Cheap Blow Out (DVD) (John Travolta, Nancy Allen) (Brian De Palma) Price

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Customer Reviews of Blow Out

Intriguing
Interesting but derivative thriller concerning a sound-effects guy (John Travolta) who becomes involved in a murder mystery when he accidentally records a car crash killing a would-be candidate for governor. He befriends the candidate's mistress (Nancy Allen) and they team up to provide evidence as to whether he was killed or died by accident. DePalma borrows heavily from other, superior sources ("Rear Window" and "The Conversation"), but he still makes this film fun to watch. It drags in some areas, but you're always intrigued and you're left wondering what's going to happen next. However, while DePalma's other 2 films, "Carrie" and "Dressed to Kill" got loaded with features, "Blow Out" only has a trailer. I guess this is because it was the least successful of the three films, but movie buffs and casual viewers should still check out this one. (Trivia: Travolta and Allen already appeared together in another DePalma film: "Carrie.")

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One of DePalma's best
Brian De Palma rips off Michaelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up and Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation and comes up with a decent thriller about a film sound engineer (John Travolta) who records an automobile accident and becomes involved in a coverup when it turns out the driver was about to be elected President of the United States.

Jack Terry (Travolta) is on a city bridge recording ambient sounds for his latest schlock film's soundtrack when he hears a blow out and sees a car go off the road and into the lake. He dives in to find a woman, Sally (Nancy Allen), still alive in the car. He rescues her and takes her to the emergency room, where he finds out that the candidate was driving the car--and Sally isn't his wife. The police proceed to get Jack to "forget" what he saw.

Later, going over his tapes, Jack becomes convinced he heard a sound *before* the blow out--a gunshot. If there was a gun, then this was no accident.

After Carrie and Dressed to Kill, Blow Out continues Brian DePalma's reign as king of the Hitchcockian thriller/rip-off. Although style often triumphs over substance, often the style comments on the substance. His trademark split-screen (which specifically influenced Run Lola Run's Tom Tykwer) is used effectively to present two simultaneous sets of action that would otherwise be unknown. DePalma has also used this method of technical storytelling in Phantom of the Paradise and Sisters.

The acting is solid, as well, with Nancy Allen (then Mrs. DePalma) as the prototypical love interest (or is she?) and an early John Lithgow playing Burke, a homicidal maniac hired to take out Sally (as he takes out seemingly every woman who resembles her). DePalma would use Lithgow to greater effect in Raising Cain, and here he shows the promise of that later film.

SPOILER BEGINS

I must comment on the ending and say that it is one of the most heartbreaking I have seen, and yet works entirely in the context of the film. It really could not have ended any other way, and I laud DePalma for avoiding the typical Hollywood happy ending.

SPOILER ENDS
(and so does this review)

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Great, but Annoying at the Same Time
Having heard before hand, that Brian DePalma's "Blow Out" was like a tribute to Antonioni's "Blow Up", i was definately intreagued. "Blow Up" is one of the greatest art films I've ever seen, and knowing that tributes are never as good as the original, i knew not to expect too much.

Basically, "Blow Out" involves a sound man (Travolta) recording sounds in a park at night, when a speeding car has what seems to be a blow out, crashes through a fence and into a lake. Travolta is able to rescue the woman, but the man behind the wheel was dead before he could be helped. Upon listening to the tape he'd made that night, Travolta recovers what he believes to be two sounds. Naturally, he can't help but get involved, and try to solve the case.

I Enjoyed Blow Out for the obvious reasons; good acting, complex script, lots of well-drawn suspense. And, if you've never seen or liked Antonioni's "Blow Up", the review can end here for you. You'll probably enjoy this version. Despite my complaints in the next paragraph, i really liked this movie.

However having seen and enjoyed "Blow Up", it looked to me like Brian De Palma did what everyone was tempted to do, but that no one should have done. Made "Blow Up" a Hollywood movie. "Blow Up" actually has a lot a great suspense and intreague, but the end is sure do disappoint those who need a clean-cut ending, which is to say, most theatre goers. Basically, they smushed the plot of "Blow Up" down about 30 minutes, added some more murders and people skulking around shadowy rooms, and then gave it a conclusive ending.

Needless to say, it's frusterating to see a great piece of art turned into a decent Hollywood movie. But hey, if you like a good suspense thriller, this works.