movie buff
INSIDE THE MIND OF A KILLER
The protagonist of Targets, Bobby Thompson (Tim O'Kelly), is an ordinary young man. But his words to his wife hint that something unusual is yet to come: 'I don't know what's happening to me. I have some funny ideas.'
He puts these funny ideas into practice the following day. He shoots his wife and mother, hides on a rooftop to fire at vehicles on the highway and shows up at a drive-in theatre to massacre the audience.
The film was the directorial debut of American filmmaker and writer Peter Bogdanovich (who recently played a psychotherapist in the popular TV series The Sopranos), and was released in 1968.
The significance of this low-budget thriller (which was made because the star Boris Karloff, best known for his Frankenstein role, owed the studio head Roger Corman three days' work) is that it asks the question that plagues the American public whenever a mindless mass shooting such as last week's tragedy at Virginia Tech occurs: what turns an ordinary young man into a killer?
The country's firearm policy, which allows people to obtain guns easily, is obviously a factor.
But the film, co-written by Bogdanovich and Samuel Fuller (a filmmaker praised by Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, although he was relatively unknown at the time), hints at a larger problem: the prevalence of violence and boredom in American culture.
The boyish killer in Targets comes from a Republican family. His favourite childhood pastime was shooting empty cans with his dad in the backyard - that is, when the pair were not out hunting.
He divides his adult life between the mundane routines required by his job as an insurance agent and his guns, which excite him in the same way a child is thrilled by a new toy. His obsession is so extreme that the first thing he asks the police when they arrest him is whether he finished off all his targets.
The interweaving of two storylines - one about the young killer and the other about an ageing horror film star Byron Orlok (Karloff) - is genius as it reflects how real life can be more terrifying than fiction.
Early in the film, Orlok is asked to star in another horror film. He shows the director the newspaper headline 'Youth Kills Six At Supermarket', asking how he can star in a horror film when there is real horror in the world.
This awareness is frightening, given the horrors we face on a regular basis.
The film reminds us that real monsters are not those in horror movies, but those who make the world a terrifying place to live.
