Search - Blow Out on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Violence, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Language Movie Release: 1981 DVD Release: 08/28/2001 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV,Pan and Scan Audio Tracks: English, Spanish Subtitles: French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 48 mins Studio: MGM Members Wishing: 8 Genres: Thriller, Political Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Paranoid Thriller

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, All Movie Guide

John Travolta - Jack
Nancy Allen - Sally
John Lithgow - Burke
Dennis Franz - Manny Karp
Peter Boyden - Sam

One of Brian De Palma's best movies, Blow Out has been beautifully transferred onto DVD even if this MGM edition doesn't come with all the extras that its definitive release of Dressed to Kill does. The anamorphic widescreen transfer is flawless and the Dolby Digital 2.0 audio transfer is well balanced and clean. De Palma has often been accused of being an emotionless filmmaker and in the course of this taut, paranoid thriller, soundman John Travolta eventually disengages from the real world, more interested in capturing the perfect scream for his movies than in the people who make them. ~ Nick Dedina, All Movie Guide