- Actors: Boris Karloff, Tim O'Kelly, Arthur Peterson, Monte Landis, Nancy Hsueh
- Directors: Peter Bogdanovich
- Writers: Peter Bogdanovich, Polly Platt, Samuel Fuller
- Producers: Peter Bogdanovich, Daniel Selznick, Roger Corman
- Format: PAL
- Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: 15
- Studio: Paramount
- DVD Release Date: 5 April 2004
- Run Time: 90 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00018HTTG
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 53,835 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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DVD Description
In a stunning directorial debut Peter Bogdanovich weaves together two disparate story lines featuring ageing horror star Byron Orlok (Boris Karloff) and sniper Bobby Thompson (Tim O’kelly) in a thought-provoking, compulsive thriller based on the real-life killing spree of American Charles Whitman in 1966. Thompson is a seemingly average son and husband whose obsession with firearms is his way of coping with life. But when he snaps, he turns his unleashed fury on his family and the random drivers of LA's freeways.
Special Features
Dolby digital 5.1
1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen (enhanced for 16:9 tvs)
1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen (enhanced for 16:9 tvs)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Targets is a great example of the good old days when indie films had plots instead of character studies, were aimed at mass audiences instead of the festival crowd and the awards circuit and when hungry young directors could elevate exploitation flicks into something much more challenging.
Tim Kelly, surprisingly like a more wholesome white-bread Matt Damon, is the all-American boy who one day buys a rifle and plenty of ammo, kills his family and moves on to shooting random human targets, first from a water tower and subsequently from behind the screen at a drive-in movie theatre where Boris Karloff's disillusioned horror star is due to make his last personal appearance. No explanations, no motives, just impersonal mechanical violence that's far worse than any horror film. Similarly, it could be argued that there's no real `point' to the film - just a sad observation of the way that reality can be far worse than the imagination. In many ways Peter Bogdanovich still hasn't made a better film.
Although not extras heavy, the lengthy introduction featurette with Bogdanovich and the director's audio commentary more than make up in quality what the disc lacks in quantity.
Tim Kelly, surprisingly like a more wholesome white-bread Matt Damon, is the all-American boy who one day buys a rifle and plenty of ammo, kills his family and moves on to shooting random human targets, first from a water tower and subsequently from behind the screen at a drive-in movie theatre where Boris Karloff's disillusioned horror star is due to make his last personal appearance. No explanations, no motives, just impersonal mechanical violence that's far worse than any horror film. Similarly, it could be argued that there's no real `point' to the film - just a sad observation of the way that reality can be far worse than the imagination. In many ways Peter Bogdanovich still hasn't made a better film.
Although not extras heavy, the lengthy introduction featurette with Bogdanovich and the director's audio commentary more than make up in quality what the disc lacks in quantity.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Intelligent and very effective horror/thriller tracking two simultaneous plot strands - a retiring horror actor's final public appearance and a frighteningly average young man intent on a killing spree with a long-range rifle.
Despite the predictable convergence of the two story lines, the tension is brilliantly sustained. Karloff's lightly humourous strand of the story comes as a welcome relief from the inevitability of the sniper's actions as he gathers his arsenal of guns.
The shocking climax at the drive-in cinema cleverly underlines the stark difference between the innocence of the old fashioned horror the drive-in audience are watching (real footage of Karloff film 'The Terror') and the frightening reality of the film we are watching.
Despite the predictable convergence of the two story lines, the tension is brilliantly sustained. Karloff's lightly humourous strand of the story comes as a welcome relief from the inevitability of the sniper's actions as he gathers his arsenal of guns.
The shocking climax at the drive-in cinema cleverly underlines the stark difference between the innocence of the old fashioned horror the drive-in audience are watching (real footage of Karloff film 'The Terror') and the frightening reality of the film we are watching.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Targets is directed by Peter Bogdanovich who also co-writes the screenplay and story with Polly Platt and Samuel Fuller. It stars Boris Karloff, Tim O'Kelly and Bogdanovich himself. Story is patterned around real life mass murderer Charles Whitman, who in 1966 murdered 16 people during a shooting rampage at the University of Texas in Austin.
Cineaste Peter Bogdanovich's debut directing effort, sadly, to this day remains a topical hot spot. Released as it was just after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, Targets carried much relevance even though it was hardly a success at the box office. Over the years it has come to gain a cult following that is much deserved, the low budget production value actually helping to keep it uneasily potent.
Story is structured by way of two separate narrative threads, one sees Karloff as veteran horror film actor Byron Orlock, who sees himself as an anachronism and announces his retirement from movie making. His reasoning, warranted, is that his type of horror is way behind the times, the real horror is out there on the streets, bleakly headlined in the local newspaper. The other thread concerns Bobby Thompson (O'Kelly), a handsome boy next door type who has a pretty wife but finds himself unemployed and still living with his parents. He is a ticking time bomb, his mind soon to fracture and devastation will follow. The two stories converging for a bloody finale at a drive in movie theatre, where Orlock is making a special guest appearance, the old time horror of the movies coming face to face with the real terror of the modern world.
Though uncredited by choice, the screenplay belongs to Fuller, something that Bogdanovitch has always been keen to point out, and it's with the writing where the film gets its quality factor. The messages within are serious and handled evenly by Bogdanovitch, his pacing precise and in Karloff he has the perfect icon from which to underpin the story. True enough the acting around Karloff is sub-standard, notably from the director himself, but with Bogdanovich deliberately keeping the psychological explanation for Bobby's actions vague, film manages to rise above its flaws to leave an indelible mark. 8/10
Cineaste Peter Bogdanovich's debut directing effort, sadly, to this day remains a topical hot spot. Released as it was just after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, Targets carried much relevance even though it was hardly a success at the box office. Over the years it has come to gain a cult following that is much deserved, the low budget production value actually helping to keep it uneasily potent.
Story is structured by way of two separate narrative threads, one sees Karloff as veteran horror film actor Byron Orlock, who sees himself as an anachronism and announces his retirement from movie making. His reasoning, warranted, is that his type of horror is way behind the times, the real horror is out there on the streets, bleakly headlined in the local newspaper. The other thread concerns Bobby Thompson (O'Kelly), a handsome boy next door type who has a pretty wife but finds himself unemployed and still living with his parents. He is a ticking time bomb, his mind soon to fracture and devastation will follow. The two stories converging for a bloody finale at a drive in movie theatre, where Orlock is making a special guest appearance, the old time horror of the movies coming face to face with the real terror of the modern world.
Though uncredited by choice, the screenplay belongs to Fuller, something that Bogdanovitch has always been keen to point out, and it's with the writing where the film gets its quality factor. The messages within are serious and handled evenly by Bogdanovitch, his pacing precise and in Karloff he has the perfect icon from which to underpin the story. True enough the acting around Karloff is sub-standard, notably from the director himself, but with Bogdanovich deliberately keeping the psychological explanation for Bobby's actions vague, film manages to rise above its flaws to leave an indelible mark. 8/10
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Caught In The Crossfire.
'Targets' has 2 parallel story lines, one of an aging actor (Karloff) and one of an all American boy gone bad (Tim O'Kelly) with the film climaxing as their paths cross. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Duluoz Lautrec
First time Bogdanovich
"Is that what I was afraid of?" Karloff wonders at the end of this 1968 low budget movie. Although Targets does have faults, not the least of which is its sometimes painfully... Read more
Published on 9 Feb 2009 by Billy Ray Cyrus
Karloff's last film
This is a double first: Boganovitchs first film and Karloffs last film.
As far as acting goes, its not memorable. The characters are wooden, the plot predictable. Read more
As far as acting goes, its not memorable. The characters are wooden, the plot predictable. Read more
Published on 5 July 2006 by M. Allen
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