BLOW OUT

While working on the aural effects for a new slasher film, sound technician Jack (John Travolta) is told by his director to go out and look for some new sounds. In particular, he's tasked with the job of finding "new wind".

Heading out to a local park later that evening, Jack gets out his recording equipment and starts picking up on the sounds around him: a canoodling couple who race off when they mistake him for a peeping Tom; a hooting owl; the wind cooing gently through the surrounding trees.

Then Jack picks up on a bang and turns to witness a car skidding off the road, careering down a grassy bank and into the nearby lake. Jack hurriedly dives into the water and rescues Sally (Nancy Allen) from the car. Her male partner is dead.

While waiting at the local hospital to check that Sally's okay, Jack becomes aware of a heightened presence of both police and journalists. He's then taken to one side by government official Henry (John McMartin), who advises that the deceased man in the car was Senator McRyan: a family man who was campaigning in the upcoming presidential elections. Henry warns that McRyan's reputation must remain clean, and to that end Jack must forget that either he or Sally were ever anywhere near the car.

But Jack's not the compliant type - especially when he smells a rat. Learning that Sally has been handed some hush money and asked to leave town for a while, he begins to suspect that the sound he captured on tape was not a tyre blowing out ... but a gun shot.

Smitten with the bubbly Sally, Jack tries to persuade her to stay close to him while he sets about trying to convince those in authority that a murder has been covered up and made to look like an accident. It doesn't help that the police hate Jack because of a former tragedy of his making, and that lowlife Manny (Dennis Franz) has sold bogus photographs to the press which appear to corroborate the 'blow out' theory.

With the assassin Burke (John Lithgow) on their trail in a bid to tie up "loose ends", Jack must use his skills as a sound recorder to piece together what happened and have the truth be heard.

BLOW OUT is essentially a film noir, displaced to the 1970s (it was released in 1981) and shot by Oscar winner Vilmos Zsigmond with an eye for wide compositions that utilise space and colour to frequently stunning effect.

Indeed, as sumptuous as portions of films like SCARFACE, THE UNTOUCHABLES and OBSESSION truly are, I'm hard pushed to think of any other film from director Brian De Palma that looks as consistently great as this one does. His (for the time) trademark split-screens are in evidence, but don't feel as gimmicky as they did in the likes of DRESSED TO KILL or CARRIE: they complement the finer details of the story here, and are employed sparingly but intelligently.

Travolta has never been better, delivering a perfectly pitched performance which places his character somewhere between arrogant rebel and bewildered everyman. He's really convincing and, along with De Palma's taut direction and Pino Donaggio's excellent eclectic score, the film is genuinely tense as a result.

Much like THE CONVERSATION, the film is blatantly influenced by political scandals such as Watergate and in particular Chappaquiddick. BLOW OUT nevertheless eschews any overt politics and concentrates instead on Jack's increasing paranoia within the context of his job and his protective status over Sally.

Allen is a weak link, her wide-eyed bimbo shtick being sometimes so clumsy it's embarrassing to watch. She's never been a good actress and, unfortunately, she's totally miscast here. Thankfully her dire performance (tolerated because she was De Palma's partner at the time) doesn't undermine the overall mood.

Utilising the same De Palma-supervised transfer that Criterion commissioned for their blu-ray release a short while back, Arrow Films' new region B release looks fantastic.

The film is presented uncut as a generously sized MPEG4-AVC file in fill 1080p HD. The film's original 2.40:1 aspect ratio has been adhered to, and is of course enhanced for 16x9 televisions. A fine layer of grain lends events a highly filmic vibe, while noise reduction is absent - as are edge enhancement and compression issues. Colours are deep and vivid without ever bleeding, blacks are remarkable in their solidity and depth has never been better: the film looks stunning, in a transfer that truly shows off Zsigmond's beautiful work.

English audio is provided in an uncompressed 2.0 PCM mix, and is just as impressive in its forthright cleanliness as the video presentation. Optional English subtitles for the Hard-of-Hearing are well-written and easy to read.

The disc opens to an animated main menu page. From there, pop-up menus include a scene-selection menu allowing access to BLOW OUT via 12 chapters.

Extras begin with a 27-minute chat with Zsigmond. He speaks in English about working with De Palma and visual themes in the film, such as the recurring colour scheme of red, white and blue. He also concedes that the manner in which Jack splices together photographs to create moving images in the film can't actually be done.

Allen gets a 21-minute featurette here in which she reminisces over not only the shoot but how the film was critically received. The reviews were, she notes, incredibly divisive.

"Return to Philadelphia" is an 18-minute chat with producer George Litto, who compares De Palma's work of the 1970s and 1980s to that of Hitchcock. He focuses, naturally, on BLOW OUT in the main. He admits he was reluctant to produce the film initially, but goes on to speak very highly indeed of the eventual results.

A 28-minute interview with Donaggio follows, which is a most welcome addition to the disc. He speaks in Italian with English subtitles, and discusses how his score was catered to fit both characters and themes throughout the film. He looks like one of the Chuckle brothers, but it's great to spend time in his company.

The film's original theatrical trailer is a highly entertaining 105-second effort, even if it does give a little too much of the plot away.

A small image gallery rounds off the disc's bonus features.

As ever with Arrow's releases, the packaging also goes that extra mile. In this case, we get double-sided cover artwork (as well as the cover shown above, the reverse is a nice reproduction of the original theatrical poster art with Travolta screaming) and a lovely 36-page colour booklet with liner notes and a great text interview between De Palma and Quentin Tarantino. Oh, there's also an inlay card included which confirms Arrow's plans to release PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE and SISTERS in the near-future.

So, BLOW OUT remains a great paranoid American thriller that also serves as the best commentary on the importance of sound in film this side of BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO. It's a classic, and is most likely De Palma's best film.

As this brilliant release of BLOW OUT further testifies, 2013 is the year that has seen Arrow Films become the Criterion of genre cinema. And, considering their release schedule for the rest of the year, that is a very exciting prospect indeed.

Also available in limited edition Steelbook packaging.

Review by Stuart Willis