TARGETS

US, 1968, 88 minutes, Colour.
Boris Karloff, Peter Bogdanovich.
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich.

Target is a very interesting film in itself, but is even more so when seen in the light of the subsequent career of Peter Bogdanovich. He was a film critic and writer, generally in praise of the old Hollywood masters like John Ford or Fritz Lang. At the age of twenty nine (with some help from Roger Corman) he wrote, directed and acted one of the main roles (a screenwriter!) in this, his first film. It is a message film about violence and the schizophrenia in so many middle Americans and the gun laws. It is a thriller about a psychotic sniper. It is a satire on Hollywood film-makers and stars. It is a horror film, using a sniper at a Drive-in theatre where the audience is watching Corman's - The Terror (1963), which is also used for the credits. It is an exploration of the influence of movies on people, especially violence and horror movies. It is a tribute to Boris Karloff - his films, career, influence, especially in his final confrontation with the killer. All this is done in an interesting and entertaining way: two strands (the killer and the actor) developed and then coming together at the Drive-in where Karloff comes towards the killer as his screen image comes forward on the Drive-in screen.

Bogdanovich then went on to make the most successful Last Picture Show; What's Up Doc?; Paper Moon; Daisy Miller by the time he was thirty
three.

1. What did the title of the film suggest?

2. What was the importance of the prologue about U.S. gun laws? Did the film confirm this point of view?

3. How successful a horror film was it?

4. What comment did the film make in combining the horror movie style with the realistic style?

5. Did the film suggest that horror films disturb people and incite them to violence? Give your impressions of the credits as you watched footage from The Terror? What tone did this give to the film and the modern setting?

6. Was the Baron Orlock story of interest in itself?

7. What kind of man was Baron Orlock? Was he a friendly man, selfish? Was he obliged to go to the Drive-In?

8. How did the shots of the Drive-in, the roads, silos, prepare for the sniper's story? Was this effective?

9. The sniper - was he convincingly presented?

10. Did the patterning of the film from one strand to the other work well?

11. Why did he kill the family? Why did he need to kill others?

12. Did the comedy in the Baron Orlock sequence of the interviewer balance the horror?

13. The Drive-in sequence - was it well filmed and frightening?

14. Why did Baron Orlock go to the sniper? Did the audience pity the sniper?

15. What was the final message of the film?

16. Was this a successful entertainment - with a message?

17. Aspects of the message: the relationship between screen horror and violence and real situations - how did Targets hope to influence people? The parody of Boris Karloff and of horror films? Baron Orlock's watching himself on TV? The parody of Hollywood in the screenwriter and the secretary (the night at the apartment)? The real violence via the clean-cut American image, family reputation; the ease with which ammunition can be bought, the flashbacks to target' practice; family murder, the sniping of ordinary people?