Review of Blow Out (1981) by Adam C — 30 Aug 2006

The dense, complicated plot of Blow Out is hard to simplify. Basically, Jack Terry (Travolta) is a sound man for a seedy film company in Philadelphia. One night, while out in nature taping for effects, Jack witnesses the car crash of a vehicle carrying the man who was probably going to be the next President of the USA. The vehicle was also carrying Sally (Nancy Allen in a well-acted but annoying role) whom Jack saves by diving into the river and pulling out of the car. When listening back to his recording of the events, Jack realizes that this was no accident, and he sets out to unravel the conspiracy surrounding the blow out.

The movie never really takes off until Burke (John Lithgow) enters the picture. Burke is an evil, brutal hit man, who is willing to stop at nothing to eliminate all witnesses. Lithgow is great, but he just isn't in the film enough to pull it all off the ground. While the movie does have some great De Palma moments (the final chase scene, the train station sequence, the examination of the video/audio tapes) it unfortuately just never captured my attention the way most De Palmas do. I was never on edge, and I never found myself truly caring about the outcome. I think that the plot of Blow Out is one of De Palma's best written screenplays, but it just didn't have enough "De Palma moments" to make me say I loved the film. I did enjoy watching it, however, and would recommend it to any fan of De Palma.