Targets

Together with Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane and John Singleton’s Boyz ‘n the Hood, director Peter Bogdanovich’s Targets is among the most impressive first features ever made. When Bogdanovich’s cinematic mentor Roger Corman suggested that Bogdanovich might want to make his directorial debut, he offered to “donate” 20 minutes’ worth of footage of the Corman-directed The Terror and the services of Boris Karloff, who owed Corman two days’ worth of work (at a cost of 22000 dollars). Karloff became so caught up in the 29-year-old Bogdanovich’s enthusiasm that he agreed to work an additional two days at a bare-minimum salary. The script, by Bogdanovich and his then-wife, Polly Platt, was inspired by the 1966 shooting spree of Texas Tower sniper Charles Whitman. Karloff, as Byron Orlock, more or less plays himself: an aging horror star, consigned to low-budget drive-in fare. Unlike the workaholic Karloff, Orlock wants to retire from films, noting that his movies seem inconsequential in light of the real-life horrors occurring every day. As Bogdanovich, playing young-and-hungry director Sammy Michaels, desperately tries to convince Orlock to star in just one more picture, the film’s attentions shift to Vietnam veteran Bobby Thompson (Tim O’Kelly). An otherwise amiable, normal-looking lad, Bobby seems to harbor an inordinate fascination with guns, particularly high-powered rifles. One bright and sunny morning, Bobby suddenly and unexpectedly shoots and kills his wife, his mother, and …