Directed by Brian De Palma
Written by Brian De Palma
1981/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
Jack Terry: I’m a sound man. And – the bang was before the blowout.
This movie steals its plot from Blow-Up and The Conversation. The best part about it is John Lithgow as an assassin/serial killer.
Jack Terry (John Travolta) is a sound recordist for low-budget horror movies. He and his boss are having a hard time finding a plausible scream for “Co-Ed Frenzy”. One night as he is out recording sounds for future use, he witnesses a car go off a cliff in a ball of flames. Sally (Nancy Allen) was a passenger in the car. Jack rescues her and develops feeling for her right away.
The passenger was a candidate for the Presidency. Jack gives his tapes a special listen when he gets home and becomes convinced that the crash was no accident. This knowledge puts him, his tape, and Sally in danger. Lithgow plays a hired assassin who likes his work way too much.
Blow-Out is more of a thriller than the Antonioni or Coppola films and is much more simplistic. It is effective visually but less so in its storytelling. Not a bad film. It is perhaps unfair to compare.
This is a fine movie, and the ending is bleak and fits the genre, but the comparisons to both The Conversation and Blow-Up are natural, and don’t do this a lot of favors, at least in terms of The Conversation. I liked this more than I liked Blow-Up, only because I liked the characters more. It’s nice to see that Travolta had some chops in the early days as well.
Honestly, I should probably revisit Blow-Up.
Blow-Up was my first review for the Blog Club. I wanted to do it up right so for the only time I watched it at least three times. It improves on multiple viewings. But the Hemmings character never gets more sympathetic.