1. TUGAS LISTENING 8
ABOUT
ELEMENTS OF MOVIE
BY:
BASTIAR
11.10.010.745.075
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
COLLEGE OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
DHARMA BAKTI LUBUK ALUNG
2013

2. Point Blank
A. Characters
Lee Marvin as Walker.
Angie Dickinson as Chris.
Keenan Wynn as Yost.
Carroll O'Connor as Brewster.
Lloyd Bochner as Frederick Carter.
Michael Strong as Stegman.
John Vernon as Mal Reese.
Sharon Acker as Lynne.
James B. Sikking as Hired Gun.
B. Supporting
Lee Marvin as Walker.
Angie Dickinson as Chris.
C. Setting
Where : American.
When : 1967 year.
D. Theme
 A close range for a ballistics shot.
E. Moral Value
 After being double-crossed and left for dead, a mysterious man named Walker single-
mindedly tries to retrieve the rather inconsequential sum of money that was stolen from
him.
F. Plot
 "Point Blank" will leave you breathless. Unfolding at a blistering clip from its slam-bang
opening through its bravura close, it grips you at frame one and doesn't let go. A tiptop
French thriller that's reminiscent of everything from Alfred Hitchcock to 2006's "Tell No
One," "Point Blank" is genre all the way. Its story of an ordinary man facing
extraordinary peril doesn't go anywhere we haven't gone before, but seeing familiar
material presented with such crisp élan brings intense pleasure.
G. Vocabulary
1. Measure 11. Frenchmen 21. Instincts
2. Remade 12. Straight 22. Gallic
3. Spouse 13. Souped 23. Grizzled
4. Prison 14. Quips 24. Pack
5. Wounded 15. Ticking 25. Sophisticated
6. Kidnapped 16. Plausibility 26. Stoop
7. Pregnant 17. Vague 27. Redeem
8. Devoted 18. Chase 28. Assert
9. Spouses 19. Sharply 29. Undoubtedly
10. Trash 20. Stunts 30. Rewriting

3. Point Blank
Fred Cavayé’s movies make it hard for normal husbands to measure up. In his original
“Anything For Her” — later remade as “The Next Three Days” — he told the story of a man
determined to break his spouse out of prison single-handedly. In his new “Point Blank,” he
introduces us to a nurse who helps sneak a wounded criminal out of the hospital so the gang will
release his kidnapped pregnant wife. Measured against devoted spouses like that, taking out the
trash just doesn’t cut it.
Cavayé is French — although, as his first name might indicate, he has a bit of tough-
talking American in his soul. (Really, how many Frenchmen have you ever heard of named
Fred?) His style is as straight as a shot of rye and as fast as a souped-up Mustang. This is not a
modern Hollywood sort of action thriller, with over-tweaked special effects and unfunny quips.
The chase scenes take place on foot. There isn’t a joke in sight. Just a man with something to
lose, and a deadline ticking away.
It’s a sturdy situation, but it needs a couple of performances to turn it into a drama.
Luckily, Cavayé has two strong leads in Gilles Lellouche and Roschdy Zem. The enigmatic
Lellouche, who was in the hit French thriller “Tell No One,” excels as the student nurse who
suddenly has to become a criminal. The stone-faced Roschdy Zem is perfect as the scary
criminal who suddenly finds himself turned into a patient. Neither takes to his new role easily.
Both learn to adjust.
Although the story pushes against the limits of plausibility — and the rush in which it
unfolds leaves some of its characters’ motivations and relationships a little vague — its action
scenes are rooted in reality. The centerpiece chase scene is little more than three people running
through a subway station — but it’s sharply shot and pointedly edited. The stunts are
occasionally improbable, but never impossible.
And however American Cavayé’s instincts are (he even named his movie after a famous
Lee Marvin thriller), this is still very much a Gallic film. The men are grizzled and the women
are Botox-free, and almost everyone has a pack of cigarettes within reach. It’s also sophisticated
enough to have its hero be a nursing student and not stoop to endless jokes about that, or cast the
story as a way for him to redeem himself and assert his supposedly endangered masculinity.)
Like Cavayé’s last film, “Point Blank” will undoubtedly be remade by Hollywood, and
you could catch up with that version in a couple of years. But see it now — before they start
rewriting it to make room for bedpan jokes, exploding 18-wheelers and Shia LaBeouf. Some
things just don’t translate.