Jason is thrilled to be joined by crime writer Joseph Schneider, author of two (and soon to be three) LAPD Detective Tully Jarsdel novels (links below), to discuss the criminally-underrated Peter Bogdanovich thriller 'Targets', Joseph's novels, 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood', and much more.
'Targets' was made in 1967 when Bogdanovich, then working for Roger Corman's B-Picture factory of filmmaking alongside other future legendary directors like Francis Ford Coppola, was given the chance to direct his first feature film provided he used aging horror icon Boris Karloff for two owed days of shooting, used some footage from another Corman/Karloff picture 'The Terror' (starring a young Jack Nicholson in one of his first roles), and kept the budget under $120,000...other than that Corman said, he could make whatever picture he wanted.
What Bogdanovich did was make a still-prescient, taut, spare look at a mass shooter in the making. Interwoven with a b-story involving the Karloff character's quitting of a film industry due to changing times and mores, the two stories collide brilliantly at a drive-in-movie theater. 'Targets' is a stunning indictment of American middle-class detachment, and the debut of one of Hollywood's enduring iconoclast directors.
Bogdanovich (who died this year) lamented in the 50 years subsequent to the film's release that American society's attachment to guns had not progressed at all from the time he made the film.
Threads from this movie connect to other classics like Michael Mann's 'Heat' and Quentin Tarantino's 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood', another movie about a film star fearing he is past his prime as society changes around him. And in the pod Schneider connects 'Targets' and Karloff and OUATIH's Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth to different types and times of American horror, fear, and violence.
'Targets' is brilliantly directed with impressive directorial control and restraint and features incredible contributions from Hollywood legends like director Sam Fuller, Oscar winner Verna Fields, and Cinematographer Lazlo Kovacs.
Watch 'Targets' at any of these streamers.
Buy Joseph Schneider's debut novel 'One Day You'll Burn' and its sequel from Amazon
Pre-order Joseph Schneider's forthcoming 3rd Tully Jarsdel novel here
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