150 Word Review: 'Targets' (1968)

Bullseye

Photo: Paramount Pictures

Targets is a rough-around-the-edges thriller about a movie monster meeting a real-life monster. Peter Bogdanovich's debut feature feels like two until they collide at the end: the first is a small story of a fading Hollywood horror legend played by actual legend Boris Karloff trying to ease himself into retirement. Meanwhile, a dead-eyed young man buys guns and flashes empty smiles while plotting a mass murder.

Inspired by Charles Whitman, the 25-year-old sniper who mowed down 14 people on the University of Texas campus in 1966, Targets is romantic about old Hollywood and clear-eyed about the future.

Karloff is treated with respect by Bogdanovich, who casts himself as a young director. But it's Tim O'Kelly as the shooter who haunts every frame he's in, peering down the barrel of a rifle and killing as many people as he can. This is a riveting snapshot of times changing for the worse.

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