The Pinnacle of De Palma

Conspiracy Thriller Involving A Blown Tire

I know they but what if.....they aren't?

    Elections are coming up and that means that right around this time is when the conspiracies start to transmit into everyone's mind that is susceptible enough in refusing to believe the presented facts called "THE TRUTH".

    Conspiracies are a great place for films to exist in and some of the best come out of America due to having possibly one of the most publicly discussed and dissected assassinations to ever come about; The JFK Assassination. The true key of the conspiracy comes not from the fact that a President got his head blown off on American soil but that the investigation panel, the Warren Commission, came to the conclusion that there was possibility of a conspiracy but that ultimately it was the sole work of Lee Harvey Oswald that committed the act.

    This moment of time being recognized as a true societal split between those that accepted it as one of those things and those that couldn't and needed to know the real truth. 

    These people spending their whole life wanting to discover the truth regarding this event but they are only the few die hards. The kind that appear alongside any conspiracy that will provide enough loose ground for anyone to jump into and obsess over needing to the know the truth or achieving a superior position of already knowing the truth and therefore everyone around them are susceptible in being a person against them. 

    From the outside looking in, it is tough to say if these people are closer than ever to whatever truth needs to be discovered. Minds tuning into obsession mode that grows and grows inside each person committed to their own conspiracy of choice and from the looks of it; there is doubt that anyone can ever reach a state of full satisfaction and maybe thats why they continue this lifelong journey for the truth.

    Post JFK Assassination though, America headed far more into turbulent times to cause a greater disconnect between the Federal government and the General Public at large. The failure of the Vietnam war that never seemed to end leading to Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal to ultimately, the could have been but never was presidency of Jimmy Carter. Though a new evil would be on the rise but that is a tale for another time.  

Back to the Movies 

 

    These persons of obsession are always great people to follow in the movies and when it comes to the political thriller genre, those focusing on Conspiracy being the point of interest here though I suppose all of them more or less do deal with this but let us speak of those with assassinations at the heart of it all, are ones of great growth since that November day in 1963. 

    Though political assassination is not just a strictly American sin as there are various examples that can be found in the world; Z is great film of the same sort though based on the killing Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis and The Mattai Affair dealing with the mysterious death of Enrico Mattai. Fantastic films but when it comes to America though, some great Conspiracy genre films somehow came out of the Hollywood machine;

Executive Action (1973)

The Conversation (1974)

The Parallax View (1974)

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

    Films that were reflections of the distrust of the public as well as the connection of those committing conspiratorial crimes under the guise of shadow Government forces. None of the films having any happy endings and what's interesting is that one of the highlights of the genre comes out in 1981. The film in question being Brian De Palma's Blow Out.

 

The Film

 

The French always have the best posters

    John Travolta is....Jack Terry. Foley artist extraordinaire for the low budget horror scene in Philadelphia. After watching the latest film he was working on, a low cultured slasher film where the killer is stalking around naked coeds, he is sent out by the producer/director to get some new sounds. He's had enough of that same goddamn wind effect but more importantly, the need a new scream for the girl in the movie. She sounds terrible. So Jack goes to work by heading out into the cold night with his shotgun microphone to catch the sounds of the rustling winds.
    As he hangs around in the somewhat wilderness, standing on a bridge next to nature and a two land road just a stone throws away, he catches the sounds of rustling winds, frogs croaking, a couple being weirded out by him recorded their conversation, and a strange pull and release noise in the bushes just across the way on the side of the road. Unsure of what he was hearing but he doesn't have time to think as seconds later a car traveling too fast down the road catches Jack's attention. He starts following the noise with the microphone and soon enough hears the car gets a blowout and watches as it breaks through the side of the bridge and careens into the water.
    Jack jumps into action and dives in to help out whoever was stuck in the car. A man under the bridge makes a run for it as Jack dives underwater to finds a dead body in the driver seat and a drowning call girl, played by a dreamy Nancy Allen, trapped in the back seat. 

    He ends up saving her and taking her to a hospital and as he gets questioned by police, he learns that the dead stiff is actually the Governor that was more than likely to end up as the next President. The Governor's team take the measures to hush up Jack and the call girl to avoid a scandal by getting him to take the call girl, finding out her name is Sally, out of the hospital and out of the spotlight. 

    He ends up taking her to a motel where she falls asleep easily and he goes about in giving his recording another listen. He's got a hunch that something's wrong with what went down. Listening to the tape again and again, he discovers that there was a gunshot on the recording right before the blow out.
    Jack Terry spends the rest of the film trying to uncover the truth of this assassination as well as try and prove there was a conspiracy all the while the assassin is steadily covering his tracks as killing the Governor wasn't part of the initial plans and sort of was an accident. This all leading into one of the most downer endings where Jack ruins Sally's life, kills the assassin, and ends up with nothing except the scream they needed for the horror movie. So, it all works out. Right? 

it's a good scream 

 

The Film as a Construct for De Palma

 

    For the fact that film can no longer be created in a void, there are various influences to be acknowledged when it came to Blow Out. For the plot, the biggest influence is that of 1966 Michelangelo Antonioni film Blow Up. That film deals with a photography living in the swinging 60's of England who happens to be at the right place at the right time to take a series of photos that show a murder occurring. Outside of this idea of capturing a murder though, De Palma flips it around and channels the paranoia, or fading public paranoia as this was 1981 and it was a new day in America with Ronnie Reagan in control, he had felt during the JFK assassination up to the Watergate scandal. Using all this as well as stylish story telling techniques to tell a story of a man obsessed with getting the truth out there.

    Why is the truth so important though for Jack Terry? No one ever questioned him about what he did or did not see. Is the truth something that he needs to tell via altruistic means? Or is there something more to be gained? Is is a chance for him to make a name for himself? An opportunity to have a better jump in his career and move up? Far more selfish reasons seem to be the reason for him to tell the truth than just wanting to solve this mystery and cast a light on this shadow organization that killed a political target.

    There is something fascinating being done in this film that can be pointed as doing something wholly original compared to other conspiracy thrillers. The hero in this isn't some officer of the law or something adjacent like a lawyer or bureaucrat. The hero is a technician that happened to catch something way outside his understanding but what he does understand is filmmaking and watching that is especially fantastic. A lot of Travolta does is in silence. He is mostly reacting to everyone around him but trying his best to make his case that there was something more here.    

    As a craftsman, this film showcases the true essence of show don't tell. Brian De Palma is using the techniques that Alfred Hitchcock brought to film but going beyond them. Scenes in which little or no dialogue with little to no music present and we just watch Travolta go to work. We see him buy a magazine with footage of the car crashing into the water and we just watch as he cuts out the images, using a still shot camera and creates a reel to make a low quality print of the assassination. This leading to another scene of Jack working on timing the sound he recorded to the assassination film. Working it down to the minuscule detail to have proper synced sound to the film. Then there's this wonderful scene of him checking all the tapes of recorded sounds as the camera spins around and around as he finds out that all the tapes have been erased. Outside of Jack, there are plenty of Steadicam shots throughout the film well and De Palma using those is like butter on toasted bread. It just makes sense and its all the better for it.

   Hitchcock had Bernard Hermann and De Palma has Pino Dinaggio. The music with Pino Dinaggio is phenomenal. There is a soft and sensitive theme that plays all throughout the film and this ultimately gets flipped on its head when that last scene comes around and Jack is coping with the death of Sally. There are the songs that build up the tension in a scene and its all just so wonderful. This film and accompanying score is possibly one of the closest things that Brian De Palma has to be considered a Giallo. 

    John Travolta probably gives one of his best performances in this film but John Lithgow probably deserves the most recognition for what he brings as the assassin. Though this isn't to knock Nancy Allen who plays Sally with an airhead quality but its so sincere, dreamy, and grounded that you can't help but fall in love with her and be heart broken when the ending comes around.

The Auteur at Work

 

    If you look through his filmography, this is the one film for De Palma that runs deeper than just him as working on a film. This was the one movie where he had complete autonomy. Control over the script, budget, and casting. His film totally but there was something else in the air regarding the production. This was also the beginning of the end with his own relationship with Nancy Allen. Having already worked on Carrie and Dressed to Kill; He admits in the fantastic documentary De Palma that their relationship was on the rocks and they weren't interested in making another movie together but John Travolta came in and having wanted to work with them again since Carrie, they lamented. Which ultimately became the end of them.

    Watching this film with that realization makes me believe that he was unconsciously directing a film about himself as the main character surviving jaded through a film but ultimately able to complete it by making that sacrifice. That finally punchline, or gut punch really, of Jack using Sally's death scream for the scream in is his horror movie is so chilling to see. Who else would have that as the last scene in a movie? The hero doesn't win, the conspiracy gets away, and the girl dies at the end. What does any of it mean? Or does it mean that nothing truly matters?

 

Reflections in the Refractions

    When this film came out in 1981, it bombed at the box office and was a hit with the critics. There was a real sense that the critics were actually in support of De Palma for the first time but how come something  like this not attract the public at large?

    I believe that the problem was that this was the end of the era for Political Thrillers with the introduction of Ronald Reagan as president. No reason to have false beliefs that you couldn't trust the government anymore. The guy negotiated a deal with Iran within the first couple of days to get those hostages free. Got the job done. FOR AMERICA. We gotta beat the Russians. It was a tidal wave of change for America and one of the main areas that was hit was Movies. People didn't want bummers anymore and if there was ever a movie with a bummer; it's this one.

    I have a great affection for this film as it is possibly my favorite Brian De Palma film and it is also the one where I have a clear view into the inner being of the director. His cynical & pessimistic view of a man working to his full ability to bring change to the world via the truth but the only truth one can gather is the screams of those who suffer through it. God I love this movie.