Blow Out : 40th Anniversary - Released July 24th, 1981

This is what some loudmouth wrote about it for the wilcinema stupendous Best of the 80's Poll .........where it finished near the very top for me............and .............29th (wtf) for MAR overall..........share your thoughts......... praise it....... hate it........ throw money at it.....

"Brian De Palma, in genius mode here - creates a political thriller that goes outside itself and is linked not just to “a real life political horror” but to the movies themselves. There are very few movies - ever - that are as anti-Hollywood as Blow Out is - all while not explicitly being about that at all.

John Travolta’s Jack Terry is the prism where life and the movies are connected and susceptible to being manipulated - a sound man for grade Z level horror movies his very job is itself a withering comment on American politics/films and the “truth” we say we want from each. Opening with a (funny) movie scene parody, and ending with a (devastating) sick movie in-joke the film also finds time to mock the audience (movie lovers and the general populace) and our need for the happy ending: delivered in gleefully cruel De Palma fashion with all the stops pulled out: sweeping music, dazzling fireworks and slow-motion emotionalism.

In Blow Out the past is not only never gone - it can also never be adjusted, corrected or maybe even fully understood this time. Jack Terry (and by extension, America) never comprehends the motivations of the villain and without “knowing” he can never resolve or be at peace - he can only use the tools of his industry to inflict pain upon himself and to relive it .........at his own will.....endlessly."