Blow Out (1981)

When it comes to Brian De Palma movies and me, well they’re kind of hit and miss.  He’s made some excellent films, and he’s also shoveled some shit out.  And he’s made films that for one reason or another, don’t age very well.  Blow Out is a very good film, but it would not play for today’s audiences.  Come to think of it, it was a box office failure at the time of its release as well so I guess it just wasn’t meant to be accepted by a mainstream audience.

Blow Out is a movie very much made for and about its time period.  With the advancements in technology and filming techniques, pretty much everything displayed as part of Jack Terry’s (John Travolta) job is obsolete.  Hell, we can record and upload YouTube videos of your stupid friends doing stupid stunts in a fraction of the time it would take Jack to piece together his sound effects into the laughably shitty slasher film he’s working on at the start of the film.  That’s not to say that we should dismiss Blow Out entirely, because it is very much a very good movie, just short of greatness.

If you haven’t seen it, I recommend it.  It’s frequently listed as one of Quentin Tarantino’s favourite films, and whatever your opinions on QT, he generally has great taste in movies.  John Lithgow gives a chilling performance that I now see replicated in his “Dexter” Season 4 arc.  However, SPOILER ALERTISH I will warn you that the incredibly bleak ending is what turned the word of mouth about the film back in 1981 to poison.  And the horrible make-up effect on Nancy Allen is terrible, even for 1981’s standards.

4 / 5