THE POINT (BLANK) OF GOING "FASTER"

This weekend we watched the movie Faster on DVD. It is ostensibly an action movie, directed by George Tillman, scripted by Tony & Joe Gaton and starring Dwayne Johnson, the former professional wrestler formerly known as The Rock
I expected a typical Dwayne Johnson low budget action movie but what I got was something different; something lean, stripped down, focussed and a bit old school. Faster is a vengeance story and the opening sequences come at you hard and unadorned and makes no mistake that you are in for a ride with the gigantic Rock and his vintage American muscle car
Most action movies today become totally involved with huge set pieces driven by CGI effects where men can dance on moving helicopter rotors and cars fly through the air with balletic artistry. Faster is helped by its low budget and its director's vision; this is a very low tech movie and it is very stripped down. It reminded me of the action movies of the seventies and my first thought was that Charles Bronson in his prime could very well have played Johnson's nameless character.
But that fact that we never learn the name of Johnson's character got me to thinking. As did the intensity of his vengeance drive and his almost worldless interaction with his victims. Not Charles Bronson, but Lee Marvin in John Boorman's masterpiece Point Blank.
Point Blank was originally released in 1967 and I don't think that it was an instant success but over the years it has achieved a cult like status. It is, indeed, a very good movie. Like Faster it's a story of vengeance, it features Lee Marvin tearing around and through Los Angeles in his single minded quest, much like The Rock in Faster.

SPOILER ALERT: I want to compare the two movies and in order to do so I'll be mentioning plot points from both so now you have been warned .. stop whining.

No, really, stop whining. You're staining your shirt.

Both movies feature a lead character who has come back from the dead to avenge a wrong done to him and a family member. Both films revolve around a job, a heist pulled by a pair of brothers and the scum bags who double cross them. Marvin and his brother are betrayed by a corporation-like criminal syndicate; Johnson and his brother are double crossed by a gang led by a crooked cop. In both movies, the brother's wife plays a role. In both movies the brother is killed and our hero is almost killed, his enemies believe he is dead but oh shit, here he comes back from the dead, more sullen and more deadly than ever.

Both Johnson and Marvin go about their solemn task of taking names and kicking ass with the aid of a huge Magnum revolver. In the 1967 film a Magnum six shooter was something not often seen; in the 2010 movie it gives the film an almost nostalgic feel. This seems to be entirely deliberate; all the other characters in the movie are armed to the teeth with semi and fully automatic weapons, The Rock is the only one who uses the old school revolver. And while another major character transports himself in sleek, futuristic foreign sports car, our nameless hero roars around in his 1970 SS Chevelle.

But Faster is not a remake of Point Blank. Boorman's movie was almost an exercise in nihilism. The Lost Angeles that Marvin inhabits is stark and clean and lifeless, his hot blooded reborn-thru-vengeance character shoves his way through featureless office buildings and the villains are all white guys in suits.
Johnson's world is more mutlticultural and it's grimier, the bad guys sweat, they plead, they have weaknesses. Johnson's character eventually comes to display emotion whereas I never remember Marvin actually doing. In Point Blank, Marvin is pursued by a hit man, a minor character who is smugly professional. Johnson, too, is pursued by a hit man but this character is more integral to the story.

In general, the characters in Faster are more fleshed out than in Point Blank. Some of the villains are propelled by motivations that actually have us question The Rock's diesel engine of mass destruction. That never happens in Point Blank. Marvin moves through a souless world, it's villains are driven by profit and nothing else, his rage and his violence stand out so starkly we also question the validity of his quest. In Point Blank there is no hope for redemption. Faster delves as much into guilt as it does vengeance, it as much about human connections as it is destruction.

In Point Blank, Marvin is all about forward momentum, he never rolls over everyone in his path and never slows enough to understand the consequences thereof. In Faster, Johnson does take his foot off the gas and as he begins to coast, he may eventually park his blood spattered muscle car in Redemption.