Brian De Palma was among the critics known as “Hitchcock without humour”. In his 1981 thriller Blow Out De Palma decided to prove them wrong and show that he has sense of humour or, at least, ability to make fun of his own work. The film begins with the stylish, memorable scene very much like the one that began Carrie and the one ended Dressed to Kill; it takes place in shower where something very bad is about to happen. It is then revealed that the scene is nothing but the part of everyday work for Jack Terry (played by John Travolta), sound engineer employed by the producer of low budget sleazy exploitation films. When not in studio, work takes him outside when he records various sounds that would later use in his films. One night, while recording, he witnesses car veering off the road in the creek. He jumps in the water and rescues young woman named Sally Bedina (played by Nancy Allen), while the driver ends dead. Jack learns that the driver was Governor McRyan, popular politician widely expected to win next presidential election. Everyone thinks that the his death was tragic accident, but Jack, after studying his recording, hears a gunshot and becomes convinced that somebody deliberately shot at the tire. He begins to further investigate after learning that private investigator Manny Karp (played by Dennis Franz) just happened at the site and made photographs of the event. Jack also finds that Sally got involved in Karp’s scheme to actually set up Governor in compromising situation with a woman not his wife. Sally is not the brightest girl, but her heart is in right place and she agrees to help Jack with his investigation. In the meantime, Burke (played by John Lightow), secret operative who actually fired the shot, becomes determined to cover all of his tracks, remove evidence and witnesses, including Sally.
Many critics were prone to disregard De Palma as cheap imitator of Hitchcock, but in Blow Out he showed that he could actually take inspiration from other celebrated film makers. In this film the obvious source of inspiration is Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film Blow Up, in which protagonist is photographer whose photography reveals what might be a murder. While Blow Up was art film made for tiny section of audience with acquired taste, closer to drama, this one is clearly a thriller. De Palma, who also wrote the script, doesn’t take inspiration only from Hitchcock’s work, but also from some of the dark and traumatic chapters of recent US history. The even that sets plot in motion is based on Chapaquuidick incident, a scandal that ended presidential aspiration of Ted Kennedy, last surviving of the Kennedy brothers. Some details of the plot are also inspired by the events related to assassination of his brother John, like the famed Zapruder film that spawned many conspiracy theories. De Palma in this film also 1970s conspiracy thrillers about ordinary people being caught in diabolical schemes of all-powerful and seemingly invincible entities nowadays known as the Deep State.
Like in all in his previous films, De Palma shows incredible talent and ingenuity in directing. Many scenes that would be prosaic in other director’s film here inspire awe. De Palma likes to play with various styles and techniques, but general tone is consistent, from the brilliant opening in which uses Steadycam to the spectacular melodramatic finale. De Palma had valuable collaborator in cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond who has put locations of De Palma’s native Philadelphia to an excellent use. The cast was also very good, with Travolta very convincingly playing Hitchcockian hero. This film reunited him with Allen, his co-star from Carrie, and the pair now functions even better as leading man and leading lady. Allen, which was married to De Palma during the production, was also very good in this film, creating a lot of sympathies for her character, but she was somewhat less memorable than the prostitute she has played in Dressed to Kill. The most memorable role of the film, however, belongs to John Lithgow who plays one of the most menacing and the most efficient villains in history of Hollywood. Musical score by Pino Donaggio is solid, but not particularly memorable. Yet, despite those flaws, Blow Out is one of De Palma’s greatest films and can be recommended even to the viewers who aren’t among his greatest fans.
Despite being almost unanimously hailed by critics, who have began to recognise De Palma as one of the greatest film makers of 1980s, Blow Out suffered a bad fate at the box office. This could be easily explained by the extremely bleak ending, which would come as a shock to many of the ordinary viewers and leave bitter taste in mouth. De Palma did it very well, by excellently connecting the dots between the beginning, when the scream is heard as a joke and the end, when the scream serves as reminder of a tragedy for the ultimately defeated protagonist, forced to live the rest of his ordinary life as a broken man. Such sadistic irony and the finale which symbolically confronted murderous corruption and conspiracies with patriotic images of America, was too much for the audience in early 1980s, tired of the bleakness of New Hollywood and wanting to turn new and brighter page under Reagan. De Palma apparently learned the lesson and turned new page himself with Scarface and The Untouchables, but the high standards of films like Blow Out will not be reached again.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
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