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ACF #23: Blow Out
Folks, here’s the completion of my trilogy with John Presnall on liberalism confronted with technological surveillance: Brian De Palma’s Blow Out, which puts together image and sound, Antonioni’s Blow-Up and Coppola’s The Conversation, turning these theoretical studies of art and technology into a practical matter — where does art stand to corrupt politics in our world.
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Published in Podcasts
I liked this movie. Listening to your analysis now.
Oh, now I want to see it again! Wasn’t Nancy Allen married to Brian De Palma at the time? Good analysis, Titus. I remember you could really identify with Travolta, this everyday regular guy who begins to realize he might be sitting on such explosive information. Haha! “Explosive”! See what I did there?
The excellent fireworks scene was classic DePalma, but overall this was a Meh(!) for me. Haven’t listened yet, so maybe that’ll change my opinion. Unimpressed by Lithgow.
Do!, yes!, thanks!, & yes!
When you watch it again, pay attention to all the stuff happening in the background. It surprised me how much is going on to make a re-viewing as exciting as seeing it the first time.
Watch it again when you’re in the mood for De Palma. Or just outraged by the way media covers up political corruption. Either could do…
Didn’t even think of it-
Titus – a really enjoyable series. I was not familiar with Blow Up so I had to watch it, but had seen both The Conversation and Blow Out a few times. Will have to watch them both again in light of your commentaries. Keep it up!
Thanks, kindly, for the compliment. The movies are of course worth watching again, especially once you realize how much the characters announce our times of complete surveillance. They were ahead of their times…
Finally caught up to this. Had to get through Frankenstein first.
I like this movie. Dennis Franz is great; nobody does a sleazy sack of crap like he did. I like John Lithgow as a bad guy, and I think he should have done more of it. (The only other one I can think of is the Stallone vehicle on the mountain top.) Although, I’m not sure bad guy is really the right description. It was more like amorally methodical.
But it wasn’t a good scream. In terms of the shower scene they were doing, Nancy Allen’s scream isn’t much better than the one they started with. It was really more of a cry for help than a blood curdling screech.
He also has a role as a loser director of bad horror in Body double, where you wish you saw more of his sleaze, in that case doubling up as fake niceness. Could have been a remarkable character actor but for TV…
You’re forgetting his playing a psychotic killer over against Denzel’s good guy cop!
That’s a good point. De Palma is looking at something other than, say, Lovecraft. At what people remember, or what is decisive in one’s life. Unforgettable moments. Tragedy, in short.
Oh yeah, I remember that one now. One of Kevin Pollack’s early character roles, although even then they couldn’t resist having him do Shatner.
With him, to do is to do in-
I like him as an actor. Did you ever see Deterrence? Starring role, small movie.
Didn’t know it! Tim Hutton, eh? He could have been grand–was old-school, as per his role in the two-season series of Nero Wolfe stories where he played Archie Goodwin. I like’im!