#9
Blow Out
Blow Out
1981
Written and Directed by: Brian De Palma
Cinematography by: Vilmos Zsigmond
Edited by: Paul Hirsch
Music by: Pino Donaggio
Starring: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, and Dennis Franz
This is a fantastic movie, and the fact that it's number nine on my list just shows how great I think that filmmaking was in the 1980s. The story concerns Jack (John Travolta) who is working as a sound technician for low-budget exploitation films in Philadelphia. The movie begins with him being told by his boss that he needs the perfect scream in order to complete the movie their working on. Basically he's given an ultimatum: get a good scream or find another job. So one night when he's out recording new sounds in a park he witnesses a horrific car crash and actually gets the audio recording of the whole thing. Dying in the car accident was the governor of Pennsylvania and soon to be Presidential candidate. Jack was able to rescue a prostitute named Sally (Nancy Allen) from the car though. The rest of the movie follows Jack and Sally as they try to uncover what they think was the assassination of the governor. The whole time, the hired assassin (John Lithgow) is trying to silence them.
Brian De Palma is one of the masters of suspense movies. In the 1970s when he came to prominence he was hailed as the new Hitchcock. He can take any scene and put an audience on the edge of their seat. This is achieved with a great combination of music, cinematography, editing, and of course, a great sound technician of his own. Check out this great scene when the assassination kills a prostitute in the train station washroom:
Everything comes together nicely in this scene to make it perfect. The shot of the long empty hallway leading to the washroom, the overhead shot in the bathroom stalls, the sharp score, and the great little details in the sounds like the watch string and the woman brushing her teeth. This movie is De Palma at his best.
One of the things I love most about this movie though, is the focus on the mechanics of movie making in the story itself. As a sound technician we can see behind the scenes of how movies are actually made. Unfortunately, most of the time in movies, you see a behind the scenes in Hollywood type of movie which tend to focus on the lives of big stars and the famous. This may be suitable for mass consumption, but with Blow Out we see behind the scenes of the technical aspect of movie making itself. Something which I think is a lot more interesting. Many of the scenes in the movie splice shots of movie making and actual recording images together. This is the most common use of self-reflexivity in movies; to remind the viewer that they are watching something that is not actually real but fiction. The opening scene does this, but with a bit of a twist as you will see:
I this scene we see the evening news on one half of the screen and Jack on the other half documenting the sounds he has recorded. By putting these two images together it is trying to remind the viewer that TV News is itself to a certain extent fiction. Although it may be reporting real events, there is a whole process behind the news to decide what is presented to the public and how it is presented also. For example, in this scene there are two subjects covered at the same time: the Liberty Day parade and the announcement of the governor of his Presidential candidacy. The seemingly small decision of covering both of these stories concurrently actually would help the candidate associate himself with the huge patriotic event of the parade to the viewing public. In reality, decisions like this are not small at all as they concern everyone who watches the evening news. This decision and the decision to run with a story like this as headline news are valuable propaganda tools used by TV and other media every day, or every hour really. De Palma wants to remind us with this scene that we are viewing something that was constructed and along the way, ideology was intrinsically tied to the process at every level.
The movie pays homage to Antonioni's Blow Up which was on my top movies of the 1960s list. While in the former someone was trying to solve a murder based on photos, in Blow Out Jack is using a sound recording. Still, the questions about the nature of reality and what we can know are just as potent as in Blow Up. George Lucas could learn a lot about the meaning of homage from this movie.
Of course, not all people like to think when they watch a movie. But for those of you who like to watch movies for other reasons than just entertainment, this movie is for you. I'm sorry if I sound a little bitter or arrogant here, but when this movie was first released it bombed at the box office. One of the main reasons for this was the fact that it had a bleak ending. Who says that movies should always have happy endings thought. That in itself maybe is another form of propaganda. Everything is not always alright, live with it. For my money, the movie has one of the best and most dramatic endings I've ever seen. I am hesitant in posting a clip though because it is such a big SPOILER. If you haven't seen the movie DO NOT WATCH THIS CLIP. It will be a much more enjoyable experience if you haven't seen this clip. I'm gonna post it anyway though, because I think it's so amazing:
As I've tried to show though, this is a great suspenseful thriller which can also be appreciated on the level of entertainment see you won't be bored to death. It is definitely John Travolta's best performance and was made before he became a caricature of his former self. I first saw this movie many years ago after reading that it was one of Quentin Tarantino's three favourite movies. I figured that alone was reason enough and I hope it also helps convince you to watch this awesome movie if you haven't seen it.
Brian De Palma is one of the masters of suspense movies. In the 1970s when he came to prominence he was hailed as the new Hitchcock. He can take any scene and put an audience on the edge of their seat. This is achieved with a great combination of music, cinematography, editing, and of course, a great sound technician of his own. Check out this great scene when the assassination kills a prostitute in the train station washroom:
Everything comes together nicely in this scene to make it perfect. The shot of the long empty hallway leading to the washroom, the overhead shot in the bathroom stalls, the sharp score, and the great little details in the sounds like the watch string and the woman brushing her teeth. This movie is De Palma at his best.
One of the things I love most about this movie though, is the focus on the mechanics of movie making in the story itself. As a sound technician we can see behind the scenes of how movies are actually made. Unfortunately, most of the time in movies, you see a behind the scenes in Hollywood type of movie which tend to focus on the lives of big stars and the famous. This may be suitable for mass consumption, but with Blow Out we see behind the scenes of the technical aspect of movie making itself. Something which I think is a lot more interesting. Many of the scenes in the movie splice shots of movie making and actual recording images together. This is the most common use of self-reflexivity in movies; to remind the viewer that they are watching something that is not actually real but fiction. The opening scene does this, but with a bit of a twist as you will see:
I this scene we see the evening news on one half of the screen and Jack on the other half documenting the sounds he has recorded. By putting these two images together it is trying to remind the viewer that TV News is itself to a certain extent fiction. Although it may be reporting real events, there is a whole process behind the news to decide what is presented to the public and how it is presented also. For example, in this scene there are two subjects covered at the same time: the Liberty Day parade and the announcement of the governor of his Presidential candidacy. The seemingly small decision of covering both of these stories concurrently actually would help the candidate associate himself with the huge patriotic event of the parade to the viewing public. In reality, decisions like this are not small at all as they concern everyone who watches the evening news. This decision and the decision to run with a story like this as headline news are valuable propaganda tools used by TV and other media every day, or every hour really. De Palma wants to remind us with this scene that we are viewing something that was constructed and along the way, ideology was intrinsically tied to the process at every level.
The movie pays homage to Antonioni's Blow Up which was on my top movies of the 1960s list. While in the former someone was trying to solve a murder based on photos, in Blow Out Jack is using a sound recording. Still, the questions about the nature of reality and what we can know are just as potent as in Blow Up. George Lucas could learn a lot about the meaning of homage from this movie.
Of course, not all people like to think when they watch a movie. But for those of you who like to watch movies for other reasons than just entertainment, this movie is for you. I'm sorry if I sound a little bitter or arrogant here, but when this movie was first released it bombed at the box office. One of the main reasons for this was the fact that it had a bleak ending. Who says that movies should always have happy endings thought. That in itself maybe is another form of propaganda. Everything is not always alright, live with it. For my money, the movie has one of the best and most dramatic endings I've ever seen. I am hesitant in posting a clip though because it is such a big SPOILER. If you haven't seen the movie DO NOT WATCH THIS CLIP. It will be a much more enjoyable experience if you haven't seen this clip. I'm gonna post it anyway though, because I think it's so amazing:
As I've tried to show though, this is a great suspenseful thriller which can also be appreciated on the level of entertainment see you won't be bored to death. It is definitely John Travolta's best performance and was made before he became a caricature of his former self. I first saw this movie many years ago after reading that it was one of Quentin Tarantino's three favourite movies. I figured that alone was reason enough and I hope it also helps convince you to watch this awesome movie if you haven't seen it.
For being a great suspenseful thriller and for its self-reflexive aspect, Blow Out is in my opinion the 9th greatest movie of the 1980s.
No comments:
Post a Comment