Blow Out (1981)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1981
	Director: Brian de Palma (Scarface, Carrie)
	Actors: John Travolta (Saturday Night Fever, Pulp Fiction), Nancy Allen (Robocop), John Lithgow (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Dennis Franz (Die Hard 2)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 08.04.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: A movie sound editor (Travolta) accidentally records the sound of a car accident that turns out to involve a high rank politician. He will start his own investigation.
Review: First I saw Profondo Rosso by Dario Argento and learned that he borrowed some ideas and the main actor from Blow-up by Michelangelo Antonioni. Both movies deal with accidental photography of a crime (less importantly in Profondo Rosso). I also learned that on the same topic existed The Conversation by Francis Ford Coppola with Gene Hackman (about audio recording) and this Blow Out by Brian de Palma. I learned by watching the interesting bonus on this Blu-ray that de Palma is a huge fan of Blow-up, and that he intentionally wanted to have the main character combine both sound and image in his movie, as he did. There is a special atmosphere to the movie, not as in a usual thriller, and the ending is unexpected, so I am not surprised that it was not sucessful at its release. But the story is definitely interesting (although it lacks ambition), the actors good (especially Nancy Allen playing naturally a simple-minded girl), and the visual aspect most interesting. A movie strongly recommended for the lovers of 80's thrillers like me. As the sound plays a big role in the movie, I was glad to hear that the quality of the soundtrack on this Blu-ray edition is quite good. The image however is not very sharp (due to the original film used?) and during the night scenes one can see waves of shadows passing in the black areas, not really good-looking.
Rating: 7 /10