Quote:
Originally Posted by bwdowiak
I finished watching my borrowed copy of Blow Out this past weekend. Great film! I watched the first half on my laptop during my lunch hour on Thursday and finished the film on Saturday afternoon.
[Show spoiler]The first half of the film kept me interested, but I felt that it was only ‘okay’ to ‘good’ after 50 minutes or so. All of the nods to Alfred Hitchcock (I counted 3 by the half way mark) made me recall the rock band Oasis – chock full of homages, but mostly only pleasing in a superficial way.
I did not expect the second half of the film to take me where it did. The first half really felt like a straightforward mystery that was destined to tie itself up by crossing every t and dotting every i. I love how Jack’s (Travolta) ability to only listen and not help Sally at the end of the film parallels his inability to prove his theory about the tire being shot out. All he has is the audio. There is a line in the film where one of the other characters lays it out for him in plain English… Sorry, I don’t recall who spoke the line or what the dialogue is exactly, but a man tells Jack that with only audio, he won’t be able to prove anything.
The ending is rather bleak. The brilliant last line of the film, “That’s a good scream,” repeated twice by Jack, reveals that he is resigned to the fact that he won’t be able to prove his theory and, after all, he is just a sound guy for low budget horror films.
Masterful camera work, phenomenal finish… told my wife that she and I will be watching this very soon – this time in 1080p. Worth about 8/10 for me. A subsequent viewing could make it a 9. |
That is so ironic!
I also watched
Blow Out myself this past weekend (on Saturday night in fact) and it was the 2nd or 3rd time for me seeing this. Revisiting the film again was rewarding as I understood more details about the story than I did the first time I saw it. A lot of people don't like what De Palma did to Nancy Allen's character toward the end, but I accepted it.
Last night I watched
The Big Lebowski for the first time in years. Having matured since I saw the original film in the theater in 1998 (yes, I was lucky to see this in the theater before it became a cult success story), I found myself laughing at scenes I never recalled laughing at in the past. I think great movies can do that to you.