Recent Watching: Blow Out

Last night I watched Brian De Palma's 1981 movie Blow Out. I liked a lot of things about the movie -- among other things I liked was the acting. John Lithgow has a small role in the movie and, at least in my opinion, no movie with John Lithgow in it can ever be entirely bad. And, yes, I am including Harry and the Hendersons.

The Criterion Collection summarizes the movie as follows:

In the enthralling Blow Out, brilliantly crafted by Brian De Palma, John Travolta gives one of his greatest performances, as a movie sound-effects man who believes he has accidentally recorded a political assassination. He enlists the help of a possible eyewitness to the crime (Carrie’s Nancy Allen), who may be in danger herself, to uncover the truth. With its jolting stylistic flourishes, intricate plot, profoundly felt characterizations, and gritty evocation of early-1980s Philadelphia, Blow Out is an American paranoia thriller unlike any other, as well as a devilish reflection on moviemaking.

After I finished the movie, I watched a documentary where Noah Baumbach interviews De Palma. This interview is available if you watch either the Criterion Collection disc or watch the movie on the Criterion Collection app with a subscription.

Baumbach covers a number of topics with De Palma. These include:

How John Travolta ended up playing the lead even though that was not the original plan.

How De Palma used Philadelphia landmarks for the filming. If you are familiar with the city you will regognize the Reading Terminal Market or 30th Street Station, although they have changed over the last forty years. De Palma grew up in the city and personally chose most, if not all, of the locations rather than hiring a location scout.

There is some technical talk about filming and optics that covers topics like film speed, fast lenses, f-stops, and filming outdoors at night. I especially enjoyed hearing De Palma talk about his use of the split diopter lens. Here is what one looks like:

The lens renders one side nearsighted and the other farsighted. This allows the filmmaker to capture an image where one side is close and the other is farther yet both are sharply in focus. Here is one example of a still from Blow Out:

As can be seen, the character on the left is close and in focus and the two characters on the right are farther away yet also in focus. A discussion of the split diopter lens can be found here.

I also enjoyed hearing De Palma talk about how hard he works to avoid visual cliches, especially in a film's opening. De Palma claims that the audience is most open to new visual and narrative ideas at the start of a movie, so why start with a scene that has been done to death in other movies. He gives two examples of movie opening cliches. First, a helicopter shot that flies over Manhattan to tell you the story takes place in New York City. Second, a shot that shows a car driving to the location where the story will take place. In Blow Out, De Palma opens with a long steadicam shot. This shot is a sequence from a low budget slasher movie. Only later do we find out that were are on a movie set.

Blow Out was not a box office success in 1981, probably because audiences did not like the downbeat ending with one of the major characters dying. However, since then the reputation of the movie has grown.