From acclaimed director Arthur Penn, Target is an intense spy-thriller starring Gene Hackman and Matt Dillon as a father and son who attempt to rescue their estranged wife/mother who has been kidnapped in Paris.
Chris Lloyd does not get along with his father. He is too cautious and never tries anything new, and Chris had to live by the same standards when he was growing up. But when his mother is kidnapped, Walter turns into a man of action. Suddenly, Chris discovers something he never knew about stuffy old Dad: he's actually pretty handy with a gun and more than willing to waste whoever gets in his way as he tries to get his wife back alive. As the pursuit leads the pair across cold-war stained Europe to Hamburg and Berlin, Penn's film offers an emotional and psychological thriller that focuses on the relationship between father and son and how they are forced to deal with the threatening and ever-shifting world of espionage they are plunged into.
The intricate plot-twists, car chases through the cobbled back streets of Berlin and a strong central relationship that develops superbly between Hackman and Dillon, ensure that Target keeps the audience guessing right to the end. Penn's cinematography evokes an atmosphere of ambiguity that seeps through the whole film and sustains the tension of the father/ son relationship in their struggle to uncover the truth.