashioned, traditional screen monster who always obeyed the rules—confronts the new, realistic, nihilistic late-1960s "monster" in the shape of a clean-cut, unassuming multiple murderer.

Bogdanovich got the chance to makeTargetsbecauseBoris Karloffowed studio headRoger Cormantwo days' work. Corman told Bogdanovich he could make any film he liked provided he used Karloff and stayed under budget. In addition, Bogdanovich used clips from Corman's Napoleonic-era thrillerThe Terrorin the movie. The clips fromThe TerrorfeatureJack Nicholson,Dick Millerand Boris Karloff. A brief clip ofHoward Hawks' 1931 filmThe Criminal Codefeaturing Karloff was also used.Polly Plattwas the film's production designer, in addition to developing the story, and it was her idea to set the ending at a drive-in movie theater.

Interviewed in 2003, Bogdanovich explained that filming on or near the freeway was not permitted, so the freeway shooting spree was filmed guerilla-style in a two-day period. To save money, the whole sequence was filmed without sound, and editorVerna Fieldsadded the effects after-the-fact.

Bogdanovich has said thatSamuel Fullerprovided generous help on the screenplay and refused to accept either a fee or a screen credit, so Bogdanovich named his own character Sammy Michaels (Fuller's middle name was Michael) in tribute. Fuller advised Bogdanovich to save as much money in the film's budget as possible for the film to have an action-packed conclusion.

Casting

Bogdanovich cast Tim O'Kelly as the lead role of murderer Bobby Thompson, who impressed him during an audition for the film.Nancy Hsuehwas cast by Bogdanovich after he met the actress while she was appearing inJohn Ford'sCheyenne Autumn(1964).

Filming

Targetswas filmed in Los Angeles,with principal photography beginning November 27, 1967, and concluding December 15, 1967.Interior sequences were shot on makeshift soundstages in a lumberyard building onSanta Monica Boulevard.

Release

Targetspremiered in New York City on August 13, 1968.It later screened at theEdinburgh Film Festivalin September of that year.

Box office

American International Picturesoffered to release, but Bogdanovich wanted to try to see if the film could get a deal with a major studio. It was seen byRobert EvansofParamount Pictures,who bought it for $150,000, giving Corman an instant profit on the movie before it was even released.

Although the film was written and production photography completed in late 1967, it was not released until after theassassination of Martin Luther King Jr.and thatof Robert F. Kennedyin the summer of 1968, thus having some topical relevance to then-current events.

However, Bogdanovich, who appears in the film as a young writer-director, credits it with getting him noticed by the studios, which in turn led to his directing three very successful studio films (The Last Picture Show,What's Up, Doc?,andPaper Moon) in the early 1970s.

Around five years after release, in March 1973, New Zealand refused to issue a 'certificate of approval' for the film's trailer on the basis that it was "contrary to public order and decency."

Critical response

On thereview aggregatorwebsiteRotten Tomatoes,Targetshas an approval rating of 89% based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "A startling directorial debut by Peter Bogdanovich mixes an homage to Boris Karloff horror films with a timely sniper story to create a thriller with modern baggage and old school shock and awe."

Howard ThompsonofThe New York Timescalled the film an "original and brilliant melodrama", and concluded that "Targetsscores an unnerving bullseye. "Dave KehrofThe Chicago Readercalled the film "an interesting response to the demands of low-budget genre filmmaking."Varietywrote of the film: "Aware of the virtue of implied violence, Bogdanovich conveys moments of shock, terror, suspense and fear."In a retrospective review of the film,Geoff AndrewofTime Outcalled it "a fascinatingly complex commentary on American mythology, exploring the relationship between the inner world of the imagination and the outer world of violence and paranoia, both of which were relevant to contemporary American traumas."

Writing for theChicago Sun-Times,criticRoger Ebertgave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, and wrote that "Targetsisn't a very good film, but it is an interesting one. "He called Karloff's performance" fascinating "but noted that the film may have been" more direct and effective "without his scenes.A review of the film published byTimestated that "Targetseventually falls victim to artistic overkill. "

Stanley KauffmannofThe New Republicwrote, "Targetsshowed considerable skill, but was trapped in Movieland, in more than subject matter ".John Simonwrote- "Targetshandled a valid subject but in a trashy way. "

In 2018, on the film's 50th anniversary, Mark Lager wrote onCinema Retrothat "Bogdanovich had been deeply disturbed byCharles Whitman's mass shooting and felt compelled to write a screenplay based on the event.Targetswas released in August 1968 and was especially relevant that year in the wake of the assassinations ofMartin Luther King Jr.andRobert Kennedy."

In 2020,Quentin TarantinocalledTargets"the most political movie Corman ever made sinceThe Intruder.And forty years later it's still one of the strongest cries forgun controlin American cinema. The film isn't a thriller with a social commentary buried inside of it (the normal Corman model), it's a social commentary with a thriller buried inside of it... It was one of the most powerful films of 1968 and one of the greatest directorial debuts of all time. And I believe the best film ever produced by Roger Corman. "

Home media

Paramount Home EntertainmentreleasedTargetsonDVDon August 12, 2003.

In 2023,Targetswas remastered in4Kand released on DVD andBlu-raybyThe Criterion Collection.

See also

• List of American films of 1968
• 1965 Highway 101 sniper attack
• University of Texas tower shooting
• Interstate 75 Kentucky shooting

Sources

• Corman, Roger;Jerome, Jim (1990).How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime.New York City, New York: Random House.ISBN978-0-394-56974-1.
• Jacobs, Stephen (2011).Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster.Sheffield, England: Tomahawk Press.ISBN978-0-955-76704-3.
• Kauffmann, Stanley(1974).Living Images Film Comment and Criticism.New York City, New York:Harper & Row Publishers.ISBN978-0-060-12268-3.
• Nollen, Scott Allen; Nollen, Yuyun Yuningsih (2021).Karloff and the East: Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern and Oceanian Characters and Subjects in His Screen Career.Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland.ISBN978-1-476-68063-7.
• Simon, John (1982).Reverse Angle A Decade of American films.New York City, New York:Crown Publishers.ISBN978-0-517-54697-0.
• Yule, Andrew (1992).Picture Shows: The Life and Films of Peter Bogdanovich.New York City, New York: Limelight.ISBN978-0-879-10153-4.

External links

• TargetsatIMDb
• TargetsatAllMovie
• Targetsat theTCM Movie Database
• Targetsat theAFI Catalog of Feature Films