Target
by Arthur Penn
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DVD details
Actor: Gayle Hunnicutt, Gene Hackman, Ilona Grübel, Matt Dillon, Randy MooreDirector: Arthur Penn
Brand: Paramount
Cinematographer: Jean Tournier
Editor: Richard P. Cirincione
Producer: David Brown
Producer: Richard D. Zanuck
Writer: Don Petersen
Writer: Howard Berk
Writer: Leonard Stern
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; German (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 117 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-06-14
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Paramount
DVD Reviews of Target
DVD Review: Target
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a competent spy thriller that nevertheless does not thrill me all that much when I watch it. The music is bad, and is it just me, or does this film feel more like a late70's film than something from the mid 80's?
Anyway, I've started with the off-the-wall nitpicking before giving you the gist of the plot. When an American woman goes missing while playing tourist in Paris, her husband and son team up--despite their differences--to find her. What the son, played by Matt Dillon, doesn't know is that his father used to work for the CIA and may have a piece of his violent past coming back to haunt him. The father, Duke (Gene Hackman), fears a kidnapping right away, and tries to make contact with some of his former superiors for assistance. Before that, while arriving at the airport, Duke is approached by someone with sinister evidence that his wife has indeed been snatched, while someone else suddenly starts shooting. All of this while the son, Chris, has wandered off to flirt with a beautiful girl.
The sudden outbreak of violence at the airport--along with the mystery of why there seem to be two parties linked to the wife's disappearance, one wanting to intimidate and negotiate while the other is overly trigger-happy, within minutes of the plane touching down--accomplishes a lot. It shows that the movie will have some fast action and surprises. It allows us to see how Duke will handle himself in a tricky situation, hemmed in by multiple threats. And it makes it clear that all is not as it seems. A good spy thriller always has layers of complexity to be peeled back, and right from the get-go there is suspense.
The scene also seemed designed to keep Matt Dillon's character, Chris, from discovering his father was a secret-agent man in a former life, possibly with one big ugly loose end, but actually it doesn't take long for him to notice there is something odd about his father, and his new/old friends. Once the father has admitted the truth to his son, and the son has gotten past the shock and anger of it, they begin to function more as a team. Their teaming is a bit awkward at first since Chris is no spy, Duke is out of practice, and the two don't get along well...but nothing makes you function better as a team than an assassin coming back for a second try, or a third.
When the phrase Operation Clean Sweep gets dropped--some kind of mission from Duke's past that didn't go quite as planned, though his recollection is that it was a rousing success--it gives our dynamic DNA-linked duo a direction to focus on. But Duke wants to send his son packing, to a safehouse of sorts, while he either wraps things up or dies trying. Things get even more unpredictable when Chris doesn't do what he's supposed to do.
I think I like the back end of this film best, though there are some decent action sequences in the early-going when everything's more mysterious. Later, the spy trappings kick in in force: the betrayals, the set-ups gone wrong, the strange code names for old enemies, the final showdown between Duke and an assassin, the nerve-wracking attempt to deactivate a bomb, the real threat unmasked. Competently done--somewhat entertaining throughout.
Where then to find fault? Well, I'm not sure Hackman and Dillon create the right father-and-son chemistry. I wasn't convinced that they were really blood relatives; it may have had something to do with two different acting styles, and some odd directing. Hackman never seems all that anguished over his wife being in mortal danger--yes, I know he's the super-cool spy-type 'n all--and he relies on that standard Hackman nervous chuckle that he picked up from Robert Duvall somewhere, but which tends to get on my nerves if I hear it too much. And Matt Dillon seems to me to be overdoing the son's basic trait of frenzied hotheadedness, the trademark of every rebellious know-it-all son who needs to learn a few things about the world. Some of his ranting at his father feels forced or, well, acted. So while Dillon shouts and bounces about as Hackman plays it cool and ignores him, some of their scenes together feel staged, like two actors concentrating so much on their own choice of performance--or the director's--that they aren't really working off each other.
And I like both these actors a lot. In other films.
Meanwhile, there's also the fact that all the veteran spy-thriller or mystery fans may figure out some of the twists before they get untwisted. Plus, is it just me, or would it have killed the sun to come out fully for just one scene? The picture looks kind of grey and grainy all the way through.
A realistic approach to the spy genre that settles for being kind of awkward and ungainly at times. The music doesn't help.
Description of Target
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