From the Collection: Targets

Targets, the directorial debut by Oscar-nominated writer and director Peter Bogdanovich, is the latest film to enter the Criterion Collection. 

Old Hollywood collides with New Hollywood, and screen horror with real-life horror, in Peter Bogdanovich’s debut film. Produced by B-movie legend Roger Corman, this chillingly prescient vision of American-made carnage casts Boris Karloff as a version of himself: an aging horror-movie icon whose fate intersects with that of a seemingly ordinary young man (Tim O’Kelly) on a shooting spree around Los Angeles. Charged with provocative ideas about the relationship between mass media and mass violence, Targets is a model of maximally effective filmmaking on a minimal budget and a potent first statement from one of the defining voices of the American New Wave.

Here’s what the disc includes:

• New 4K digital master, supervised by director Peter Bogdanovich, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Audio commentary from 2003 featuring Bogdanovich
• New interview with filmmaker Richard Linklater
• Introduction to the film from 2003 by Bogdanovich
• Audio excerpts from a 1983 interview with production designer Polly Platt at the American Film Institute
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Adam Nayman and excerpts from an interview with Bogdanovich from Eric Sherman and Martin Rubin’s 1969 book The Director’s Event: Interviews with Five American Film-Makers

Targets is why the Criterion Collection is important. I had never seen this film before it got the Criterion treatment and I’m glad it got added to the collection. This is one hell of a film from Bogdanovich, one of the greatest cinematic minds we’ve ever had. It is a startling, chilling film that tries to wed two stories together, one about an aging actor at the end of his career and one about a man at the end of his wits. The two parallel stories are separate the entire movie, with the shooter story being the more interesting and exciting of the two, and they come to a head by the end of the film in an interesting look at violence and entertainment. Bogdanovich’s direction is spectacular and the editing is top-notch, particularly in the film’s finale. Karloff also gives a tremendous performance.

The film’s 4k remastering looks great and I really enjoyed the interview by Linklater, who is one of my favorite filmmakers working today, and the essay by the great film writer Adam Nayman. I am also really interested in rewatching the film with commentary from Bogdanovich. I always love hearing filmmakers talk about the filmmaking process, so that should be a good one.

You can buy the Criterion edition of Targets on the Criterion website or anywhere Criterion Collection DVDs are sold.

From the Collection is an analysis piece of non-new-release movies, whether seen on DVD, streaming, or in a theater, and includes a brief history of the film, a review of the film, and content about the experience of seeing the film and/or the contents of the film’s DVD.

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