Cinema Studies

On January 31, 2013, at 7 p.m., journalist Dwayne Epstein will visit the SCAD Museum of Art to discuss his new biography, Lee Marvin: Point Blank, along with a screening of Point Blank (1967).

“Lee Marvin: Point Blank is the first full-length, authoritative biography of the iconic actor’s life that goes beyond the Hollywood scandal-sheet reporting in earlier books, and offers an appreciation of the man, his acting career, and his enduring influence on Hollywood. Although he is best known for his icy tough guy roles in such films as The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Killers, and Point Blank, or as a grizzled combat veteran in The Dirty Dozen and The Big Red One, little is known of his personal life; his childhood and family history; his experiences in WWII; his relationships with his father, family, friends, wives; and his ongoing battles with alcoholism, rage and violent depression, occasioned by his postwar PTSD.

Now, after years of research, interviews with family members, friends and colleagues, and complete with rare photographs and illustrative material, Lee Marvin: Point Blank will provide a full understanding and appreciation of this acting titan’s place in the Hollywood pantheon in spite of (or perhaps because of) his very real and human struggles. Moreover, this biography provides a penetrating psychological and sociological analysis of Lee Marvin and his role in shaping the image of the violent male in modern film. By exploring Marvin’s family history and his formative years as well as the harrowing combat that Marvin was involved in the Pacific campaign in WWII and after interviewing over a hundred people in Marvin’s life, Epstein gives us a portrait of a man whose life was shaped by violence, yet one who, having been intimately acquainted with it, could bring it home to the film audience with an intensity and realism previously unseen in modern cinema.” (Schaffner Press)

About Dwayne Epstein

Dwayne Epstein is a freelance journalist and author whose reviews, essays, and articles have appeared in numerous film publications and newspapers, including FilmFax, Outre, as well as Bill Krohn’s books Serious Pleasures and Hitchcock at Work. He is also the author of several young adult celebrity biographies of subjects ranging from Adam Sandler to Hillary Clinton. A lifetime fan and collector of Lee Marvin photos and memorabilia, Epstein has appeared in the A&E Biography episode devoted to Lee Marvin. He lives in Long Beach, California.