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Brian De Palma's homage to Michelangelo Antonioni's classic art movie "Blow-Up" (1966) blends suspense and political paranoia when a Philadelphia soundman inadvertently records a murder. Former police technician Jack Terri (John Travolta) makes his living doing sound for slasher flicks. While recording new outdoor effects one night, Jack witnesses a couple's car careen off a bridge into a river, but he can save only the female occupant, Sally (Nancy Allen). Jack begins to suspect something when he learns that her dead companion was a Presidential hopeful. Re-playing his tape over and over, Jack thinks that he hears a gun shot before the crash-causing tire blow-out. When sleazy photographer Manny Karp (Dennis Franz) comes forward with photos of the accident, Jack discovers the real reason that the naïve Sally was in the car -- and also a way to prove his auditory suspicions through motion pictures. Even with all his surveillance talent, however, Jack cannot see (or hear) how dangerous the big picture really is until it's too late. Taking a break from horror films, De Palma turned his interests in technology and voyeurism toward more politically loaded subject matter at the dawn of the Reagan era; the film's red, white and blue mise-en-scène, "Liberty Day" celebration climax, and conspiracy surrounding political "dirty tricks" suggest that American politics are still rotten, seven years after Watergate. Although Blow Out earned some favorable notice, particularly for Travolta's first "adult" performance, De Palma's downbeat film did not go over well with 1981 summer audiences. Rather than blockbuster escapism, Blow Out instead harks back to 1970s political thrillers like The Parallax View (1974), using cinematic fireworks to tell an unsettling story about one man's struggle against unstoppable corruption. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
Features
New, restored digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Brian De Palma, with DTS-HD master audio soundtrack
New hour-long video interview with De Palma, conducted by filmmaker Noah Baumbach
New video interview with star Nancy Allen
De Palma's 1967 feature Murder à la Mod
New video interview with cameraman Garrett Brown on the Steadicam shots featured in the film within the film
Cinematographer - Vilmos Zsigmond
Composer (Music Score) - Pino Donaggio
Costume Designer - Ann Roth
Costume Designer - Vicki Sanchez
Executive Producer - Fred Caruso
First Assistant Director - Joe Napolitano
Production Designer - Paul Sylbert
Production Manager - Fred Caruso
Sound Mixer - Jim Tannenbaum
Blow Out is Brian DePalma's glossy send-up of Michelangelo Antonioni's 1960s art-house classic "Blow-Up". In "Blow-Up", a London fashion photographer unwittingly shoots footage of a murder plot; in Blow Out, a movie sound technician records a killing that's part of a wide-ranging political conspiracy. The intricate plot is typical of DePalma and has unmistakable parallels with Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974), also a version of "Blow-Up". The cast includes John Travolta in his first serious major role, as well as DePalma favorites John Lithgow and Nancy Allen, in her last memorable part. Blow Out has all of DePalma's flashy camera techniques but keeps the director's customary gratuitous violence under some control. Most critics thought it was one of his most successful and intriguing films, though it didn't do well at the box office. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi
