more movies like this?
maybe not so much the whole sniper thing but i really just loved this movie. any suggestions?
shareHenry, Portrait of a Serial Killer
share
yeah!!
Jonathan Becker
MovieChat Forums > Targets (1968) Discussion > more movies like this?
The Deadly Tower (1975), a retelling of the Charles Whitman story - who was the real-life killer who inspired Targets.
shareI don´t know if anyone agrees, but I think that No country or old men has a bit of the same feeling. Sure it´s a completely different films, but it got the same use of minimalistic music, pacing and the flow of editing.
I just think the people who enjoyed No country would like this one too...
Taxi Driver has a lot in common with Targets.
Also "Two Minute Warning," a 70s thriller about a sniper that opens fire in a crowded football stadium.
Dude means nice guy. Dude means a regular sort of person.
Everybody's making some great choices; I especially agree about No Country. I also feel that Spielberg's Duel fits.
Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!
Targets has always reminded me--in tone and in the confidence of its direction--to Roman Polanski's 60s and 70s work. That may sound crazy, but I've always wanted to see a double-feature of Targets and Repulsion. Your mileage may differ, though. Cheers, Adam
shareHoneymoon Killers is without a doubt the closest counterpart. Another low-budget drive-in film that aspired for much more, and ended up being another dark, stark slice of realistic-yet-oddly-pulp Americana.
Sam Fuller of course rewrote the film, and I think one can see parallels in his three late "social conscious" films, Shock Corridor, Naked Kiss and White Dog.
I personally think Larry Cohen hits the same is-it-art-or-pulp sort of filmmaking, and definitely God Told Me To..., and even the last thirty minutes of Black Caesar has the same dark, lurid energy.
If you want focus on the horror aspect of the film, Bob Clark's Deathdream, Jeff Lieberman's Blue Sunshine and George Romero's Martin work as well, as do some of Cronenberg's early works like Shivers, Rabid and The Brood. Perhaps some of the arthouse-meets-grinhouse features of a decade later like Abel Ferrara's Driller Killer and Ms. 45 or Buddy Giovinazzo's Combat Shock/An American Nightmare could be pointed out as being to 80s b-movie schlock what Targets was to those of the 60s.
Holy cow, bstephens21...... or is it Mr. Tarantino?
Do enough movie homework? How do you know THIS much about film?
Are you a film major?
Wow.
I will try to track down all of the movies you recommended.
Cheers.
ps: I loved Martin
pps: I'm shocked that there is no "Black Caeser" torrent available right now online. I have looked b4!
"Day of the Jackal"
"I... Comme Icare" (aka "I... As in Icarus")
"The Manchurian Candidate" (the original. I can't speak for the remake, because I've never seen it.)
"Glass Marbles" (aka "Stakleni Topcheta")
"Elephant"
Maybe "The Parallax View." I've never seen it, but I vaguely recall it having something to do with sniper shootings. Not certain, though.
cronenberg's "rabid." i was thinking of that one. and other horror films such as "dead end drive in," "cars that ate paris," etc.
Jonathan Becker
You seem to know a lot of movies on this theme. I'm looking for one that involves a young man in Seattle shooting his whole family (his father was an architect and wealthy). With the money that is left to him he moves to southern California (I think Malibu). That's all I remember but I would like to find this movie.
shareThe quiet desperation of the antagonist becomes very, very public. In DDA, the desperation involves lack of money for a lover's sex change operation. Sorry if I spoiled the plot! :)
share"The Sniper" is an old b&w 1950's film noir which predates "Targets", but I was reminded of it watching this. Bogdonovich is a huge film noir fan, so it's quite possible that he would have known about "The Sniper" and paying a bit of homage to it.
Like this, or better than this?
Because Hitchcock has handled stuff like this much better than Bogdonovich did, on a regular basis. It seems apparent that Bogdonovich was aiming for something along the lines of Hitchcock, but without an entertaining sideplot, the character and motivation development, and most of all, the suspense. There's fear, there's terror, but no suspense.
Its funny you bring up Hitchcock because the sniper was inspired by the disappointment of Bogdanovich over the ending of Psycho (the doctor explaining why Bates did what he did) which a upset a lot of the younger directors who were coming up at the time. Bogdanovich thought it was much scarier giving no rhyme or reason for the sniper doing what he did(and like someone mentioned the character was heavily based on Charles Whitman) . As for more films like this, Bogdanovich (with Targets) and Polanski (with Rosemary's Baby) helped get the ball rolling with what would become "New Horror". Again while the films weren't exactly like Targets they were inspired by it to help change the outlook of what most thought of horror for 40 years prior. You had the two I already mentioned, then things like Romero's "Night of the living dead", Craven 's "last house on the left", Depalma' s "Sisters ", Friedkin's "Exorcist" Hooper's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", Depalma's "Carrie", O'Bannon's Alien(yes directed by Scott but it was O'Bannon's baby) and of course Carpenter's Halloween and you could possibly add Depalma's "Dressed to kill". I do realize these are all very different films and really didn't answer the original question but they all fit in the catagory of films that went against the grain and changed the face of horror. To answer the question there really isn't. a lot like Targets, reading other responses , the only two I really agree with is McNaughton's Henry and the Coen bros. "No Country for old men" , And of course see everything bstephen21, he(or she) mentioned a lot of classics, though I respectfully disagree with his opinion of Honeymoon killers,I don't see it as any thing near a counterpart of Targets(again just a different opinion, no disrespect intended) although based on actual events itself, I always saw it closer to a film like Bonnie and Clyde without all the prestige. Almost the ugly white-trash 2nd cousin of the pretty girl. It was the only film other than Henry Portrait of a serial killer that made me take a shower after viewing.
shareCharacter here is a moot point: it's worth asking, "who is Bobby?", but motivation was certainly plastered throughout the film, and I don't know how you could not feel the suspense. I think it's a flawed film, but not for the reasons you mention.
Oh whisky, leave me alone.
Perhaps I'm influenced by the film's references to Antonioni, but I'll suggest Blow Up as a comparable film. It's more of an anti-thriller, but it shares Targets' detatched narrative and focus on environment and the recorded image.
Oh whisky, leave me alone.