Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Screenplay: Peter Bogdanovich, Polly Platt, Samuel Fuller (uncredited)
Starring: Tim O’Kelly, Boris Karloff, Peter Bogdanovich, James Brown, Mary Jackson, Tanya Morgan, Arthur Peterson, Monte Landis
Country: USA
Running Time: 90 min
Year: 1968
BBFC Certificate: TBC
After working as an assistant for Roger Corman and directing a few sequences of The Wild Angels, Peter Bogdanovich was given the chance to direct his first complete feature film. However, the legendary producer gave him some unusual stipulations. First, it must feature Boris Karloff, who owed Corman 2 days of work (though that ended up changing to 5 in the end). Also, it must include about 20 minutes of Corman’s film, The Terror, also starring Karloff. The rest was up to Bogdanovich.
The director and his (then) wife, Polly Platt, scratched their heads for a while about what to do. Then, after a brainwave and remembering a past suggestion that someone should make a film based on the story of the mass murderer Charles Whitman, the concept for Targets was formed. The script then went through a rewrite with an uncredited Sam Fuller, before the film went into production.
Pleased with what he shot, Bogdanovich managed to get Paramount to agree to release the film to a hopefully bigger market than originally planned. However, In the build-up to Targets hitting theatres, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated, leading to an outcry against violence in movies. This caused the film to get pushed back and it never quite reached the audience Bogdanovich and his team hoped for.
Targets has grown in stature over the years though, aided by Bogdanovich finding success with a number of his later films. It’s a title I’ve been keen to watch for a long time but I’d been holding out for a decent release. The BFI teased us with a Blu-ray release a long time ago but they hit numerous roadblocks in the lead-up to the disc hitting shelves, pushing it ever further back in their schedules.
Finally, Targets is here though and I jumped at the chance to review the film when the BFI got in touch.
Targets follows the stories of two very different characters over the course of 24 hours or so, with their worlds colliding in the final act.
One strand sees Boris Karloff play Byron Orlok, essentially an avatar of himself. He’s an ageing actor known for starring in classic horror movies but is now relegated to poor-quality B-pictures. After watching the final cut of his latest film (The Terror, of course), Orlok decides he wants to retire.
The young director Sammy Michaels (played by Bogdanovich himself) is keen to get Orlok in his next picture though, so doggedly pesters the actor and eventually gets him to agree to at least make a public appearance at a drive-in screening of The Terror.
Meanwhile, the deeply troubled Bobby Thompson (Tim O’Kelly) is plotting something. This young man living with his wife at his parents’ house, is building an arsenal of weapons. Then, one morning, he kills his family and heads out into the city to claim some more victims.
Targets is a tremendously assured directorial debut that acts like a bridge between old and new Hollywood. This can be seen quite clearly in the cutting between the two distinct stories being told. Karloff is, of course, a legendary figure who began working in Hollywood in the silent age, so his scenes have much more of a classic feel, made ever clearer through the clips shown from The Terror.
The scenes surrounding the Thompson character, meanwhile, have much more of a natural feel. As the film alludes, his story represents a more modern idea of horror too. Thompson lives a seemingly very average life with loving parents and a loving wife. However, beneath the surface, he’s a psychopathic killer.
Whilst Bogdanovich provides little sympathy for Thompson, there’s a brief allusion to him being a Vietnam veteran and there are some small touches that show he’s trying to deal with his troubled mind and reach out for help but his family are too blinkered to see this. It’s a damning portrayal of society’s poor understanding of mental health at the time. Things have moved on a little since then but sadly incidents like this are still all too familiar in the US, making the film as pertinent as ever.
Bogdanovich is perhaps pointing a finger towards a more general cause for society’s breakdown too with Thompson’s constant consumption of sugar-loaded junk food (coke and candy bars) and penchant for bland pop music. Our antagonist is, away from his mass killing, every bit an average young American.
I must admit, I found the scenes with Karloff a little less effective though. The whole idea of him basically playing himself feels a little indulgent and gimmicky, not helped by Bogdanovich also playing a version of himself on screen. Karloff’s performance style clashes somewhat with the rest of the film too, but that’s kind of the point, so it does work within context. Plus he gets a couple of great moments, such as a monologue he delivers whilst he, Bogdanovich and a promoter plan the drive-in appearance.
Karloff may have been the big star name here but it was O’Kelly who most impressed me. He never went on to have much of an acting career after this other than a few TV appearances, which is a crying shame. He’s so chillingly cold and believable here.
The film was shot by the great László Kovács and it was the first time he was credited using his real name. Reportedly, this was because it was the first time he actually liked a picture he shot. He does fantastic work here, framing with an artful sensibility and pulling off some complicated, clever shots.
The use of sound is impressive too. There’s no score, just diegetic music. This technique is used most effectively, giving the Thompson scenes an extra layer of disturbing naturalism. Bogdanovich could only afford the rights to 5 records but he made the best he could from this minimal music.
So, whilst the post-modern aspects initially drew me towards the film, it was the disturbing depiction of a killer that kept me watching and stayed with me. The scenes with Karloff aren’t always wholly convincing but, overall, Targets is a unique, gripping and often troubling little gem that’s well worthy of rediscovery.
Film:
Targets is out on 25th September on Blu-Ray, released by the BFI. The transfer is fantastic, with rich colours and impressive details. The audio is spot-on too.
I’ve used screengrabs throughout this review to give you an idea of how it looks, though these have been compressed.
SPECIAL FEATURES
– New restoration supervised by director Peter Bogdanovich and presented in High Definition
– Audio commentary by Peter Bogdanovich (2003)
– New audio commentary by author and film critic Peter Tonguette
– Targets: An Introduction by Peter Bogdanovich (2003, 14 mins)
– Hitting Targets: Sara Karloff on her Father, Boris (2022, 40 mins): Boris Karloff’s daughter looks back on the life, career and legend of her famous father
– On Target: Boris Karloff in the 1960s (2023, 17 mins): Stephen Jacobs, author of Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster, considers the great man’s final decade
– Gentleman of Horror (2023, 8 mins): a video essay on Boris Karloff by the BFI’s Vic Pratt
– The Guardian Interview: Peter Bogdanovich (1972, 42 mins): the director of Targets recounts tales of films and filmmaking at the National Film Theatre
– The Guardian Interview: Roger Corman (1970, 64 mins): the filmmaking legend who gave Peter Bogdanovich the opportunity to make Targets discusses his work
– Trailers From Hell: Joe Dante on Targets (2013, 3 mins): filmmaker Joe Dante provides his personal take on Targets
– Image gallery
– Newly commissioned sleeve art by Matt Needle
– **FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Illustrated booklet featuring an introduction by Sara Karloff, new writing on the film by Stephen Jacobs and Jason Wood and an essay on Peter Bogdanovich by Peter Tonguette
Bogdanovich’s commentary is rich with eye-opening stories about how the production came together. It’s a wonderful track that I enjoyed a lot. He pops up in an introduction to the film too, which provides a handily concise explanation of the film’s history.
Peter Tonguette provides a second commentary. He analyses the film quite effectively. He repeats a few facts Bogdanovich described in his introduction and commentary, but he adds enough of his own insight to make the track worthwhile.
The Guardian interview with Bogdanovich is good fun. He repeats some of the stories he tells elsewhere but, with an audience listening, he does so with a showman’s charm. He also discusses his subsequent films (up to What’s Up Doc?) and a good portion of the piece is made up of a Q&A so there’s plenty of additional content here.
There’s also a Guardian interview with Roger Corman. This is a little more straight-laced than I hoped with a very prim, proper and intellectual host leading the conversation, talking too much himself to begin with, rather than letting Corman do his thing. However, the interview soon opens up to provide a detailed look at the producer’s career and practises to that point. Corman is enjoyably frank and open, leading to a fascinating interview.
Sara Karloff talks about her father’s life and career. She claims Targets is her favourite of his films and talks about that, as well as his iconic Frankenstein’s monster role and his relationships with other ‘masters of horror’. It’s a nice piece.
Vic Pratt also digs into Karloff’s work in Targets and elsewhere. It’s a short but thoughtful analysis. Then, in ‘On Target’, Stephen Jacobs looks specifically at Karloff’s work in the 60s. This is particularly interesting as it’s a less heralded period in the actor’s career, despite being busier than he was in the 50s. Though, when talking about Targets he recycles some of the stories we’ve heard a dozen times on the disc.
Joe Dante introduces and provides a short commentary for the film’s trailer. This is brief but enthusiastically delivered and it’s fun to see the original trailer.
The booklet is crammed with essays on the film. Again, much of the information is repeated from other extras, but it’s handy to have them clearly laid out like this.
So, whilst there’s quite a lot of repetition of facts and stories, the great wealth of extras here is still a pleasure to work through. The disc was a long time coming but it’s well worth the wait and it makes for an easy recommendation.
Disc/package:
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