It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

'Blow Out' is a 1981 thriller written and directed by Brian De Palma. The film stars John Travolta as a sound recordist for movies who becomes involved in a dangerous conspiracy after accidentally recording an alarming piece of evidence. De Palma's passion in the story is evident on screen, which came to him while working on the sound for his previous film 'Dressed to Kill.' He has crafted a riveting, unique piece of suspenseful filmmaking, especially for those interested in the medium. You can see De Palma's appreciation for sound design, lingering on recording instruments in striking closeups as we see Travolta carefully do his work. There is a scene in which his character 'Jack Terry' explains to Nancy Allen's character what he does for a living. She is initially confused, and precedingly fascinated, as if she never realised sound was actually designed for movies. It is clear De Palma must have had personal experience with a situation similar to this, and it adds to the sense of realism in the film. During sequences where we see the sound design process, the audience is treated with respect. The actions are not explained and we must therefore watch carefully, as the character is, what is happening. As you watch you feel as if you are learning secrets of moviemaking, which is one of the best aspects of the film and very rare in films today. The style of the film escalates the unique story, which is slightly inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film 'Blow-Up,' in which a murder may or may not have been witnessed and recorded in a London photographer's work. De Palma's fresh take on the story oozes style. Vilmos Zsigmond, cinematographer of 'Close Encounters of the Third kind' and 'The Deer Hunter' elevates the style of the film with rich, almost surreal images within a fairly grounded, realistic story. These surreal images with creative uses of lighting-a particular shot which stood out to me was one in which the camera is positioned inside a motel room, facing Travolta's character who sits by the window at night, listening to the fateful recording. The rain on the window pane is illuminated from what is presumably a car's light from outside, giving the rich red colour of blood. Combined with a blue curtain behind Travolta, a colour representative of anxiety, the shot reflects the state of his mind at that moment. There are frequent uses of colour throughout, with neon lights almost giving the feeling of a neo-noir film. A staple of the cinematography of De Palma's films is the split-focus diopter lens. It is a half convex second lens which is attached to the initial lens which allows areas of the background and foreground to simultaneously be in focus. The eye is not used to seeing this kind of image, so it may almost create a sense of anxiety due to its heightened surrealism. It is used in several scenes, most notably in the sound recording scene where it builds tension effectively with incredible shots involving owls and frogs in the extreme foreground, with Travolta in the background. It is also used to amplify John Ligathow's chilling performance, especially when he is listening to characters nearby - his face in the extreme foreground, his probable next victim in the background, still in focus. The screenplay is very cleverly written, with the story unfolding to the audience and characters as new information and characters are revealed. The sense of dread gradually increases throughout as everything becomes heightened. However, the ending of the film felt rather rushed and was slightly disappointing. This may be partly due to the fact that two reels of film were stolen of the Liberty Parade sequence and had to be reshot. On the other hand, I am willingly to accept the ending due to the near perfection of the rest of the film.To conclude, 'Blow Out' is a riveting thriller, worth watching if you enjoy the genre and a must-see if you are interested in the filmmaking process or a fan of John Travolta, who gives possibly his best performance.

Out of Brian De Palma's entire filmography, Blow Out could easily be his most overlooked. Similar to his other works he plays homage to other classic films (such as Blow Up) in his own stylistic direction, whilst also combining it with cynicism and concluding with one of the most tragically powerful moments of De Palma's entire career. Travolta stars as sound recording artist Jack Terry. He works on cheap exploitation movies and his time is mostly spent gathering sound effects like screams to dub over bad actresses. One night when he's collecting new sound recordings, a car tyre blows out nearby and sends it plunging in to a river. Travolta dives in and rescues a girl named Sally (Nancy Allen) but is unable to save the driver. Later Travolta discovers the driver was a presidential candidate and after reviewing the sound recording becomes convinced that he heard a gunshot before the blow out. As Travolta begins digging deeper a man named Burke (John Lithgow) emerges who's willing to do anything to cover up what happened, even if it means killing even more people to do it. He's a pure sociopath who never shows any remorse for his actions. Beyond this, many others (including the police) also seem to be covering up whatever happened. Travolta is even told after the accident not to tell anybody that the girl was in the car with him. Supposedly this is to prevent distress to his wife that her husband was in an affair, but Travolta can't be sure that there wasn't some ulterior motive to this cover up.Similarly to Francis Ford Coopla's The Conversation, it's this feeling of Paranoia that dominates the majority of Blow Out. It's an extremely pessimistic film that is still reeling from the conspiracies and cover ups that surrounded the likes of Watergate and the Kennedy assassination. These events seem to have shaped Travolta's character to be distrusting of almost everyone around him. Even when somebody does eventually offer to help him out, Travolta remains hesitant and convinced that they're in on it too. And for good reason, since he's never entirely certain of just how large this conspiracy is. De Palma really helps build this paranoia throughout the film through a very voyeuristic style. For example, in one recurring shot we see Travolta from the street looking up at him through a window. This feeling of being watched recurs throughout the entire film and it serves as a constant reminder of the unknown conspiracy that constantly consumes Travolta's life. De Palma also seems to take great pleasure throughout the film in giving us a look in to the filmmaking process. In the introduction of the film then after following a long take from one of the horror films that Travolta's working on (in a shot resembling the introduction of Halloween) we see how he isolates each individual sound and the attention to detail that's required to create even something like a cheap exploitation film. Then later when Travolta is reviewing the recording of the crash we see the lengths that he goes to so he can put together the audio in order to make a solid case to prove his theories. It's an effective attention to detail that really shows a great appreciation to the entire film-making process. Interestingly this film is also the reason that Tarantino cast Travolta in Pulp Fiction and Blow Out is definitely a key example of Travolta at his very best. Throughout Travolta seems so worn down and constantly on the verge, whilst also still successfully creating a very loving and natural chemistry with Nancy Allen. On top of this he really brings a real sense of tragedy to the films climax and really brings home just how grim this world can be.

Between making brilliant movies like Scarface and Carlito's Way and some fairly decent movies like The Untouchables, Casualties of War and Carrie, Brian De Palma makes mostly derivative, unoriginal stuff like this. His previous movie, Dressed to Kill, was clearly a Hitchcock ripoff, and more style than substance. This is a ripoff of Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up, with a bit of Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation thrown in. What is different to these is quite clichéd - pretty much standard murder-thriller fare. There is more substance to this than Dressed to Kill though.Performances are fine though. John Travolta is solid in the lead role and Nancy Allen makes for a decent damsel-in-distress. John Lithgow is chillingly good as the villain.

Nineteen Eighty-One was an unusually good year for actors in leading roles (look at my number of nominees) but sadly, some of the best weren't even nominated. For example, my choice for Best Actor, John Travolta gave arguably his best performance in Brian De Palma's great film noir thriller Blow Out. Travolta took the role because he had wanted a film that would focus on his acting rather than on his sex appeal. So, he re-teamed with De Palma, who had previously directed him in Carrie, and was even paired with the same co-star, Nancy Allen.In Blow Out, Travolta plays Jack Terri, a skilled soundman who works on the fringes of the film industry providing sound effects for bad horror movies. This is the best work he can get because long ago, he worked for the police, wiring undercover officers for sting operations until one of his wire taps malfunctioned and got a man killed. Now, he puts his skills to work in the arena of Z-Grade slasher flicks – the kind where sorority girls dance naked in their dorm rooms while a mad slasher stalks them with a butcher knife.His destiny changes one night when he is out recording sounds for a movie. Standing on a foot bridge, near a road he witnesses a car have a blow out and careen through a guardrail and into the lake. He dives in to save the passengers and finds two people in the car, one is a man who is already dead and the other is a woman that he pulls to safety. Later, in the hospital, the police aggressively question him about the incident but they seem less interested in his facts than in pushing him toward the story they want him to tell. A government official tells him that the man in the car was a highly respected presidential candidate and the girl was part of a plot to blackmail him (comparisons to Chappaquiddick are inevitable).Jack is told to keep quiet about the story and forget about the girl. He is warned that exposing the true facts about the accident would embarrass the man's family, but Jack suspects that a cover up may be at work. He meets the girl that he rescued, named Sally (Nancy Allen), a sweet but none-too-bright floozy and suspects that someone may try to kill her.Despite advice to let the case go, Jack becomes obsessed, playing his tape over and over and thinks he hears a gunshot right before the crucial blow out. Later a sleazy photographer named Manny (Dennis Franz) comes forward with photographs that end up in Newsweek and, in a great scene, Jack cuts the photos out of the magazine and makes them into a flip-book that he films one frame at a time then adds his audio track over it. What develops is a perfect home movie (reminiscent of the Zapruder film) that clearly shows gunfire coming from the bushes on the other side of the road. He also comes to realize that the reason that Sally was in the car was due to a bizarre blackmail scheme.The story, however, is much larger than Jack realizes. There are forces at work to keep Jack's tape from reaching the news. The worst is a slimy clean-up man named Burke (John Lithgow) who is killing prostitutes all over Philadelphia to plant hysteria over a serial killer in order to have a convenient cover when he eliminates Sally. Jack knows she is in danger but knows nothing about Burke, who has broken into his recording studio and erased all of his tapes but fortunately missed the crucial tape that Jack had hidden in the ceiling panel.Jack meets a journalist who agrees to meet with him at a secret location to get the tape – the only copy that he still has. Unfortunately, their conversation is overheard by Burke who has tapped Jack's phone. What happens next I must leave for you to discover except to say that the films third act is borne out of the story, out of the events that have come before and never feel forced or tacked on.What Travolta creates in Jack Terri is a classic film noir hero, a guy who gets into a situation way over his head, tries to protect a doomed woman and won't take the good advice to leave well enough alone. Jack tries again and again to do the right thing, to correct an injustice but there are forces at work that want to prevent him from breaking the conspiracy. Buried under that urgency is, Jack's determination to keep from repeating his past mistakes. Years before, he failed to save an officer when his wire tap failed. Now, he tries to prevent Sally from falling into the same trap.There's an effective moodiness to Travolta's performance, he isn't totally likable, but he isn't off-putting either. He is a guy haunted by personal demons and the urgency to do the right thing. He thinks that he is onto a simple cover-up, but discovers too late that the real story is larger than he had thought. His final moment is absolutely perfect, as he has finally found the perfect scream for his film, a scream that comes from real life. This expert sound man covers his ears and can listen no more.