Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Targets (1968) --Peter Bogdanovich

This much discussed first major film by Peter Bogdanovich (PB) suffered from poor release timing, following the assassinations of ML King and Bobby Kennedy. The public was not in the mood for a movie about a mass murderer, despite the fact that it was a very good picture.

There are two parallel stories: in the first, an aging horror film star, Byron Orlok (Boris Karloff) has shocked and frustrated all his management people by announcing he's decided to quit acting in films. With much prodding by a young director (Bogdanovich) he agrees to make a publicity appearance at a special presentation at the Reseda Drive In theater in the Los Angeles San Fernando Valley.

At the same time a young clean cut Vietnam War vet gradually has a break from reality, causing him to murder his wife and mother, and then to position himself atop an oil storage tank along a freeway where he shoots a number of people as they drive along the highway. He escapes and eventually takes refuge in the Reseda Drive In theater, where the two stories converge and lead to a gratifying ending.

The sniper portion of the story was partially fashioned after the "Texas Tower Sniper" incident in 1966 where a deranged 25 year old murdered 17 people from atop a tower on the campus of U.T. at Austin.

Karloff steals the show with his gravitas and fine acting. It was his next to last film before he died, and no one could have played the role more convincingly. Tim O'Kelly turned in a realistic performance as the sniper, Bobby Thompson. And PB fit his role perfectly as the young director. He had wanted another actor for the role, but the actor became unavailable, so PB simply took over the part himself. There was first rate cinematography by the great Laszlo Kovacs. Notably there was no film score.

The picture got good reviews at the time, but because of the overshadowing national news events, it quietly faded. Undaunted, PB went on to make The Last Picture Show, What's Up, Doc?, and Paper Moon.

Made on a shoestring budget, produced by the very frugal Roger Corman, the film has come down as a minor classic. Despite the restrictions and scrambling production, Bogdanovich gave the world an inkling of his savvy and brilliance early in his career.

Doc's rating: 7/10

Had a good feel to it but it would have been better if it was Scandinavian as it seems it could be based on one of their folklore characters.

I remember seeing the trailer for this and thinking there is no way Kevin James can sell me as a bad guy. Maybe I'll check this out.

How can I give you 1,000 reps?... It's one of my favorite dark comedies and you know my love for Mads but I am a fan of Ulrich and Nikolaj. Here is one of my favorite scenes.





Now I recommend both Blinkende lygter and De grønne slagtere. All three films are directed by Anders Thomas Jensen.

The Big Sky (1952)

Thank you for the gorgeous list, I’m all set for the rest of the week.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
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The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968)

Môjû [Blind Beast] (Yasuzô Masumura, 1969)
Captivating up to a point

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“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” ~ Rocky Balboa

He was surprisingly good as a neo nazi *******. It's not the first time a person who normally does comedy surprises me with a dramatic role.


It's a fun movie. Quite violent though, so expect a couple of gruesome scenes.

Thanks very much for the interesting review Doc. Well and truly added to the list of films I need to see. Cheers.

And from the guy who wrote The Greasy Strangler, so I'd expect it to be pretty weird.

I entirely approve of the film choices Elijah Wood has made in the last few years, especially Over the Garden Wall and I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore.

They are all movies that I love to discuss, so if you do watch and enjoy any of them, I will happily chat about them.

Stagecoach (1939)

The first serious adult western and the film that made John Wayne a star (at least according to our public broadcast company's introduction). I think the cheap children's B-movie past of the westerns is still too much visible here but it has its moments. Surprisingly I liked Wayne on this one too. Not the worst important film of the past, but rather mediocre as a western.

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I liked it a hair more than you did (maybe a 3/5 for me), but overall I agree. There are some interesting character dynamics, but it's more of a drama than a Western, despite the action setpiece of the chase.

Stagecoach is the best western from the conception of the genre up until 1962 when The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was released.

And don't even mention The Searchers. Just like Ford himself said: "It's just a western". Then again, who could take the guy seriously when his favourite of his own movies is The Long Gray Line, a half-assed, poor man's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

I prefer almost all of Boetticher's work to Stagecoach, especially in the way that the action/violence connects so strongly with the arc of the characters in the films.

That said, I've read several articles about Stagecoach and I understand why some people value it so highly.

Fair enough. I haven't seen any Boetticher film as I'm not really that much into classical westerns, preferring some spaghetti on my plate. I'll watch his arguably best known Ride Lonesome sometime in the future, though, for sure.

Still, I doubt it can top Stagecoach which is a film of beauty. The scene in which the baby is about to be born, and the men just stand there in a room is forever engrained in my mind. It's the blocking and their faces:



Or this zoom and John Wayne's eyes:



I don't know why critics love it. Probably for some inane reason like: "OMG, look, deep focus before Citizen Kane! I must love it!", but I love it just for things like this.

What's really interesting is that every single black and white John Ford film I saw was at least a great one. His black and white filmography is overflowing with masterpieces. His color ones, however, always leave me disappointed.