Blow Out (I've Finally Seen It!)

There comes a moment in Brian De Palma’s Blow Out when Jack Terry—a movie soundman played by John Travolta—bemoans the fact that the public is wholly uninterested in conspiracy. At this point, he possesses indisputable proof that a presidential candidate has been assassinated for political reasons, yet no one wants to hear about it. No matter what the truth is, the people prefer to live in their special, happy place. Life is hard enough without thinking about the possibility that politicians are offing people at will. Blow Out explores the possibility that ugly, ugly things could be happening right beneath our noses. Among several other things.

The film begins with a brilliant sequence that takes us inside a schlocky horror movie that Terry is currently working on. When the scream of a female victim feels less than lifelike, we are immediately immersed within the world of moviemaking. (Specifically, the relationship between sound and visuals.) Blow Out explores the work that goes in to making a film without ever being too obvious about it. As Terry is out in the middle of the night recording the sound of the wind, he ends up recording a car crash that kills the man who was likely to become the next President of the United States. When he listens back to the audio, he starts to question whether the crash was an accident after all.

Later on, he gets his hand on pictures of the accident. When he finally syncs the sound up with the visuals, he has a finished product. To some, it’s just proof. In reality, it’s a film just like any other. Blow Out not only tells a compelling story of conspiracy, it also reflects on the world of cinema. Not only does it explore how films are made; it also explores the impact film can have on the audience. Jack Terry spends most of the film watching and listening to things that have happened to other people. He was not in the car when it crashed, nor is he directly involved during a final chase scene. He must constantly be piecing together what he hears and what he sees so that he can decipher a larger picture. This is not only the case in his life, but also in cinema.

I wouldn’t call Blow Out a perfect film, though it is fully-realized. Most of my complaints are merely quibbles, and they may just be due to the fact that I was born a good 10 years after the film was released. I found that the film’s music was a bit dated at times, and some sequences might have been more suspenseful had the score been removed altogether. This is not the most devastating thing in the world, but music in film is always something I’ve paid attention to. If it doesn’t click, I notice it.

Other than that, Blow Out is predictably exceptional. Travolta is no less than great as a man who slowly finds himself obsessed with those few seconds of sound and film, and John Lithgow is absolutely chilling as the assassin who looks to tie up all loose threads. The film’s conspiracy storyline does not become ridiculous mostly because it deals with the consequences at the ground level. Even though the incident involved a prominent politician, we don’t spend any time in government offices. Instead, we observe all events from the point of view of an outsider. When we go to the movies, we spend those few hours placing ourselves in the lives of others. Jack Terry ends up living in a movie of sorts, and he ultimately becomes trapped.