After finishing that last Mad Max picture, I was thinking about Mel Gibson’s career and the movies featuring him.

As should be obvious, my favorite Mel Gibson role is certainly Mad Max and my favorite film featuring Mr. Gibson is The Road Warrior aka Mad Max 2.

Easy peasy.

But then I thought: With The Road Warrior my favorite Mel Gibson starring feature, what would I consider my second favorite?

I thought about that for a while.  The original Lethal Weapon was a damned good movie, even if it felt like director Richard Donner and company threw the script away soon after starting filming (I always chuckle at the grim tone of the movie in its opening minutes and then how quickly it becomes a slapstick action/comedy!).  There are plenty of others to consider, from Braveheart to The Year of Living Dangerously to (yeah, I liked it) Maverick, etc. etc.

But the one that seemed to come back to my mind over and over again was the 1999 film Payback.  Now, to be very clear, I saw the film when it was original released to theaters and hated that version.  But a few years later director Brian Helgeland’s version of the film, Payback: Straight Up, The Director’s Cut, was released and that, my friends, was a whole different animal.  (The below trailer is from the theatrical cut)

Based on The Hunter, the first of the Parker novels by Donald E. Westlake (writing under the pen name Richard Stark), this version of Payback was a lot closer to said novel and a hell of a lot better overall as a movie.

As good as that film was, and bear in mind I’ve already stated it is my second favorite Mel Gibson film, it isn’t nearly as clever and strong, IMHO, as the original movie version of the same novel, this one released in 1967 and starring Lee Marvin.  I’m referring, of course, to Point Blank…

Point Blank was, if memory serves, not terribly well received upon its initial release but, over the years, it has attained a cult following and is considered by many today among Lee Marvin’s best works.

The plot of these movies are essentially the same: Lee Marvin, like Mel Gibson, plays a version of the character of Parker (in Marvin’s case he’s named Walker, in Gibson’s its Porter).  He is involved in a heist along with his wife/girlfriend and best friend and the two betray him and leave him for dead.

Parker/Walker/Porter come back, seeking their fair share of the money and revenge… though one can’t help but wonder if the character’s interest is more in getting that money versus getting that revenge.

Here’s the thing though, and the reason why I like Point Blank more than Payback: Director John Boorman and his screenwriters crafted a fascinating new addition/wrinkle to the story, one that, IMHO, elevates the material into the stratosphere.

What they have done is taken this tale of criminals, revenge, and stolen loot… and made it a ghost story.

Yeah, you read that right: Point Blank is a ghost story.

We have in the opening minutes of the film the heist and the betrayal and Walker is shot.  He collapses to the ground and, his best friend and wife/girlfriend believe, is dead.

In Payback, he’s clearly not.  In Point Blank, though, if you pay close attention to you come to realize that Walker is no longer among the living, but that he’s a vengeful ghost.

First thing to note: His hair is dark during the heist.  After the heist and after “recovering”, his hair is (ghost) white.  As the movie progresses and he goes after the people who betrayed him and demands his money back, you notice a second thing: Walker does not kill anyone in the course of the film.

Yeah, he roughs people up, but the ones that die -and there are several that do- do so either by other’s hands or their own.  Further, Walker’s obsession with getting his money appears to be so all consuming that it seems to be the only reason for anything he does.

And, BIG SPOILERS, by the end of the movie, after he’s run down the Outfit to the point where those that remain in it finally decide to give him his damned money, the movie ends on an extremely curious note.

We return to the scene of the original crime, Alcatraz (this location is not featured at all in Payback), where Walker and his partners did the original crime and where he was betrayed and “died”.  The money he’s sought all this time is delivered by a Mob boss.  The exhausted mobster yells out that the money is there for Walker to take.

Walker, hiding in the shadows, watches the delivery and the mobster but doesn’t leave his hiding place.  The audience, feeling there is another betrayal coming, understand Walker’s hesitation.

But…

After a while, the mobster shrugs.  He leaves the package with what we assume is indeed the money where it is and gets back into his helicopter and departs.  Silence follows.  The money remains where it is and there are no other people around and, we realize, there is no chance of another betrayal.

Still Walker remains in the shadows, not saying anything nor going to get the money.  Instead, he retreats further back into the darkness, until he’s completely swallowed by it.

Fin.

My take?

Walker’s ghost has gotten what he wanted and can now rest in peace.  The irony is that a ghost -of course!- doesn’t need the money.  But by going through all he has and delivering revenge to those who deserved it while getting his proper cut of the loot, he can now rest in peace and does so when he disappears into the shadows that final time.

As someone who fashions himself a writer, that ending, and that ingenuity of writing, absolutely floors me.

The upshot of all this is that a) If you haven’t already, you should see Payback: Straight Up, The Director’s Cut.  Even more importantly b) you should see Point Blank.

It’s worth the trip(s).