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Target (1985 film)

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Target
Film poster
Directed byArthur Penn
Screenplay byJosé Luis Navarro (as Howard Berk)
Don Petersen
Story byLeonard B. Stern
Produced byDavid Brown
Richard D. Zanuck
Starring
CinematographyJean Tournier
Edited byRichard P. Cirincione
Stephen A. Rotter
Music byMichael Small
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • November 8, 1985 (1985-11-08)
Running time
117 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$12.9 million[1]
Box office$9,023,199 (US/Canada)[2]

Target is a 1985 American mystery thriller film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Matt Dillon and Gene Hackman. It was the last film distributed by Warner Bros. before ending the distribution deal with CBS and shutting down its film production arm.

Plot

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In Paris, a woman named Donna Lloyd has been missing for two days. In Dallas, her husband Walter and their college-age son Chris decide to look for her.

At the airport, Chris bumps into backpacker Carla. Walter, on the other hand, bumps into Heinz Henke, a man with a gun who has Donna's jewelry. A man in glasses then tries to kill Walter, accidentally shooting Henke before disappearing.

At the hotel in Paris, Walter reveals that Donna has been kidnapped. Chris later saves his life when a car shoots at Walter. After they escape, Walter confesses that he used to work for the CIA.

Meanwhile, to Walter's chagrin, the CIA are watching the pair to make sure that they do not get into trouble. The two leave for Hamburg by train, evading the CIA in the process. At the train station, Walter and Chris see a man approach a similar pair - a young man and his father - yelling "Mendelssohn" to them. The man then grabs a fiddle and begins playing a tune. Walter and Chris leave. On the way out, Chris spots Clara.

The next day, they decide to meet "The Colonel", Walter's old boss. Chris spots the fiddler, and Walter tears off in the car. They attempt to lose their pursuers, but when they cannot, Walter leaves Chris and takes off on foot. Cornered by the fiddler and another agent, Walter jumps off the pier onto a passing ferry. The two agents hum the tune to Walter, and point for him to meet them further up the channel. The assassin who attempted to kill Walter earlier is there. He considers murdering Walter, but ultimately kills the fidler when the latter tries to stop him. Chris later picks Walter up.

At the Colonel's, Walter asks him about Henke. They recall "Operation Clean Sweep", where they killed five of six agents. The tune turns out to be a Mendelssohn concerto.[a] "Mendelssohn" was the codename of Schroeder, the agent who escaped "Clean Sweep".

Walter later leaves for West Berlin, to a Pension. Chris then leaves on a train to Frankfurt, where he will presumably be safe.

The assassin later visits and tortures the Colonel for the Lloyds' location. Though the Colonel does not give them up, his caretaker does, and the assassin kills both of them.

At the train station, Chris spots Carla, who is supposedly headed to Berlin to stay with friends. Chris decides to change his travel plans to Berlin, where the two have sex.

Chris later visits Walter, who sends him out to keep watch at a café near the pension. Their plan is disrupted, however, when Carla appears. Chris spots the assassin and moves to signal Walter, but Carla pulls out a gun and forces him to stay put. The assassin enters the apartment, where Walter shoots him dead. Chris slugs Carla and flees with Walter.

That night, Walter heads alone into East Berlin and is picked up by a courier who takes him to a farm. Schroeder is there and says that his family, a wife and two children, were murdered by the CIA. Walter denies it, having investigated the killings. He thinks that there is another party involved. The group that has been recently trying to kill him may have "walked in both camps."

Meanwhile, following Walter's instructions, Chris heads to the US Embassy in Berlin. Chris is later contacted by Walter, who tells him to head to an abandoned air force base where the CIA used to exchange captured agents with the East. Though he proceeds alone to East Berlin, the embassy's director Barney Taber and agent Clay catch up with him and Walter. While Walter and Taber talk, Chris enters a hangar nearby and finds Donna bound and wrapped in plastic explosives.

Walter and Clay defuse the bomb. Taber then shoots Clay dead. Taber is the double agent who betrayed both Walter and Schroeder and was responsible for the death of the latter's family. Walter gets the jump on him when Schroeder reappears. Schroeder then sends the Lloyds away before blowing himself and Taber up with the explosives.

Cast

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Production

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The film was Penn's first since the commercial failure Four Friends released in 1981.[1] It was the first film shot by Penn in Europe.[1] Filming took place in Paris, France; Berlin and Hamburg, Germany; Dallas and Corpus Christi, Texas.[3] The film was made for $1.4 million less than its $12.9 million budget.[1][3]

Reception

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The film was released on November 8, 1985 on 1,085 screens in the United States and opened in second place behind Death Wish 3 with a weekend gross of $2,670,522.[4] It grossed a total of $9 million in the United States and Canada.[2]

The film received a mixed response from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, Target holds a rating of 63% from 27 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Target's increasingly implausible plot is offset by a commanding performance from Gene Hackman, reunited with director Arthur Penn."[5]

Notes

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  1. ^ More specifically, the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Penn Goes Commercial But Still Keeps Personal Edge On 'Target'". Variety. November 13, 1985. p. 7.
  2. ^ a b Target at Box Office Mojo
  3. ^ a b Target at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
  4. ^ "Fatigued B.O. Not Helped By Bows; 'Wish' Still Leads". Variety. November 13, 1985. p. 3.
  5. ^ "Target". Rotten Tomatoes.
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