Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 2019
Point Man (film)
Buy Point Man (film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Point Man' is a 2019 drama film written and directed by Phil Blattenberger. Set in Vietnam in 1968, the film's protagonist Andre "Casper" Allen (Christopher Long) and antagonist Silas Meeks Jacob Keohane portray a pair of dueling ideologues whose race-fueled confrontations play out on the battlefields of the Mekong Delta. Chase Gutzmore, Marcus Bailey, and Matthew Ewald also star.
During its festival circuit, 'Point Man' won "Best Film" at the Sydney Indie Film Festival.
Plot
Set in Vietnam in April 1968 - three months after the tide-turning Tet Offensive and one month after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. - Point Man is the story of a U.S. Army fire team fractured by racial tensions, moral crises, and the crushing pressures of combat in a war nobody wants to fight. Andre "Casper" Allen, a rough-edged ideologue, finds his radical politics put him at odds with the squad's machine gunner, Silas Meeks. When their search-and-destroy mission in the Mekong Delta goes terribly wrong, both men find themselves pitted against each other and their recalcitrant platoon commander, Lieutenant Sutter. Point men die like flies in the bush, and as loyalties dissolve every step forward comes with a price.
Cast
* Christopher Long as Andre "Casper" Allen
* Jacob Keohane as Silas Meeks
* Chase Gutzmore as Joe Creighton
* Marcus Bailey as Felix Wake
* Matthew Ewald as Lieutenant Sutter
* Cody Howard as John Ham
* Paul DeHavilland as Sergeant Calhoun
Production
Writer/director Phil Blattenberger foundinspiration for 'Point Man'conducting anthropological research on representation of the Vietnam War in media. The story emerged when he read anecdoteswritten byAfrican-American combat veterans. "Vietnamese troops would call out - in perfect English, in the middle of firefights - 'go home Soul Brother, it's not your fight.'https://www.yesweekly.com/triad-man-works-to-bring-vietnam-war-movie-to-the-big-screen-a24986/ The psychological effects of being your nationalsolidarity is imagined, that the real enemies are the guys you're fighting with, are profound."
The first feature-length original narrative Vietnam war movie in American cinematic history to be filmed on location in Vietnam, international 'Point Man' production was split between the jungles of the Mekong Delta and a Cambodian Army base outside of Phnom Penh, access to the latter acquired by a bribe in the amount of three thousand dollars and a box of cigars.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5855164/trivia/?ref_=tt_ql_trv Its domestic production utilized parts of North Carolina and Florida, including Lee Ranch, which also doubled as Vietnam for 1995 films Dead Presidents and The Walking Dead.
Release
'Point Man' premiered on , 2018, at the 2018 Cambodia International Film Festival, where it reported earned warm applause at its screening. Its film festival circuit continued at the 2018 Sydney Indie Film Festival, where it achieved nominations for Best Film, Best Director, Best Lead Actor, Best Editing, and Best Production Design, ultimately taking home top honors in several categories, including best film. 'Point Man's' North American premiere took place at the St. Louis International Film Festival on November of the same year, where director Phil Blattenberger was nominated for Best First-Time Filmmaker. The film's last stop on the circuit was the Luang Prabang Film Festival.
During its festival circuit, 'Point Man' was acquired by sales agent Vision Films, which partnered with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to distribute worldwide. It released publicly on February 5, 2019 as a VOD release on Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, Fandango, and other popular streaming platforms, as well as in DVD form in Walmarts and libraries nationwide. The film was acquired by multiple catalogues and worldwide territories including South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Poland, and Belgium.
Reception
'Point Man' received mixed reviews from critics. Lee B. Golden III, on 'Film Combat Syndicate', praises the director, writing: " ...Theres no escaping the films oft identity as a racial soliloquy. Between all of its moving pieces, 'Point Man' ... is exactly the kind of film worth recommending. The use of racial expletives throughout may feel perpetual, but thats the kind of ugliness I would expect in a film that takes place in the 60s where the shortfalls of being an African American are plain as day, even in uniform. Blattenberger doesnt ignore it. He uses it as an advantage to forward the story and tell it the way he saw fit according to his own anthropological studies on the matter."
References
Buy Point Man (film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 2019