The Point (1971)
“Listen, Jack. There ain’t nothin’ pointless about this gig.”
When it was time for singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson to create his sixth record, he had an idea for a concept album fueled by an acid trip. The album, The Point, would center around Oblio, a round-headed boy (with a very round-sounding name) born into a pointed world. Never one to think small, Harry also thought that the fable-like story would make a pretty cool animated television special. After several unsuccessful attempts to get a meeting with the head of ABC, Harry found out that the executive was flying to New York City, so he booked the adjacent seat on the plane. By the end of the flight, the musician had sold the businessman on the concept, prompting the development of the first animated feature made for prime time television.
The story is fairly simple. A father (Ringo Starr) tells his son a bedtime story about a land where everything comes to a point, including the heads of the people. Into this world a round-headed boy, Oblio (Mike “Bobby Brady” Lookinland) is born. His parents make him wear a pointed hat and give him a pointed dog, Arrow, in order to fit in. While most of the townspeople initially accept Oblio, the boy and his dog are banished to the Pointless Forest when he embarrasses the son of the evil Count (Lenny Weinrib). While traveling through the foreign land, Oblio encounters several strange people and creatures, and he comes to realize that you don’t have to have a point to have a “point.”
The story is charming (and mildly subversive) and the sketchy animation by Fred Wolf (best known for The Flintstones) is wonderfully eccentric. However, the real highlights of the film are the ridiculously catchy songs of Harry Nilsson, including “Me and My Arrow,” “Think About Your Troubles,” and “Are You Sleeping.” Nilsson was one of the most interesting and idiosyncratic singer-songwriters in the history of rock music. He had an incredible knack for creating catchy melodies that ranged from ballads to vaudevillian pop to gritty blues and edgy rock. The Point came right at the peak of Nilsson’s songwriting prowess and vocal power. Today, he is best remembered for this 1971 film and his Nilsson Schmilsson album which was released later the same year.
While The Point is certain to appeal to kids, it isn’t just for children. Whether you are a fan of fables, animation, or intelligent pop music, The Point is a film you are likely to cherish. And just like the best holiday TV specials, it can be enjoyed again and again.
USA/C-74m./Dir: Fred Wolf/Wr: Norm Lenzer (from a story by Harry Nilsson and Carole A. Beers)/Cast: Ringo Starr, Mike Lookinland, Paul Frees, Joan Gerber, Lennie Weinrib, Bill Martin, Buddy Foster
For Fans of: Fans of the mix of music and psychedelic animation in The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine should also enjoy this musical fable.
Video: MVD’s boutique video label, the MVD Rewind Collection, celebrates “cult classics and more from the video store,” and the new Blu-ray release of The Point is spine number 20 in the collection. Once again, MVD has chosen a perfect title to harken back to the VHS glory days of the video store.
The video is sourced from a new 2K transfer from 16mm elements in the original 1.37:1 aspect ratio. However, the presentation is a little compromised, due to the damage to the existing film. As the back cover of the Blu-ray states: “Due to the unknown whereabouts of some of the negative elements, The Point was scanned in 2K from a 16mm release print. While performing shot-by-shot color-grading to reduce fade and improve consistency, it became apparent that the condition of the elements made a complete restoration unfeasible. As such, while thousands of individual pieces of image damage were removed entirely, some slight imperfections appear intermittently in the film.”
The company logos that open the film are rife with scratches, but that clears up once the animated story begins. Overall, the presentation is not negatively impacted by a few random scratches and speckles, and I found the mild imperfections kind of charming (as if I was watching the film presented on a 16mm projector in a school classroom). Be not afraid. This is the best the film has appeared on home video, and of course, the picture is sharper and clearer than would have been possible when the film was originally broadcast on television in 1971.
The soundtrack is not particularly dynamic, as it was mixed for a 1971 TV broadcast. Still, the sound is clear, and Harry Nilsson’s songs sound fantastic.
- NEW! “The Kid’s Got a Point”: An Interview with Mike Lookinland (HD, 17:13)
- NEW! “That Old Guy Wrote The Point”: A Conversation with Screenwriter Norm Lenzer (HD, 15:01)
- NEW! “Everybody’s Got a Point: Kiefo Nilsson and Bobby Halvorson on Adapting the Point” (HD, 15:50)
- NEW! “Nilsson on Screen”: Biographer Alyn Shipton and Friends on Harry Nilsson’s Film Projects & Appearances (HD, 1:01:13)
- The Making of The Point: Four-part featurette including: “Who Is Harry Nilsson?”, “Pitching The Point”, “Making The Point” and “Legacy of the Point” (SD, 26:40)
- A collectible Mini-Poster inside the case.
Streaming: Older transfers of The Point can be streamed on Mubi and Fandor. It is also available for digital rental from other services.
More to Explore: Harry Nilsson also wrote the soundtrack to Robert Altman’s unjustly maligned live action film version of Popeye (1980).
Trivia: The original 1971 broadcast of The Point was narrated by Dustin Hoffman. However, Hoffman’s contract stipulated that his vocal performance could only be broadcast a single time. Consequently, other actors, including Alan Barzman and Alan Thicke, played the part of the father/narrator in subsequent TV broadcasts. When the movie moved to home video during the VHS days, Ringo Starr recorded the narration that is found on the MVD Blu-ray.
For More Info: Harry Nilsson’s life and career has been documented in the book Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter by Alyn Shipton and the film Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him).
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