Target

From 1985: "Target," directed by Arthur Penn, stars Gene Hackman and Matt Dillon as father and son.

"Target" concerns the abduction of Walter Lloyd's (Hackman) wife while she is in France with a tour group. Lloyd understands the implications immediately, but his son Chris (Matt Dillon) doesn't: Someone is after Lloyd, or information in his possession. Father and son leave immediately for Europe to find her. There, Chris learns information about his father that he never knew. And that's all I can say without giving the game away - which, if you've seen a lot of these films, is pretty apparent.

The problem with "Target" is in the beginning of the film, which has a TV-movie feel to it. Plus, despite locations in Paris and Germany later on, the beginning has a cheap feel to it due to the music and credits, not to mention some trite dialogue and the usual "try to get to know your son while I'm away" speech. It's a bad set-up.

Gene Hackman is terrific as Walter, and Matt Dillon is fine as his son. The standout performance, in my opinion, is by the great acting guru and Broadway star Herbert Berghof in a rare film appearance toward the end of the movie. There are some excellent European actors as well, including the Russian actress Viktoriya Fyodorova.

If not for the beginning, which threw me off, this would have been a better film.

The concentration on character and family values in Arthur Penn's spy thriller ought to make it a better, more intelligent movie, but somehow it doesn't work. Gene Hackman is an ex-CIA spy who's been "in from the cold" for 15 years. But now his wife has been kidnapped in Paris, and he has to get back into top gear in order to retrieve her. He also has to tell the truth about his past to his 18 year old son (Matt Dillon), who hitherto has thought his dad as much a man of action as Mr Magoo. There are all the contrivances we expect in this genre of film - repeated attempts on Hackman's life; car chases; femmes fatales; CIA agents who might be working for the other side; etc, etc. But little tension is developed, and first the recriminations and then the bonding between Hackman and Dillon simply slow the action down. I found the climax a tad ludicrous, but by that time didn't care much.

I'm a huge Gene Hackman fan and I remembered seeing this film many years ago and thinking it was quite cool, and when I saw the title in the paper again, I thought I would find out how right I was.

Well Hackman is once again excellent. He has such a natural and believable way about him in his roles that I find it hard not to be drawn into his character. He's definitely one of those actors who always plays himself, but it doesn't matter as his ability and style just carry it off without a thought. A truly great actor in my mind.

Matt Dillon is also very good, although his younger trademark look of startled deer is ever present.

The plot itself is a good one, in that Hackman plays Dillons father, a boring and very dull man with an equally dull job, in his sons eyes anyway. What quickly transpires is that he is not the speed limit sticking man that his son first thought, he is actually a ex CIA agent.

This change is done very well, with a short set piece in an airport. With the smallest of physical changes, Hackman flips from average father to confident and action ready agent. You can see it in his manner, and it shows his excellent capability as an actor.

The rest of the movie reveals the story as father and son are pulled deeper and deeper into his life, revealing the true extent of his agent activities. His son quickly realises that this is not the father he knew, and quickly grows from off-handedness to total rejection and then to acceptance again.

It is an interesting movie, and the plot is quite good with some interesting action sequences. Where it fails are some of the other actors and the hectic pace of the movie, it seems as though either in filming or editing that crucial parts of the movie have been missed or removed.

Big shame, but it is still good to watch for a Sunday afternoon movie. I think this may kick off my <i>watch every Gene Hackman movie</i> campaign.

Missed seeing this film over the years as I am a big fan of Gene Hackman, (Walter Llyod/Duke Potter),"Absolute Power", who plays the role as the average husband and wife with a son who is not very close to his father at all. Matt Dillon,(Chris Llyod/Derek Potter),"Loverboy", plays the son and Gayle Hunnicutt(Donna Llyod) "Dream Lover", is the wife who tries her very best to get her Walter to become closer to their son Chris. Donna disappears while she is on a tour in a foreign country and then the story gets quite complicated with lots of guns going off and plenty of car chases and great photograph in Germany and France. This film builds you up as you start getting interested and sort of goes down hill real fast. I like Gene Hackman and that is the only reason I decided to finish seeing this film.

I'm a sucker for espionage movies filmed on location in Europe, so I was positively inclined toward this film, which I had never heard of before it cropped up on cable this week. I'm not sure how I missed it back in 1985, because I'm a Hackman fan and usually like movies of this type.

This is an OK film, but not a great one. The locations are superb, and there are enough car chases to keep guys like me happy. The basic idea of the film (family of man with secret past must pay for his actions) is all right, too, but it plays out in a rather clunky way. (The story, by the way, was written by Leonard Stern, the executive producer of the GET SMART TV show, and the co-inventor of "Mad Libs".)

Hackman is the best part of the picture. Josef Sommer is also good, but is basically playing the same role he played in WITNESS (also in 1985). He could phone in a part like this. What drags this movie down is the thoroughly annoying Matt Dillon subplot. I'm not sure if it's just Dillon the actor that bothers me, or his character. The screenwriters try to turn this film into a family drama, where the father is reconciled to his son while they search for the kidnapped mother. But the son is SO stupid and annoying, that if I were Gene Hackman, I'd let the KGB put Dillon in a cement overcoat and toss him in the Baltic. IMHO, this would have been a better film with Hackman searching by himself (along with his former lover, perhaps, who is a more interesting character than Dillon).

The closing climactic scene drags on WAY too long. The tension is gone long before it's over, and the fade-out shot of the cuddly family is trite. (If you think about it, they're still in a LOT of trouble at that point, probably more than an hour before!) A much better film with a similar plot (and good locations) is the Harrison Ford vehicle FRANTIC. For spy fans, TARGET is worth watching once, but won't bear repeating.