Blow Out (1981) Filmways/Suspense-Thriller RT: 108 minutes Rated R (nudity, sexual content, violence, language) Director: Brian De Palma Screenplay: Brian De Palma Music: Pino Donaggio Cinematography: Vilmos Zsigmond Release date: July 24, 1981 (US) Cast: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz, Peter Boyden, Curt May, John Aquino, John McMartin. Box Office: $13.7M (US)
Rating: ****
Once upon a time Brian De Palma made great movies. Movies like Sisters (1973), Phantom of the Paradise (1974), Obsession (1976), Dressed to Kill (1980), Scarface (1983), Body Double (1984), The Untouchables (1987), Carlito’s Way (1993) and Mission: Impossible (1996). The TV-to-film adaptation still ranks as his last great film. At least it does in my opinion.
During his peak period, he also made Blow Out, an incredible thriller starring John Travolta (Saturday Night Fever) as a movie sound man who inadvertently records a murder or what sounds like a murder. It was filmed right here in Philadelphia which also happens to be De Palma’s home town. I wanted to see it when it came out in summer ’81, but I couldn’t talk anybody into taking me. I couldn’t even entice my dad with the idea of seeing familiar locations on the big screen. I didn’t get to feast my eyes on De Palma’s masterpiece until four years later when I rented it from The Video Den.
I liked Blow Out just fine as a teen, but I didn’t understand the full breadth of until some years later when I had a little more knowledge about cinema and history under my belt. By now, everybody knows it’s based on the 1966 Michelangelo Antonioni thriller Blowup about a photographer who becomes convinced he captured a murder on film. He becomes unraveled as he tries to prove it. Francis Ford Coppola utilizes a similar premise in his underrated paranoia thriller The Conversation (1974) starring Gene Hackman as a wiretapping expert who overhears what sounds like a conspiracy to commit a murder. He too goes crazy trying to prove it.
Sound man Jack Terry (Travolta) finds himself in a similar predicament. He’s working on a low budget slasher movie called Co-Ed Frenzy where he’s told by his producer friend (Boyden, Legal Eagles) to get better wind effects for a scene that’s not coming together like it should. He’s at a park doing just that when a car careens off the road and plunges into the river. Jack jumps in after it and saves the female passenger Sally (Allen, Dressed to Kill). He can’t do anything for the driver who turns out to be an important politician.
Instead of being hailed as a hero, Jack’s ordered by a close associate of the dead man to forget about it. There’s no need for his family to know about the woman in his car. Obviously, there’s more to it than that. Jack caught the whole thing on tape. While listening to the recording, he hears what sounds like a gunshot right before the blowout that supposedly caused the accident. It appears to have been an assassination attempt. His theory is further supported by pictures taken of the incident by a photographer (Franz, Dressed to Kill) who just happened to be in the vicinity testing a new camera. In one of the film’s most riveting scenes, Jack syncs the pics with the sound to create a film of the “accident”. Naturally, nobody believes him, not even Sally. He eventually convinces her and she reluctantly agrees to help him.
Of course, Jack is right. It wasn’t an accident, not entirely. The politician, the state governor and favorite to win the upcoming Presidential election, wasn’t supposed to die. Somebody stepped outside the parameters of the plan. That somebody is Burke (Lithgow, The World According to Garp), a psychotic working with the conspirators who are none too happy about the fatal turn in events. He goes to drastic lengths to cover up the cover-up.
Blow Out is one of De Palma’s finest films. It’s definitely the best of his thrillers. It’s brilliant how he weaves real-life occurrences like Chappaquiddick, Watergate and the Zapruder film into the narrative. It makes for a gripping tale of paranoia with a protagonist who just wants to expose the truth about a conspiracy everybody says doesn’t exist. He’s a classic Hitchcock hero.
In the role, Travolta delivers one of his finest performances. He took a lot of grief back then with roles in lackluster projects like Moment by Moment, Staying Alive, Two of a Kind and Perfect. While hardly a master thespian along the lines of Olivier and Brando, he does alright when the material suits him. Here, he plays a guy racked by guilt over something that happened in the past, something that resulted in the loss of a life. He wants to make it right which is why he’s so determined to shine a light on something rotten. The problem is he’s up against too powerful a foe, the dreaded “they”. “They” want the truth swept under the rug. “They” can futz with evidence, make it disappear. “They” can erase all his tapes and listen in on his phone calls. “They” are watching his every move. He can’t win against “them”. It’s a classic Hitchcock scenario. Travolta conveys just the right amount of paranoia throughout and desperation at the end when Sally is in jeopardy.
Allen, who previously worked with Travolta in Carrie, is awesome as Sally. I always liked her as an actress; she always convincing in whatever role she’s playing be it a mean girl, a high-priced hooker or a tough urban cop. She nails it as an aspiring makeup artist who finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy. Initially a disbeliever, she takes an active role in trying to expose it. She has solid chemistry with Travolta which makes the final scene hit all the harder.
Lithgow is positively scary as the face of “they”. He’s the one tying up all loose ends, one of them being Sally. The way he goes about setting the stage for her elimination is cold. Franz, one of my favorite character actors, is perfect as the sleazy photographer who has a personal stake in the whole situation. He’s a classic noir character.
De Palma directs in his inimitable style, making excellent use of split-screen and other cool techniques. He effectively captures different moods and styles throughout. Take the opening sequence, a scene from the movie Jack is working on. It plays just like a low-budget slasher flicks with the scantily clad girls and the use of killer’s POV. It culminates with a girl being cornered in the shower by the killer. In an example of De Palma’s savage wit, she lets out this scream that can generously be described as unconvincing. Okay, it’s horrible. The producer keeps after Jack to help him find an actress with a better scream that can he can dub over the bad one. This may not sound important, but it ends up playing a crucial role in the final scene.
Of course, it’s great seeing Philadelphia on the big screen. There are scenes set at the Reading Terminal Food Market, the Gallery Mall, 30th Street Station, Market Street and Penn’s Landing (the climax). It’s nice seeing familiar places, especially in a film as amazing as Blow Out. Not only does it look great, it tells a smart and compelling story that borrows elements from other sources without feeling plagiarized. De Palma, who also wrote the screenplay, makes it his own while never denying his fondness for all things Hitchcock. He’s helped by some of the top people in the industry including cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and composer Pino Donaggio (Dressed to Kill).
Blow Out is superior in every conceivable way. It’s a suspenseful and well-crafted thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final frame. Not many movies can truthfully make that claim. This one can.
