Such a great performance from him! And unlike anything I’ve seen from him before. Just his expression at the end of the film said it all. Thanks for watching!
@@ReelReviewsWithJen please tell me you’ve watched Saturday Night Fever. Probably his best performance along with Blow Out. Travolta thrives in gritty movies.
DePalma was one of the most consistent directors for about 20 years straight from the 70’s-90’s. Check out Carrie, Sisters, Dressed to Kill, Body Double, and non genre classics like Scarface, Carlito’s Way, The Untouchables and Casualties of War to name just some of his best.
The music for Blowout was composed by Pino Donnagio, who also did the music for other De Palma films such as Carrie, Dressed To Kill, and Body Double, as well as the werewolf movie, The Howling.
I nearly had kittens when you said you're diving into the De Palma rabbit hole Jen! 🤩 Absolute genius and probably my all time favourite director. Definitely recommend The Fury which bizarrely people forget to mention! It's like a sister film to Carrie, with some unforgettable moments!
Seriously, it amazed me that this movie has not been seen by a lot of people! It really represented the paranoia of the '60s/ 70s (Kennedy, The Watergate, Nixon, etc). So tragic!
Vilmos Zsigmond is the DP and I am in awe of his work here. Thank you Jen for posting this response. Blow Out is in my Top 5 favorite films. I am in complete agreement with your statements about Blow Out. Visuals, audio, music, editing and the acting are balanced to create and tell a complex and moving story. Nancy Allen wanted a love scene with John Travolta. Travolta and De Palma chose against this idea and the choice was proper. That final scene is heartbreaking. Blow Out is a masterpiece of filmmaking.
The director of photography is Vilmos Zsigmond (1930 - 2016) who also was DP for John Boorman's Deliverance, Steven Spiwlberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Brian De Palma's Obsession, The Black Dahlia, Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter.
@@ReelReviewsWithJen A year after this movie came out John Lithgow's next movie was "The World According To Garp" Starring Robin Williams. John plays a man getting a sex change. This was Glenn Close's first movie. They both were nominated for Oscars. I love this movie. And you're are right 3rd Rock From The Sun is brilliant!! My favorite DePalma movie "The Untouchables"(1987), this movie made Kevin Costner a star and won Sean Connery an Oscar.
That was pretty good. A few influences in there I think, as I'm sure others will mention. Hitchcock definitely comes to mind, as well as Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow Up", in which a fashion photographer catches something in one of his photos during a shoot. Another film that springs to mind is "The Conversation" from 1974 with Gene Hackman. Good review Jen!
Absolutely "Blow Up" and absolute "The Conversation", two masterpieces that "Blow Out" doesn't even come close to approaching. Please, Jen, for all that's holy, definitely react to "Blow Up" and "The Conversation", those are essential films for any movie lover. I'll guarantee you they're listed in those books on your shelves behind you!
Check out Brian De Palma's _Phantom of the Paradise,_ a truly bizarre rock musical horror comedy, which he wrote and directed. For some reason, it has gained a huge cult following in Winnipeg.
I wouldn't call this movie a horror movie, but your mileage may very. Fun Fact: The Liberty Day Parade was filmed using 11 cameras, 1,000 extras, 25 stunt drivers, vehicles from the Philadelphia Fire and Police Departments, and it also used a special helicopter-mounted camera rig brought in from Norway.
Blow Out may not be a horror movie, but it is a commentary and satire of horror movies with Jack Terry's sound effects expert who works on horror movies ending up getting involved in a murder mystery that mirrors the fictional situations that he works on in the films he makes.
I saw this at the drive-in when it came out. I always thought it was one of Travolta's underrated movies. I had no recollection of John Lithgow being in it. It was cool to see Travolta and Nancy Allen reunited, having appeared together previously in _Carrie._
Fun Fact: Nancy Allen, who plays Sally, appeared in two previous Brian De Palma films, Carrie and Dressed To Kill. She was also married to Brian De Palma from 1979 to 1984.
Fun Fact: Quentin Tarantino considers Blowout to be his favorite film. Another Fun Fact: Blowout is inspired by both the films of Alfred Hitchcock and the 1966 Michelangelo Antonioni thriller, Blow Up.
Did you notice the moments in Jack's recording where Jack could hear the sound of Burke compulsively tugging on the garotte wire in his wristwatch? A little twist De Palma threw in there.
It’s not a horror film but if you like John Lithgow check out The World According to Garp, it’s a comedy/drama from 1982 with Robin Williams and Glenn Close. Lithgow was nominated for best supporting actor and his performance is incredible.
I'm ecstatic to see you responding to De Palma in this way. He is one of the true artists American cinema has produced, a great original, and unlike any other member of his film brat generation. In reading about De Palma, you'll find the word "pastiche" used quite often, and hear him described as a Hitchcock ripoff, which is not only a fundamental misunderstanding of De Palma, but also of Hitchcock. Although the two filmmakers bear a striking resemblance in the baroque and the lurid pulp mystery (De Palma seems to welcome his bad reputation by recycling Hitchock's trademark visuals whenever he can), and who's narratives are constructed on a singular events (murders, rape, assassinations, ect.) their technical methods are applied to radically different ends, and by result, no two personalities could be more different. Hitchcock was a dirty old man, a sadist, who also happened to be one of the best filmmakers in the world. His mind was forever set in the values of turn-of-the-century England, which made the taboo breaking all the more naughty, and his murder sequences more satisfyingly brutal. But following that, Hitchcock was obsessed with the deconstruction of the event, which usually involved an innocent man, wrongfully accused, trying to prove his innocence. His camera technics therefore reflected absolute clarity, and an attempt to reproduce (as realistically as possible) the effects of vision and human eye. Even his surrealists sequences (one in particular, designed by Salvador Dali for Spellbound) were done completely straight, without any obfuscation of what the audience is seeing. De Palma, by contrast, could not be more different. His psyche was hard wired by the 1960s: by the Zapuder footage, of drugs, and of Vietnam, not to mention the wave of films coming from Europe which heralded new techniques and self awareness. So what you see in De Palma's films is him also deconstructing an event, but this time, utilizing all the elements of cinema to see what the eye can not. People don't naturally see in split-diopters, in split-screens, in roaming God's eye overhead shots or elaborately choreographed POVs, or 360 degree spins, but De Palma understands the medium well enough to hold these elements together as a visual language, a vocabulary, all in the service of looking of a murder more closely. When we contrast the intent of Hitchcock and De Palma in this light, their differences come into focus: Hitchcock wants the murder to take place in order to see it clearly, whereas De Palma can't see it clearly, though he's trying (in vain) to find some sort of justice in the recording of it.
Brian De Palma also directed Carrie with John Travolta. Another great movie worth checking out from 1974 is Francis Ford Coppola's favorite movie The Conversation with Gene Hackman and a young Harrison Ford. It gets hugely overlooked because it fell between the first and second Godfather movies. Definitely worth doing.
Additional comments: I appreciate you doing reactions to movies like this. There are many more great movies during the late 60's to 80's that are criminally overlooked or ignored. Petulia (1968 w/George C Scott), The Sting (1973 best picture w/ Newman & Redford), The French Connection (1971 best picture w/ Gene Hackman), The Getaway (1972 Steve McQueen), The Conversation (1974 Hackman), The Parallax View (1974 Warren Beatty), The Driver (1979 Ryan O'Neal). That's just scratching the surface. Again, thanks for bringing us these awesome reactions.
Highly recommend Brian De Palma's SISTERS next. Truly scary with a tremendous score and a fantastic performance by Margot Kidder Oh, and that's my old chum Nancy playing Sally.
My favorite De Palma films are Dressed to Kill (must see!), Raising Cain (with J. Lithgow as the main actor), Carrie (based on Stephen King's book), Sisters, and Femme Fatale.
Oh man! That’s awesome! I haven’t seen the other Brian De Palma films yet but I definitely want to. Yes! RoboCop! I thought her name sounded familiar! Thanks for watching!
Blowout took some real life inspiration as well, Jen, such as the Abraham Zapruder film of John F. Kennedy's assassination and the subsequent conspiracy theories, as well as the Chappaquiddick island incident involving Senator Ted Kennedy where a young woman named Mary Jo Kopechne who was in his car died when Kennedy had accidentally driven his car off the side of a bridge and into a pond. Kennedy made it out alive, but Kopechne drowned and Kennedy was charged with negligence and leaving the scene of an accident.
Blow Out is DePalma's best film during his early 70s to mid 80s period. It's better than Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Body Double, and Scarface, imo. But my favorite DePalma movies came later with The Untouchables, Carlito's Way, and Mission Impossible where they were more crime drama/action films and he threw in Hitchcockian touches, but didn't try to copycat his work entirely.
PS: Since I don't see anyone having responded to your question about Vilmos Zsigmond, he acted as cinematographer for a total of four De Palma films, including Obsession, Bonfire of the Vanities, and The Black Dahlia. Moreover, he was one of the great directors of photography to emerge in the past half century, and his collaborations with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Robert Altman, and Michael Cimino remain legendary. www.imdb.com/name/nm0005936/
The shot of Sally reaching out and screaming in front of the giant American flag is one of the iconic images from this film and is often used as a screenshot in reviews of the film. Another little detail is that the Lithgow character playing with the garotte wire in his watch is one of the sounds Jack records before the auto accident, before he sees the owl, that he can't figure out what the sound he's hearing is.
The opening scene of Blowout with the slasher film editing might look familiar to you, Jen. Brian De Palma took inspiration from the opening scenes of both Halloween and Black Christmas. lol 😆
This was inspired by the movie Blow Up (1966) A fashion photographer is out taking pictures in a park and when he develops them back in his darkroom he sees a something he never noticed while taking it. A possible murder.
If you're looking for a horror film by De Palma "Carrie" would be first choice, he also made a film called "The Fury" which is a horror and is quite Scanners-esque. In terms of thrillers "Dressed to Kill, Raising Kane (which also features John Lithgow) and Body Double" are all good films. Body Double might be difficult to react to on RUclips though because it has a lot of nudity in it,
Yes! Great reaction. I've always been baffled by those who dismiss Blow-Out as a mere rehash of Blow-Up. It's a riff, not a rip-off. De Palma takes the kernel at the heart of the arty Blow-Up and crafts a masterful popular thriller. The two films aim for very different effects, formally and emotionally. By the title alone De Palma draws a clear connection to the earlier film. It's my favorite of his movies.
Because at the time it came right after "Dressed To Kill", so we perceived him as just a rip-off artist (when his friends and contemporaries like Scorsese, Spielberg and Coppola were making some of their best work, not to mention lots of other directors on the scene at the time). I loved "Carrie" - I'll even forgive the music quote from "Psycho" that's in it! - but I always saw him as a hack, and still do. I certainly don't see him any where near in the same league as most of his contemporaries, or even his offspring, like Tarantino.
@@TTM9691 It's interesting that you mention Tarantino, as he strikes me as precisely what De Palma is accused of being: a pastiche machine. Dressed to Kill and Blow-Out are far more sophisticated in the way they play with their inspirations/sources, in my view. But that's just me. Different strokes for different folks.
@@andrewforbes1433 That's exactly correct. I just think he does it better than De Palma. (And I'm not a total Tarantino acolyte either, but I rate him higher than De Palma)
After decades of hearing about DePalma ripping off Antonioni ad nauseam, I really have to wonder how many of these people have actually seen both films, and how many just like to sound smart at parties/on the internet. They are almost nothing alike, and even the magnification scenes in Blow Up are very cinematically different to the listening scenes in Blow Out. It makes me wonder, too, how many of these sneering office-chair critics have even seen anything else in Antonioni's filmography - Blow Up is yet another chapter in the filmmaker's recurring themes of isolation and obsession in contemporary men, where you're meant to question the photographer's state of mind as much as his conclusions. DePalma's film is after something much different, a straightforward, almost procedural suspense story where you suspect everyone's motivations BUT the protagonist's. (And I have similar problems with the just-as-tiresome and thoughtless accusations of Hitchcock plagarism, but that's a rant for another day!)
Riff is a good way of describing it. He obviously does it constantly with Hitchcock too. It's a master director showing off his understanding of other great work.
Check out F/X for a similar sort of movie to Blow Out. In F/X, the protagonist is a special effects artist who finds himself using his movie-making skills to unravel a thriller plot. There's also a sequel F/X 2 which isn't terrible.
Told you you would like the camera work. If you like another last 70s early 80s conspiracy movie, I recommend “3 Days of the Condor” starring Robert Redford. As far as horror movie recommendations, how the the obscure movies “Evil Speak” starring Clint Howard and one of Bill Paxton’s first movies “Mortuary “ from 1983.
Thanks for another great reaction video, Jen. I know exactly how you feel. Blowout broke my heart the first time I saw it as well. If you're interested in more of Brian De Palma's films, again, I recommend Carrie, Dressed To Kill, The Fury, and Body Double.
One last thing about soundtracks. In ❤1966, Woody Allen bought a cheap Japanese spy movie and re-dubbed it with jokes. Ex: Gorgeous Femme Fatale comes into our hero dressed only in a fur coat. She drops the fur coat and says "Name three Presidents."
Other movies in which Lithgow plays a villain include Raising Cain, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Cliffhanger, Shrek, and Ricochet.
OMFGD I LOVE 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY MORE AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! If ya wanna see a great John Lithgow film, try Raising Cain!!! Another Brian De Palma gem.
Not many people reacting to this one, yet it is fascinating. Bad word of mouth because of the downbeat ending made people stay away. I was fascinated by the closeup work, the split screen effect that is actually only one shot, and the sounds themselves being so intimate. I was going to recommend this one after Face Off, as Travolta really shows his acting chops here. Nice job in the reactions, we could see you get involved in the story being told. Is it horror? Not to my mind, but certainly can make a person uncomfortable! Sheesh, all that trouble to get a decent scream on tape!
If you'd like another interesting process sequence, To Live and Die in LA shows extreme detail of counterfeiting money. John Lithgow was mainly a villain for a big chunk of his career. (Raising Cain, Cliffhanger come to mind) First time I saw him as anything else was in the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun
De Palma's Best film amd Travolta best acting his film career. That's the movie is why he got the role of Vincent in Pulp Fiction and also Quentin Tarantion favorite movie was BLOW OUT.
Love hearing you one-out on the nuances of film making. I've always done the same thing. I remember the weird looks I got the first time I saw "Friday the 13th" in the theater. I was laughing through the gore scenes. People had no idea that my mind was picking apart how the effect was shot.
Yeah I loved this film on two levels, the actual film itself and then the way it shows the process of filmmaking. So cool! I love learning about that stuff, thanks for watching!
This is a rare example of an American version of a foreign movie that I liked. I like Blowup better but this movie is a respectable take on the material. De Palma has done some pretty good movies. Dressed to Kill, Casualties of War, Scarface, and The Untouchables were all well done. Carrie might be his best overall though, that movie is just about perfect in every way although it's just a low budget horror film.
This is not a horror film. This is part of the genre known as "thrillers" - tales usually revolving around crime and murder that are all about tension and suspense, not necessarily evoking fear or horror. The genres do tend to bleed into each other, often sharing film techniques and subject matter (and surely tension is a huge part of getting to the feeling of horror), but they have some key differences - thrillers tend more towards noir, gangsters, cops, and espionage ("spy thriller" is a whole big subgenre of its own), and away from the supernatural and goriness more typical of horror. Of course, there are movies, and even whole minigenres, that elide these categores - giallo slashers, in particular, inhabit the perfect middle distance between thriller and horror - but I think such classifications (and arguments about classification) are helpful and interesting ways to explore cinema, rather than just lumping everything vaguely related into broad, almost meaningless categories.
This is my favourite Brian De Palma movie. Reminds me a lot of The Conversation from Coppola and of course Blow up. Other great de Palmas are Dressed to Kill and Carrie. There he was very influenced by Hitchcock. Later movies like Scarface and The Untouchables are okay too. But not my favourites.
I have only watched less than half a dozen Brian De Palma films. I have watched the 1976 version of Carrie which also starred John Travolta and Nancy Allen. I am really enjoying your commentary. Again keep up the good work.
I have this movie in my DVD collection!! It's a great neo noir political thriller, where John Travolta plays a sound effects designer whom recreates a political murder by car crash with a sight and sound montage.
DePalma is a master. For an early gem, check out Sisters. For another movie about filmmaking, check out Body Double. For another pairing with John Lithgow, check out Raising Cain (the recent rerelease on BluRay has the best edit).
Great movie, glad you watched it =) 7:33 You should watch "Crash" from 1996, very dark and deranged. 8:43 They still do this with exclusive "news" items.
Which is not to say Blow-Out is bad. Not at all. Neither was the 1973 The Conversation. Both borrowed HEAVILY from Blow-Up, especially the middle section, where Travolta gets involved in the PROCESS. It's almost as engrossing as the PROCESS Hemmings engages in during the middle of Blow-Up. Maybe it's due to the director being Italian (this was his first color and English-language movie) but everyone in Blow-Up is clean and attractive. No Dennis Franzes on view. And why shouldn't everyone be goodlooking? It's a movie!
This is an Americanized version of the 1966 movie set in England called Blow-Up, about a fashion photog played by David Hemmings. Vanessa Redgrave stars opposite Hemmings. The British Union of Screen Actors made the Italian director give them names in the credits. So they are Thomas and Jane. And Austin Powers owes everything he has, had, or will have to Thomas's character. Blow-Up is better.
You might want to check out The Fury. It’s not my absolute favorite De Palma movie but it’s interesting, has more of a horror vibe, and a Scanners vibe. :)
I’m not sure if I recommended the Brian Depalma movie Raising Cain yet but if not,I’m doing it now.It features a (to me anyway) great,very entertaining lead performance by John Lithgow,and a twist I thought was good(sick,but good)
you should checkout Body Double and Dressed to kill like blow out overlook as a masterpiece if you pay attention Depalma is channeling a little Hitchcock in his films
I really appreciate your reaction to this movie this is one of the best suspenseful Thrillers of all time in my opinion. Please check out the Siskel and Ebert positive review of this review of this movie. I hope in time you will react to Dressed to Kill and body double I don't think you will be disappointed. Please keep up with the variety of selections to the movies you are reacting to
“Wow, now that’s a scream!!”
“Yeah, it’s a good scream.”
The ending of this movie is incredible, Travolta’s best performance imo.
Such a great performance from him! And unlike anything I’ve seen from him before. Just his expression at the end of the film said it all. Thanks for watching!
@@ReelReviewsWithJen please tell me you’ve watched Saturday Night Fever. Probably his best performance along with Blow Out. Travolta thrives in gritty movies.
DePalma was one of the most consistent directors for about 20 years straight from the 70’s-90’s. Check out Carrie, Sisters, Dressed to Kill, Body Double, and non genre classics like Scarface, Carlito’s Way, The Untouchables and Casualties of War to name just some of his best.
Mission Impossible is pretty good, too.
Those are also genre movies - gangster, cop, and war films. Every bit as genre as thriller and horror.
The music for Blowout was composed by Pino Donnagio, who also did the music for other De Palma films such as Carrie, Dressed To Kill, and Body Double, as well as the werewolf movie, The Howling.
I nearly had kittens when you said you're diving into the De Palma rabbit hole Jen! 🤩 Absolute genius and probably my all time favourite director. Definitely recommend The Fury which bizarrely people forget to mention! It's like a sister film to Carrie, with some unforgettable moments!
Oo yeah I second that, I love The Fury, I hope she does that one too!
Seriously, it amazed me that this movie has not been seen by a lot of people! It really represented the paranoia of the '60s/ 70s (Kennedy, The Watergate, Nixon, etc). So tragic!
Vilmos Zsigmond is the DP and I am in awe of his work here. Thank you Jen for posting this response. Blow Out is in my Top 5 favorite films. I am in complete agreement with your statements about Blow Out. Visuals, audio, music, editing and the acting are balanced to create and tell a complex and moving story. Nancy Allen wanted a love scene with John Travolta. Travolta and De Palma chose against this idea and the choice was proper. That final scene is heartbreaking. Blow Out is a masterpiece of filmmaking.
The director of photography is Vilmos Zsigmond (1930 - 2016) who also was DP for John Boorman's Deliverance, Steven Spiwlberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Brian De Palma's Obsession, The Black Dahlia, Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter.
I will never forget that ending!
It’s memorable for sure 😬 thanks for watching!
@@ReelReviewsWithJen A year after this movie came out John Lithgow's next movie was "The World According To Garp" Starring Robin Williams. John plays a man getting a sex change. This was Glenn Close's first movie. They both were nominated for Oscars. I love this movie. And you're are right 3rd Rock From The Sun is brilliant!! My favorite DePalma movie "The Untouchables"(1987), this movie made Kevin Costner a star and won Sean Connery an Oscar.
DePalma's Sisters is effing deranged with a streak of jet black humour throughout.
I laughed pretty hard when I figured out what was happening in the opening. It works on multiple levels.
That was pretty good. A few influences in there I think, as I'm sure others will mention. Hitchcock definitely comes to mind, as well as Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow Up", in which a fashion photographer catches something in one of his photos during a shoot. Another film that springs to mind is "The Conversation" from 1974 with Gene Hackman. Good review Jen!
Absolutely "Blow Up" and absolute "The Conversation", two masterpieces that "Blow Out" doesn't even come close to approaching. Please, Jen, for all that's holy, definitely react to "Blow Up" and "The Conversation", those are essential films for any movie lover. I'll guarantee you they're listed in those books on your shelves behind you!
Check out Brian De Palma's _Phantom of the Paradise,_ a truly bizarre rock musical horror comedy, which he wrote and directed. For some reason, it has gained a huge cult following in Winnipeg.
I wouldn't call this movie a horror movie, but your mileage may very.
Fun Fact: The Liberty Day Parade was filmed using 11 cameras, 1,000 extras, 25 stunt drivers, vehicles from the Philadelphia Fire and Police Departments, and it also used a special helicopter-mounted camera rig brought in from Norway.
Master of horror tv series recommend watching it 😊
Blow Out may not be a horror movie, but it is a commentary and satire of horror movies with Jack Terry's sound effects expert who works on horror movies ending up getting involved in a murder mystery that mirrors the fictional situations that he works on in the films he makes.
I saw this at the drive-in when it came out. I always thought it was one of Travolta's underrated movies. I had no recollection of John Lithgow being in it. It was cool to see Travolta and Nancy Allen reunited, having appeared together previously in _Carrie._
I'm glad you got to Blowout, Jen! It was filmed in my home city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which is also where director Brian De Palma is from.
This is one of several films with scenes shot at 30th Street Station; also Witness and Glass.
Fun Fact: Nancy Allen, who plays Sally, appeared in two previous Brian De Palma films, Carrie and Dressed To Kill. She was also married to Brian De Palma from 1979 to 1984.
Fun Fact: Quentin Tarantino considers Blowout to be his favorite film. Another Fun Fact: Blowout is inspired by both the films of Alfred Hitchcock and the 1966 Michelangelo Antonioni thriller, Blow Up.
"Blow up"
@@Fedorevsky Sorry. I meant to type Blow Up. Typo. lol Thanks for catching that.
@@44excalibur Yeah, I figured as much. Just had to correct it for others reading as Blow up is such a great film as well.
@@Fedorevsky Yes it is. Typing from a phone is a pain, so thanks. lol
@@44excalibur Oh believe me, I too know the pain of phones and their diabolical spell check functions and heinously small touch spot letters, lol
Did you notice the moments in Jack's recording where Jack could hear the sound of Burke compulsively tugging on the garotte wire in his wristwatch? A little twist De Palma threw in there.
It’s not a horror film but if you like John Lithgow check out The World According to Garp, it’s a comedy/drama from 1982 with Robin Williams and Glenn Close. Lithgow was nominated for best supporting actor and his performance is incredible.
I'm ecstatic to see you responding to De Palma in this way. He is one of the true artists American cinema has produced, a great original, and unlike any other member of his film brat generation. In reading about De Palma, you'll find the word "pastiche" used quite often, and hear him described as a Hitchcock ripoff, which is not only a fundamental misunderstanding of De Palma, but also of Hitchcock. Although the two filmmakers bear a striking resemblance in the baroque and the lurid pulp mystery (De Palma seems to welcome his bad reputation by recycling Hitchock's trademark visuals whenever he can), and who's narratives are constructed on a singular events (murders, rape, assassinations, ect.) their technical methods are applied to radically different ends, and by result, no two personalities could be more different. Hitchcock was a dirty old man, a sadist, who also happened to be one of the best filmmakers in the world. His mind was forever set in the values of turn-of-the-century England, which made the taboo breaking all the more naughty, and his murder sequences more satisfyingly brutal. But following that, Hitchcock was obsessed with the deconstruction of the event, which usually involved an innocent man, wrongfully accused, trying to prove his innocence. His camera technics therefore reflected absolute clarity, and an attempt to reproduce (as realistically as possible) the effects of vision and human eye. Even his surrealists sequences (one in particular, designed by Salvador Dali for Spellbound) were done completely straight, without any obfuscation of what the audience is seeing. De Palma, by contrast, could not be more different. His psyche was hard wired by the 1960s: by the Zapuder footage, of drugs, and of Vietnam, not to mention the wave of films coming from Europe which heralded new techniques and self awareness. So what you see in De Palma's films is him also deconstructing an event, but this time, utilizing all the elements of cinema to see what the eye can not. People don't naturally see in split-diopters, in split-screens, in roaming God's eye overhead shots or elaborately choreographed POVs, or 360 degree spins, but De Palma understands the medium well enough to hold these elements together as a visual language, a vocabulary, all in the service of looking of a murder more closely. When we contrast the intent of Hitchcock and De Palma in this light, their differences come into focus: Hitchcock wants the murder to take place in order to see it clearly, whereas De Palma can't see it clearly, though he's trying (in vain) to find some sort of justice in the recording of it.
Brian De Palma also directed Carrie with John Travolta. Another great movie worth checking out from 1974 is Francis Ford Coppola's favorite movie The Conversation with Gene Hackman and a young Harrison Ford. It gets hugely overlooked because it fell between the first and second Godfather movies. Definitely worth doing.
Additional comments: I appreciate you doing reactions to movies like this. There are many more great movies during the late 60's to 80's that are criminally overlooked or ignored. Petulia (1968 w/George C Scott), The Sting (1973 best picture w/ Newman & Redford), The French Connection (1971 best picture w/ Gene Hackman), The Getaway (1972 Steve McQueen), The Conversation (1974 Hackman), The Parallax View (1974 Warren Beatty), The Driver (1979 Ryan O'Neal). That's just scratching the surface. Again, thanks for bringing us these awesome reactions.
Highly recommend Brian De Palma's SISTERS next. Truly scary with a tremendous score and a fantastic performance by Margot Kidder
Oh, and that's my old chum Nancy playing Sally.
The actor playing Manny Karp is Dennis Franz. He played Det. Sipowicz on NYPD Blue.
I haven’t seen NYPD Blue 😬
I saw this film in the theater, back in the day. And I've thought of it every time I hear a really good movie scream or a really bad movie scream.
My favorite De Palma films are Dressed to Kill (must see!), Raising Cain (with J. Lithgow as the main actor), Carrie (based on Stephen King's book), Sisters, and Femme Fatale.
Carrie from 1976 is my favorite movie 😊
Did you know "Sally" is played by DePalma's wife, Nancy Allen? She's in Carrie, "Dressed To Kill" and "Robocop".
Oh man! That’s awesome! I haven’t seen the other Brian De Palma films yet but I definitely want to. Yes! RoboCop! I thought her name sounded familiar! Thanks for watching!
Blow Out is my favorite of the DePalma movies I've seen. The very ending is a super bleak gut punch though, whew! Nice job on the reaction/review.
Thank you so much! Yeah I really enjoyed this movie! I need to watch more of his work for sure, thanks for watching!
Blowout took some real life inspiration as well, Jen, such as the Abraham Zapruder film of John F. Kennedy's assassination and the subsequent conspiracy theories, as well as the Chappaquiddick island incident involving Senator Ted Kennedy where a young woman named Mary Jo Kopechne who was in his car died when Kennedy had accidentally driven his car off the side of a bridge and into a pond. Kennedy made it out alive, but Kopechne drowned and Kennedy was charged with negligence and leaving the scene of an accident.
Peak villainous Lithgow.... Ricochet, Cliffhanger and Raising Cain.
Yeah, Ricochet was really underrated!
Blow Out is DePalma's best film during his early 70s to mid 80s period. It's better than Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Body Double, and Scarface, imo. But my favorite DePalma movies came later with The Untouchables, Carlito's Way, and Mission Impossible where they were more crime drama/action films and he threw in Hitchcockian touches, but didn't try to copycat his work entirely.
@@Corn_Pone_Flicks Yeah, I think that Carlito's Way may actually be DePalma's best film. But I will say that Body Double is a guilty pleasure, though.
PS: Since I don't see anyone having responded to your question about Vilmos Zsigmond, he acted as cinematographer for a total of four De Palma films, including Obsession, Bonfire of the Vanities, and The Black Dahlia. Moreover, he was one of the great directors of photography to emerge in the past half century, and his collaborations with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Robert Altman, and Michael Cimino remain legendary.
www.imdb.com/name/nm0005936/
The shot of Sally reaching out and screaming in front of the giant American flag is one of the iconic images from this film and is often used as a screenshot in reviews of the film.
Another little detail is that the Lithgow character playing with the garotte wire in his watch is one of the sounds Jack records before the auto accident, before he sees the owl, that he can't figure out what the sound he's hearing is.
The opening scene of Blowout with the slasher film editing might look familiar to you, Jen. Brian De Palma took inspiration from the opening scenes of both Halloween and Black Christmas. lol 😆
This was inspired by the movie Blow Up (1966)
A fashion photographer is out taking pictures in a park and when he develops them back in his darkroom he sees a something he never noticed while taking it. A possible murder.
If you're looking for a horror film by De Palma "Carrie" would be first choice, he also made a film called "The Fury" which is a horror and is quite Scanners-esque.
In terms of thrillers "Dressed to Kill, Raising Kane (which also features John Lithgow) and Body Double" are all good films. Body Double might be difficult to react to on RUclips though because it has a lot of nudity in it,
Yes! Great reaction.
I've always been baffled by those who dismiss Blow-Out as a mere rehash of Blow-Up. It's a riff, not a rip-off. De Palma takes the kernel at the heart of the arty Blow-Up and crafts a masterful popular thriller. The two films aim for very different effects, formally and emotionally. By the title alone De Palma draws a clear connection to the earlier film. It's my favorite of his movies.
Because at the time it came right after "Dressed To Kill", so we perceived him as just a rip-off artist (when his friends and contemporaries like Scorsese, Spielberg and Coppola were making some of their best work, not to mention lots of other directors on the scene at the time). I loved "Carrie" - I'll even forgive the music quote from "Psycho" that's in it! - but I always saw him as a hack, and still do. I certainly don't see him any where near in the same league as most of his contemporaries, or even his offspring, like Tarantino.
@@TTM9691 It's interesting that you mention Tarantino, as he strikes me as precisely what De Palma is accused of being: a pastiche machine. Dressed to Kill and Blow-Out are far more sophisticated in the way they play with their inspirations/sources, in my view. But that's just me. Different strokes for different folks.
@@andrewforbes1433 That's exactly correct. I just think he does it better than De Palma. (And I'm not a total Tarantino acolyte either, but I rate him higher than De Palma)
After decades of hearing about DePalma ripping off Antonioni ad nauseam, I really have to wonder how many of these people have actually seen both films, and how many just like to sound smart at parties/on the internet. They are almost nothing alike, and even the magnification scenes in Blow Up are very cinematically different to the listening scenes in Blow Out. It makes me wonder, too, how many of these sneering office-chair critics have even seen anything else in Antonioni's filmography - Blow Up is yet another chapter in the filmmaker's recurring themes of isolation and obsession in contemporary men, where you're meant to question the photographer's state of mind as much as his conclusions. DePalma's film is after something much different, a straightforward, almost procedural suspense story where you suspect everyone's motivations BUT the protagonist's.
(And I have similar problems with the just-as-tiresome and thoughtless accusations of Hitchcock plagarism, but that's a rant for another day!)
Riff is a good way of describing it. He obviously does it constantly with Hitchcock too. It's a master director showing off his understanding of other great work.
2:50, me too. It's impressive. Wish they had something like this nowadays.
Check out F/X for a similar sort of movie to Blow Out. In F/X, the protagonist is a special effects artist who finds himself using his movie-making skills to unravel a thriller plot. There's also a sequel F/X 2 which isn't terrible.
Told you you would like the camera work. If you like another last 70s early 80s conspiracy movie, I recommend “3 Days of the Condor” starring Robert Redford. As far as horror movie recommendations, how the the obscure movies “Evil Speak” starring Clint Howard and one of Bill Paxton’s first movies “Mortuary “ from 1983.
Thanks for another great reaction video, Jen. I know exactly how you feel. Blowout broke my heart the first time I saw it as well. If you're interested in more of Brian De Palma's films, again, I recommend Carrie, Dressed To Kill, The Fury, and Body Double.
One last thing about soundtracks. In ❤1966, Woody Allen bought a cheap Japanese spy movie and re-dubbed it with jokes. Ex: Gorgeous Femme Fatale comes into our hero dressed only in a fur coat. She drops the fur coat and says "Name three Presidents."
Other movies in which Lithgow plays a villain include Raising Cain, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Cliffhanger, Shrek, and Ricochet.
Underrated John Travolta Film and how about reacting to Witchboard.
OMFGD I LOVE 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY MORE AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!
If ya wanna see a great John Lithgow film, try Raising Cain!!! Another Brian De Palma gem.
If you want to see a De Palma movie with John Lithgow in the lead you should watch Raising Cain
Not many people reacting to this one, yet it is fascinating. Bad word of mouth because of the downbeat ending made people stay away. I was fascinated by the closeup work, the split screen effect that is actually only one shot, and the sounds themselves being so intimate. I was going to recommend this one after Face Off, as Travolta really shows his acting chops here.
Nice job in the reactions, we could see you get involved in the story being told. Is it horror? Not to my mind, but certainly can make a person uncomfortable! Sheesh, all that trouble to get a decent scream on tape!
4:34, that has happened to people before, being locked in a car that's filled with water.
If you'd like another interesting process sequence, To Live and Die in LA shows extreme detail of counterfeiting money.
John Lithgow was mainly a villain for a big chunk of his career. (Raising Cain, Cliffhanger come to mind) First time I saw him as anything else was in the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun
De Palma's Best film amd Travolta best acting his film career. That's the movie is why he got the role of Vincent in Pulp Fiction and also Quentin Tarantion favorite movie was BLOW OUT.
I love most of Brian DePalma's films but a couple good one's to check out next the bonkers and meta "Body Double" or the thrilling "Dressed to Kill".
I also love Raising Cain. It is bonkers!
@@VulcanDeathGrip44 That's another great one!
A great early Di Palma film is the Phantom Of The Paradise - a kind of crazy, rock musical retelling of the Phantom Of The Opera story.
Brian DePalma actually directed
the first X-rated film, 1968's "Greetings".
Love hearing you one-out on the nuances of film making. I've always done the same thing. I remember the weird looks I got the first time I saw "Friday the 13th" in the theater. I was laughing through the gore scenes. People had no idea that my mind was picking apart how the effect was shot.
Yeah I loved this film on two levels, the actual film itself and then the way it shows the process of filmmaking. So cool! I love learning about that stuff, thanks for watching!
i am a big fan of John and i never heard of this film. Thank you for showing me this
Thank you for watching! I really enjoyed his performance in this film!
This is a rare example of an American version of a foreign movie that I liked. I like Blowup better but this movie is a respectable take on the material. De Palma has done some pretty good movies. Dressed to Kill, Casualties of War, Scarface, and The Untouchables were all well done. Carrie might be his best overall though, that movie is just about perfect in every way although it's just a low budget horror film.
This is not a horror film. This is part of the genre known as "thrillers" - tales usually revolving around crime and murder that are all about tension and suspense, not necessarily evoking fear or horror. The genres do tend to bleed into each other, often sharing film techniques and subject matter (and surely tension is a huge part of getting to the feeling of horror), but they have some key differences - thrillers tend more towards noir, gangsters, cops, and espionage ("spy thriller" is a whole big subgenre of its own), and away from the supernatural and goriness more typical of horror. Of course, there are movies, and even whole minigenres, that elide these categores - giallo slashers, in particular, inhabit the perfect middle distance between thriller and horror - but I think such classifications (and arguments about classification) are helpful and interesting ways to explore cinema, rather than just lumping everything vaguely related into broad, almost meaningless categories.
This is my favourite Brian De Palma movie. Reminds me a lot of The Conversation from Coppola and of course Blow up. Other great de Palmas are Dressed to Kill and Carrie. There he was very influenced by Hitchcock. Later movies like Scarface and The Untouchables are okay too. But not my favourites.
I have only watched less than half a dozen Brian De Palma films. I have watched the 1976 version of Carrie which also starred John Travolta and Nancy Allen. I am really enjoying your commentary. Again keep up the good work.
This is my fav Brian Depalma film and one of Travolta's best.
I really loved it!
Sisters, Carrie, and Dressed to Kill are some great DePalma films.
I have this movie in my DVD collection!! It's a great neo noir political thriller, where John Travolta plays a sound effects designer whom recreates a political murder by car crash with a sight and sound montage.
DePalma is a master. For an early gem, check out Sisters.
For another movie about filmmaking, check out Body Double.
For another pairing with John Lithgow, check out Raising Cain (the recent rerelease on BluRay has the best edit).
One of my favorites. Definitely not a horror
thank you for being one of few to react to this!!!!
I really enjoyed it, so well done. Thanks for watching and hope you enjoyed the video 🎬❤️
Great movie, glad you watched it =) 7:33 You should watch "Crash" from 1996, very dark and deranged. 8:43 They still do this with exclusive "news" items.
I’ve seen Crash, agreed it’s pretty dark but I still enjoyed it. Thanks for watching!
Which is not to say Blow-Out is bad. Not at all. Neither was the 1973 The Conversation. Both borrowed HEAVILY from Blow-Up, especially the middle section, where Travolta gets involved in the PROCESS. It's almost as engrossing as the PROCESS Hemmings engages in during the middle of Blow-Up.
Maybe it's due to the director being Italian (this was his first color and English-language movie) but everyone in Blow-Up is clean and attractive. No Dennis Franzes on view. And why shouldn't everyone be goodlooking?
It's a movie!
I watched this one a couple of days ago for the first time as well! Crazy!
Yeah it’s such a cool movie! Thanks for watching!
@@ReelReviewsWithJen May I ask have you seen ‘Chinatown’ (1974) with Jack Nicholson?
This is an Americanized version of the 1966 movie set in England called Blow-Up, about a fashion photog played by David Hemmings. Vanessa Redgrave stars opposite Hemmings. The British Union of Screen Actors made the Italian director give them names in the credits. So they are Thomas and Jane. And Austin Powers owes everything he has, had, or will have to Thomas's character.
Blow-Up is better.
Reel Reviews With Jen "If no one's told you this today, I love you." (Peter Vlogs)
Nancy Allen was married to Brian de Palma from 1979 - 1984.
Name of Woody Allen movie is What's Up, Tiger Lily? Music by The Lovin' Spoonful.
Jen, I highly recommend De Palma's OBSESSION...also with John Lithgow.
2:32, it's a reference to a car tire blowing out.
I think sally in this movie was lewis, murphy's partner from the original robocop.
This is such a great thriller but tragic. I hate how Travolta gets screwed over though.
5:13, yeah it was the driver.
Wonderful film. I have a steelbook of it from Arrow Video. Happens to be one of Quentin Tarantino’s all time favourite movies - high praise indeed.
I can see why! I really loved this film, so well done! I wonder if this what started his choice to work with Travolta.
6:29, they are trying to cover up the accident.
7:28, that's a good one! My parents loved that movie, where he plays a paparazzo whom witnesses a mob killing or something like that.
This movie was for free on RUclips for years. Saw it several times. Down now.
You might want to check out The Fury. It’s not my absolute favorite De Palma movie but it’s interesting, has more of a horror vibe, and a Scanners vibe. :)
I’m not sure if I recommended the Brian Depalma movie Raising Cain yet but if not,I’m doing it now.It features a (to me anyway) great,very entertaining lead performance by John Lithgow,and a twist I thought was good(sick,but good)
Great comments Jen this movie is a classic
Thank you! Yeah I really enjoyed this film, thanks for watching 🎬❤️
You definitely need to check out slaughter high 1986 if you have not seen it
Cool viewing , thanks 🙏🏻
Thank you for watching!
I think De Palma's misogyny can really be felt in the movies he made with Nancy Allen.
you should checkout Body Double and Dressed to kill like blow out overlook as a masterpiece if you pay attention Depalma is channeling a little Hitchcock in his films
Reel Reviews With Jen! "ONE MORE I LOVE YOOOOOOU !" (Peter Vlogs)
Your "I am Jack's broken heart" comment - was that a Fight Club reference? 😛
Yes! Yes it absolutely is! I was wondering if anyone would notice hahaThanks for watching!
@@ReelReviewsWithJen I'm always saying, "I'm Jack's complete lack of surprise." But few people get it.
I would suggest Raising Cain (1992) ❤️. Also DePalma
I haven't seen this one yet, so I'll have to come back and leave my thoughts after. It's supposed to be great.
Sounds good! I really enjoyed this film!
I live in the town he grew up in and the guy who played jigsaw grew up in weymouth too! And so did rob cordry from hot tub time machine😂
The girl was the female cop in Robocop.
Yes! I thought her name sounded familiar! I love RoboCop!
De Palma took down Scorsese in a recent poll . Blow Out isn't Blow Up but it deserves consideration his best film ? Cinema lies 24 fps - De Palma .
7:10, someone shot out the tire to make it look like an accident.
check out the movie "The Keep".
6:00, it was the Senator!?! Oh, crap!!😱
Haha I probably meant to say Governor
Owls.
The exorcist bird. ☺
Haha! That’s one way to put it!
I really appreciate your reaction to this movie this is one of the best suspenseful Thrillers of all time in my opinion. Please check out the Siskel and Ebert positive review of this review of this movie. I hope in time you will react to Dressed to Kill and body double I don't think you will be disappointed. Please keep up with the variety of selections to the movies you are reacting to