Blow Out

I came across Brian de Palma's Blow Out from 1981 on a search for a key list of those great American political conspiracy thrillers that dominated the 1970s. Whilst obviously not fulfilling one of those descriptions (and debatably a couple of the others), it surely must be placed with All The President's Men and The Conversation if only for contextual reasons.

That it is a minor addition to the list is not a controversial statement. It doesn't have nearly the clarity of vision or the tautness of either Pakula's or Coppola's film. The viewer is never convinced of the depth or importance of the conspiracy John Travolta's Jack Terry is trying to uncover. It seems coincidental somehow, unimportant. Perhaps this is because the film never seems to know what it wants to be. It flits self-consciously between near-light romantic comedy and real political thriller. It reminded me of Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle romancing Betsy whilst shooting pimps and drug lords. And yet it didn't work in the way Scorsese's picture so obviously does.

This lack of certainty is reflected in the confused camera work. There is a great moment when Jack discovers all his tapes have been erased and the camera continues a dizzying circle around his office over an hour as Jack searches his office, leaves it, comes back, answers the phone and leaves again, but there is a terrible slow-motion climax as he runs to save Sally to the backdrop of fireworks and the celebrations of Liberty Day.

Much has been written about de Palma's Hitchcock fixation and his attempt at a Master of Suspense-style climax falls rather flat. But it is in this failure that the film is at its bravest. De Palma does something Hitchcock would never have done: have the hero fail. I won't spoil it by going into detail, but suffice it to say, the one moment of invention in this film is in the climax. Best place for it if you ask me.