Blow Out (1981) Travolta & De Palma’s Masterpiece (Review)

Getting right to it, the 1981 movie, Blow Out, is Brian De Palma’s masterpiece – with Carrie a close second. The Philadelphia shot movie is based on Antonioni’s 1966 classic, Blow-Up, albeit with all the danger and purpose of the New Hollywood era and a focus on the craft of filmmaking instead of photography. It is among the latest titles to receive an illustrious treatment from the kings of home video and blu-ray – Criterion Collection.

Almost satirically, Blow Out opens with a POV tracking shot of a murderer stalking an all-female college fraternity, stabbing and killing his way through campus – a scene shot by Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown (interviewed on the disc). Satirical as there was a certain perception of De Palma that he luxuriated in violence too readily and he had a sexist streak, claims levelled at Italian peers like Dario Argento, too. Only immersion is broken when a co-ed in the shower gives the limpest of death screams. Cut to John Travolta’s Jack Terry laughing with the film within a films director in a screening room. Chewed out as the responsible sound recordist, he is tasked with collecting some new sounds – heading out to a secluded area in a park he is witness to a presidential candidates car blowing out and crashing into a lake. Diving into the water, he saves Nancy Allen (Sally), a decision that sees him drawn into a political conspiracy – was it a freak accident or did the tyre blow out because an unknown person shot it out? Only Jack Terry has the evidence.

On description alone, Blow Out sounds like any number of high-end political thrillers you could cite and on a certain basis that’d be a fair conclusion. However, as fair a conclusion as that is, it also overlooks all the components that make De Palma’s movie tick. That opening slasher parody is both a red herring and not, it’s not because this film owes just as much to that specific brand of horror as it does to the political thriller. The way which John Lithgow’s character is used sees the film hit the peaks of tension and unease that you’d find in any upper echelon horror movie, with “the walk from the train station” being as tense as anything in his filmography and there’s strong competition for that status.

The other layer to Blow Out is that it is about filmmaking. Take one tracking shot for an example of how the craft of film has been seeded into the DNA. Travolta’s studio has been destroyed, all of his recordings wiped and as he furiously checks reel after reel, the camera circles around the room in a repetition of his recording process. There are numerous scenes of Travolta recording, filming, animating and the cinematography apes that in numerous ways as highlighted. De Palma was always noted for how visually intriguing his work was, from his experimental long takes to his long-term adoption of split-screen and split diopter shots. The last is the most interesting as through one simple shot he captures the beautiful serendipity of filmmaking. Before the crash that sets off events, we see an owl in close focus to the camera and Travolta off in the distance recording it. The Owl turns around and looks at the camera, it doesn’t seem much when divorced from the visuals but every time I see this movie – the little creative choices impress me most. Those little pieces of the jigsaw stick with me just as much as the ending and that is one of the finest in 1980s cinema. Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond deserves just as much credit as De Palma.

The three central performances are all stellar, career-making turns. Travolta was established at the time off the back of Carrie, Saturday Night Fever and Grease, yet none of those roles asked as much as Jack Terry. To quote a certain contemporary pop culture icon, he has been burdened with glorious purpose and to see him act with such intensity and lack of ego showed a potential that no other director found. Most directors cast him for his looks or his legacy, De Palma cast him for his ability. Nancy Allen, she says in her 2011 on-disc interview that Travolta said “you aren’t just a pretty face, people will see that you can really act” – clumsy wording to one side, she is right. Sally is vulnerable but sparkingly, she really makes you care about her fate with humility & humanity that would drive the entire slasher cycle into fits of envy. And the last of the three is John Lithgow, which is no surprise – he is an incredible actor. That being said, the emotional detachment of his character, Burke, is as shocking as it is chilling.

Brilliantly acted across the board, the craft, narrative and design of the production team and De Palma is a watermark of not only his career but 1980s cinema as a whole. In fact, the only thing that could be seen as lacking is the score by Pino Donaggio which isn’t bad, per se, it’s just unimaginative and perfunctory which when sat next to Zsigmond’s phenomenal work with the camera – well, it is exposed more than it really should’ve been.

As I stated when I opened this review, Blow Out is Brian De Palma’s and John Travolta’s masterpiece. No more, no less.

THANKS FOR READING ROB’S REVIEW OF BLOW OUT

Louis Theroux has always been fascinated by Michael Jackson. And Graham and Aidan have always been fascinated by Louis Theroux. So it makes perfect sense – ish – to follow up yesterday’s Moonwalker episode with a look at Theroux’s 2003 documentary trying to gain access to the King of Pop at a difficult time in, frankly, both men’s careers. Join us for a discussion of all four of the men this film focuses on: the national treasure that is Theroux, the more problematic figure of Jackson, the recently disgraced Martin Bashir… and Uri Geller.

PATREON POP SCREEN

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