mag·nif·i·cent/magˈnifəsənt/ (adj.)

1. Impressively beautiful, elaborate, or extravagant; striking.
2. Very good; excellent.

Synonyms: splendid - gorgeous - grand - superb - glorious


WARNING: Some spoilers may be bound but I try to keep them light.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Blow Out (1981)











Intro
While pouring back through all the Tarantino films recently I realized a couple things:
1) There's not that many of them. I mean he's only one guy and he pretty much only works off of his own material that he wrote... which takes time, and thus this is very understandable.
2) His films make reference other movies constantly. Now call it what you want homage, reference or just plain theft but I'm thinking that a lot of people don't catch the majority of these references to other films because frankly, we don't have the film same exposure as a young Tarantino did going to the grindhouse theater constantly in his youth or working in a video rental store. However, hypothetically with the vastness of the internet and Amazon, Netflix etc. these films should be easier to get a hold of today, if you know what you're looking for that is.

So I figured there's probably more people out there, like me, who crave more Tarantino constantly and I could showcase some films that I'd consider essential viewing for Tarantino fans. And thus the 10 must-see films for Tarantino fans was born. Now let me warn you this is in no way a comprehensive list and there's no particular order to these either. There's probably hundreds of films that Tarantino references in his own films, and I found enough films I could write about to probably do this series again but that will have to wait until next time there's another big Tarantino release.

DAY 8: Blow Out (1981)

Blow Out is Quentin Tarantino's third favorite film of all time. This film is the reason he chose to cast John Travolta as a lead in Pulp Fiction (1994) and his performance in this film is uncannily similar actually. Brian De Palma does a lot of things in this film that Tarantino would later incorporate into his own "style" like the 360 shot to show confusion and this film also drops lots of references to De Palma's previous films but also to other films, sound familiar? Also Tarantino used a piece from this film's amazing score in Death Proof (2007).






"First it's a drink, then it's my place, now it's a hotel?" Things are moving a little fast, aren't they Sally?"

Blow Out is a conspiracy thriller film written and directed by Brian De Palma. When Jack Terry, a sound designer for low budget films, randomly saves a girl's life from drowning he finds himself wrapped in a huge conspiracy, and his job comes in handy more than you'd think.







This film has a really simple story and a great premise. I also like how the film starts like a neo-noir film, I thought this was an interesting spin on the typical noir film. The simple story makes it easy to follow and allows for a lot of suspense. There's some very suspense-filled parts in this film, and that's a sign of a good film.

The acting in this film is pretty good too. Nancy Allen plays Sally, who is actually a bit annoying but it works for the film. John Lithgow plays the killer in one of his earliest feature roles, and although this is against type for him retrospectively, it actually works pretty well in this film, you've just got to get over the initial shock the first time you see him. And John Travolta has this very dark and moody performance that really adds a lot of depth and makes the role a lot cooler than it would have been otherwise.







The film has some less-believable parts in the end: like the car chase though a parade, (SPOILERS:) the fact the killer hesitated to kill Sally and decides to take her to the roof of a building when he was going to do it in a subway in front of a lot of people only minutes before, and the fact that the cops believed the victim killed the killer while somehow still getting killed? I believe all of this could have been stronger if De Palma didn't let the neo-noir aspects of the film dwindle about half to three-quarters of the way into it only to turn into a more traditional thriller film.

And this last part is a nitpicky thing that most people wouldn't notice, but it bugged me so I'm gonna mention it, there's a part where Jack makes an animation of the car crash with the magazine pictures and he does it totally wrong, to play at a normal speed the pictures would have need to be photographed at least twice and they would have needed to be lined up a hell of a lot better than he did otherwise the finished film would have been very shakey. True this doesn't really matter that much, but it shows a lack of attention to detail and then made me wonder how truthful the sound design parts actually were!







If nothing else, this film is proof that Brian De Palma is an amazing director. The cinematography stands out with it variety of shots and beautiful shot choices. I especially liked the high angle shots and the split screen shots (like the image at the top of this post) and the use of lots of quiet moments combined with the (fittingly) good sound design show great skill.

(SPOILERS:) Also the ending really showed a sign of great skill, I thought "well this is predictable, he's going to get there right in time and save her," but when he doesn't this really made me like the film that much more. It kind of saved a lot of things I didn't like about the second half of the film.

And lastly I got to mention the great score to this film, every song in this film is really great! A tiny bit of it seems rather dated, but it still really helps achieve some great emotional parts and some very chilling thriller parts too.




















Blow Out (1981) is an unexpectedly thrilling story with amazing direction, and a great score. 4.5/5 Stars.


Happy watching!





This film is part of my month-long Tribute to Tarantino in honor of his latest film Django Unchained (2012) and his 20-year career. If you've missed any of my reviews so far, be sure to check out his filmography and click on any film you've missed.

The 10 must-see films for Tarantino fans countdown continues tomorrow, so be sure to check back!



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