I'm thoroughly enjoying watching Brian De Palma's filmography right now. Certainly not in order, and with many a movie skipped, who knows how long this will go on and which ones I'll see, but this one at least I'd heard of. And let's see here, did I review Blow Up? No. Apparently not. But I did see that about 2 years ago and it's in my head still.
I did review The Conversation in here, and this movie is certainly Blow Up and The Conversation turned into a more thriller atmosphere, and it need not be 100% original to capture some of the allure of those excellent movies.
John Travolta stars in Blow Out. He is a sound designer by career, working in low budget movies he's not particularly proud of. One day he is out recording the night sounds and he records a car as it drives by. The car blows a tire, crashes into a lake, and there is a young woman trapped in it. Travolta springs into action and saves the girl (Nancy Allen). As he revisits the recordings he made, he discovers the sound of a gun firing right before the tire popped, leading him to think it was a planned assassination. He ruffles the wrong feathers with his investigation, and soon recruits Nancy Allen to help him.
Blow Out was a minor box office disappoint and has since gained a cult following, which I guess a lot of De Palma's films have. To be honest, this one is really out there in terms of feel. I wasn't very sure how to feel about it. I will recognize and say, first and foremost, that it feels later 80's and was certainly very influential. Also, being so close to the 70's it makes sense how it feels a bit slower and more slow-burn oriented. So in other words, it feels progressive but also very old fashioned. It's tonally very strange, and that is the basis for part of my let's just say lackluster enjoyment of it.
I liked Blow Out. I thought the plot and the characters were nicely written. Nancy Allen is not doing a great job I have to say, and her airhead character is a bit annoying, which was the intention, but I think it gets a little "too much" sometimes. John Travolta is similarly one dimensional, but he has grace and charm, something which sadly doesn't show up for me in Allen's performance. Then you have the plot. It's all fine. We get it. Perhaps it could've had a little more tension at times, but it's well done enough.
And I guess that's the hard part, it's all well done enough that I should have nothing to complain about. And yet...I found it a bit lacking. I think a lot of it could be attributed to two things, and here's some spoilers. One, John Lithgow. He is hamming it up and his badly written character is so cartoonish it undercuts the whole film. He wins in the end even though he dies, and Travolta doesn't get to save the girl, which is fucking awesome, but this is the writing and the over-done-ness that Raising Cain had, and it doesn't mesh well with the atmosphere of the rest of the movie for me. Two, the characters are just not strong enough. The Conversation works because Hackman acts and looks the part, he is a sympathetic fish out of water but super identifiable. Travolta is too generic, Allen too braindead, that I felt no draw to them in this story. I want to see where to plot is going, but I have little investment in the plot players.
I don't want to complain too much though, and I think it's at least a four star film in reality even though I'll only give it a 3.5.
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