139 - Blow Out - 5 stars
Often cited as one of Tarantino's favourite films (I recognised the musical cue 'Jack and Sally' that he used in Death Proof). Like Tarantino, DePalma is one of cinema's great "borrowers" or "thieves", and Blow Out is his version of The Conversation or Blow Up, where someone captures evidence of a murder on recording device, in Blow Up it was a photograph, in Blow Out it is a tape recording.
Starting off with a classic bait and switch of a killing that turns out to be a movie within the movie, this film is inventive in its use of cinematic techniques; split screen, flashbacks, and in one bravado dizzying shot a continuous pan around Travolta's editing suite as the room and his mental state start to break down.
Travolta is excellent as the burnt out sound editor who gets in way over his head, and a nice creepy turn from John Lithgow as the killer.
I'm afraid that I'll have to enter #SPOILER# territory in order to discuss the ending.
Suffice to say that Travolta's character fails to prevent a murder which is recorded on audio tape. To fulfill the girl's wish of wanting to be in the movies and to punish himself for the guilt he feels, he puts her scream into the movie he's working on. Twisted genius that I absolutely loved.
Days remaining - 102 Films remaining - 122
No comments:
Post a Comment