movies (subject to tumblr's inconsistent search engine. for more complete results, try the archive): badlands, blow out, bring me the head of alfredo garcia, cadavres exquis, charley varrick, chinatown, dog day afternoon, il conformista, klute, le cercle rouge, marathon man, mean streets, night moves, point blank, prime cut, save the tiger, serpico, sisters, straight time, the day of the jackal, the don is dead, the driver, the friends of eddie coyle, the getaway, the harder they come, the hot rock, the killing of a chinese bookie, the last of sheila, the long goodbye, the mackintosh man, the onion field, the organization, the parallax view, the spook who sat by the door, the sting, the taking of pelham one two three, the yakuza, three days of the condor, villain, wanda
Skip ahead to the 1:05 mark. While I enjoyed much of this movie, the two minutes that follows is what really sold it. Travolta’s Jack Terry arrives back at the studio where he works as a sound engineer to discover that all his recordings, including the one that captured the gunshot responsible for the local presidential candidate’s deadly blow out, have been erased. Relying on the trick camerawork that Kael points out in her enthusiastic review, de Palma never cuts away as the camera pivots around the studio, every so often catching a glimpse of Terry as he becomes increasingly distraught over the missing audio. And with each 360 degree turn, another layer of white noise is added, escalating the scene’s freneticism.
De Palma’s affinity for pastiche has been widely discussed, especially in regards to this film, which is a take on Antonioni’s Blow-Up. It employs the voyeurism of Peeping Tom and Rear Window, the murder cloaked by patriotic celebration of The Parallax View, and the jaded sound man with a conscience of The Conversation. The above scene in particular resembles the paranoid breakdown of Conversation’s Harry Caul as he rips up his apartment’s floorboards and wallpaper in the film’s conclusion. Both scenes end with the camera pulling away to let us see the physical incarnation of their inner turmoil.
Blow Out (1981)
“Seeing this film is like experiencing the body of De Palma’s work and seeing it in a new way. Genre techniques are circuitry; in going beyond genre, De Palma is taking some terrifying first steps. He is investing his work with a different kind of meaning. His relation to the terror in Carrie or Dressed to Kill could be gleeful because it was pop and he could ride it out; now he’s in it. When we see Jack surrounded by all the machinery that he tries to control things with, De Palma seems to be giving it a last, long, wistful look. It’s as if he finally understood what technique is for. This is the first film he has made about the things that really matter to him. Blow Out begins with a joke; by the end, the joke has been turned inside out. In a way, the movie is about accomplishing the one task set for the sound effects man at the start: he has found a better scream. It’s a great movie.”
-Pauline Kael, “Blow Out: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Gadgeteer”
Blow Out (1981)
De Palma misses no opportunity to dress his shots in patriotic hues, especially as the movie nears its 4th of July finale. By the end, the red, white, and blue has become oppressive, almost tyrannical.
Criterion trailer for Blow Out (1981)
