BLOW OUT

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This cult film by Brian De Palma has been one I've wanted to see for a very long time, and at long last I managed to do so.

And I was not disappointed!  Although I wouldn't go as far as Tarantino who says it is one of his three all-time favourite films, it is well-nigh unimpeachable (other than the odd plot improbability) and it would certainly be one of the great 1970s paranoia films but for the fact it was released in 1981.

I was surprised that John Travolta is playing such a low-key role at this time given his superstar fame at the time, coming off ‘Saturday Night Fever’, ’Grease’  and ‘Urban Cowboy’. 

He is totally convincing as Jack, a small time sound engineer who stumbles upon a conspiracy whereby the state governor (and likely future President) dies in mysterious circumstances which are reminiscent of the Chappaquiddick incident.

Despite the political backdrop the film is more interested in Jack's past (whilst a cop he was traumatised when an undercover agent he had wired up was exposed and killed) and in his relationship with Sally (played by Nancy Allen).

Sally has got involved with a sleazeball who takes compromising photos of her with guys he can then blackmail.  

She is in the governor's car when it careers off the road and into a river, and is rescued by Jack.  

Despite her reluctance to get even more involved it is inevitable that the film will end up with Sally being wired up by Jack, leading to an exciting conclusion during a Liberty Day parade, and then the very bleakest of endings.

Before we get to that ending we get an education as to the finer points of sound engineering, as we watch Jack using his sound to prove what happened on the fateful night.  

And as a bonus we get John Lithgow as a creepy assassin who indulges in sex crimes as part of his deranged plotting.

Despite all that this film has going for it, not least Travolta's star power and De Palma's success with films such as 'Carrie', it bombed at the box office, maybe because the US public were worn out by Vietnam, Watergate, assassinations etc, and wanted to leave 1970s pessimism behind. 

And make no bones about it, De Palma intended this to be a commentary on the state of the nation, which is why he created a fictitious national holiday in Liberty Day as a backdrop to the killing of Sally, with an enormous Stars and Stripes flag behind her.  

This film is clearly a homage to 'Blow Up', which I should try to catch some time, and it would make a great double bill with 'The Conversation', another bleak masterpiece about surveillance.

It might also be the case that it was heavily influenced by Michael Powell’s ‘Peeping Tom’, another film I should get around to watching one day.

RATING: ✓✓✓ Absolutely Fabulous 

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