“Here Comes The Cinema!” Continues With Peter Bogdanovich’s “Targets”

Peter Bogdanovich’s Targets (1968) will be featured as part of Sag Harbor Cinema’s Here Comes The Cinema! series on Sunday, January 12.

The crime thriller is loosely based on Charles Whitman, the “Texas Tower Sniper,” a 25-year-old who murdered his mother and his wife, and then went on a shooting spree at the University of Texas that resulted in the death of 16 people and wounded an additional 32 victims. In Targets, Bobby Thompson (Tim O’Kelly) kills two family members, and then targets random passersby. Retiring horror film legend Byron Orlock’s (Boris Karloff) promotional appearance at a drive-in movie theater turns into a real life horror when the madman ambushes attendees.

“It’s fascinating to watch Karloff. Like Spencer Tracy in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, he brings an extra dimension to his character: The role bears some resemblance to real life,” Roger Ebert said about the Target star in a film review.

In addition to the screening, which will take place at Pierson High School in Sag Harbor at 2 p.m., the afternoon will also include a conversation with Renée Shafransky moderated by Sag Harbor Cinema’s Artistic Director Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan.

Shafransky, a psychotherapist, writer and former film programmer and producer, served as the Program Director of the Collective for Living Cinema, an independent cinema in Manhattan, from 1977 to 1984. She worked as a film critic for The Village Voice, and penned screenplays for directors Harold Ramis, Mike Newell, and Bette Gordon. She also produced Spalding Gray’s Swimming to Cambodia, as well as Gordon’s Variety. Her debut novel, Tips for Living, was published in 2018.

Admission to Targets is $15.

Additional Here Comes the Cinema! screenings will include Inglourious Basterds on Sunday, January 19, The Cameraman on Sunday, February 2, The Last Picture Show on Sunday, February 9, Dawson City: Frozen Time on Sunday, February 16, and Matinee on Sunday, February 23.

Pierson High School is located at 200 Jermain Avenue in Sag Harbor. For more information, visit www.sagharborcinema.org.