Film of the Day: 63

Targets (1968)

Many things were happening in the sixties. There were the assignations of JFK, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, the many street riots (African-American Civil Rights Movement , Gay Rights, Anti-Vietnam), the Cuban revolution, the rise of feminism and of course America's most controversial war, the Vietnam war. But the sixties also brought on it's share of crime.

Charles Whitman was from an upper-class family and a former student at the University of Texas. He was said to have major frustrations with his dysfunctional family and also complained of many headaches.

But that all ended today in 1966, as he began his rampage. He began at home by shooting his wife and mother. Then he went to the top of the tower on the campus of the University of Texas where he began shooting at random targets.

Whitman was armed to the teeth carrying a .357 magnum, a sawed off shotgun and numerous rifles and unfortunately since he was in the marines, he was a terrific marksman. In total, Whitman killed 16 people and injured 32 and he himself was shot down by the police of Texas. Later when a autopsy was performed on Whitman, they found a highly aggressive brain tumour (glioblastoma).

After the incident, the University of Texas refused to release any records of Whitman's medical record. However one note was released noting that Whitman was seeing a psychiatrist named Dr. Heatly, Whitman's final note was: "I talked with a Doctor once for about two hours and tried to convey to him my fears that I felt some overwhelming violent impulses. After one visit, I never saw the Doctor again, and since then have been fighting my mental turmoil alone, and seemingly to no avail."

Dr. Heatly went so far as to even say that in one of Whitman's hostile moments he even said that he was 'thinking about going up on the tower with a deer rifle and start shooting people' but Whitman never visited Dr.Heatly again.

Two years later, director Peter Bogdanovich (most known for The Last Picture Show & Paper Moon) directed his first feature film, Targets. It stared Boris Karloff as Byron Orlok, an ageing actor and Tim O'Kelly as Bobby Thompson (who is obviously Whitman).

Charles Whitman

Thompson begins his rampage at his house and after killing his wife and mother, leaves a note saying that he knows he is going to die but will kill many others before he dies. After the first part of the massacre, Thompson then goes to a drive-in theatre where he then begins shooting off people in their cars, the same theatre where Orlok is attending his film premier.

Even though it was released in a decade of many assignations, the film did not do so well at the box office and in my opinion the Orlok character is completely wasted and unnecessary. However Peter Bogdanovich did manage to pick up in the early 1970s with 3 major hits but after that, his career began to fall. Targets is now considered a cult classic.

Click here for the trailer, and click here for the news report