An homage to BLOW-UP that far outstrips the original in emotional immediacy, political sophistication, and visual style. Jack Terry (John Travolta) is a sound-effects recorder who specializes in sounds for trashy porn-slasher films. While out recording one night, he hears a tire blow out
and sees a car swerve off a bridge and into the water. He jumps in and saves Sally (Nancy Allen), a prostitute who was with a now-drowned politician. The media and the dead man's associates are all convinced it was an accident, but Jack hears something on his tape recording--a gunshot that
precedes the blow out. Using Sally as bait, Jack begins a cat-and-mouse game to find the killer.
Like most of De Palma's films, BLOW OUT is replete with cinematic quotes and inside jokes; this time, however, there's real substance behind the flashy attitudinizing. De Palma, in a grim mood of post-Watergate disillusionment, is here concerned with the role of violence in American history:
shades of Chappaquiddick and the Kennedy assassinations are everywhere; a psychotic CIA agent (chillingly played by John Lithgow) stands in for American idealism gone murderously wrong; the bloody climax is played out amidst a surreally rendered Bicentennial celebration. Travolta gives a sensitive
performance, as does the director's then-wife Nancy Allen. The film's emphasis on the role of sound technology in movie-making is unusual and instructive. leave a comment