This article is about the 1981 film. For other uses, see Blowout (disambiguation).
Blow Out
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Brian De Palma
Written by
Brian De Palma
Produced by
George Litto
Starring
John Travolta
Nancy Allen
John Lithgow
Dennis Franz
Cinematography
Vilmos Zsigmond
Edited by
Paul Hirsch
Music by
Pino Donaggio
Production company
Viscount Associates
Distributed by
Filmways Pictures
Release date
July 24, 1981 (1981-07-24)
Running time
108 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$18 million[1]
Box office
$13.8 million[2]
Blow Out is a 1981 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written and directed by Brian De Palma.[3] The film stars John Travolta as Jack Terry, a movie sound effects technician from Philadelphia who, while recording sounds for a low-budget slasher film, unintentionally captures audio evidence of an assassination involving a presidential hopeful. Nancy Allen stars as Sally Bedina, a young woman involved in the crime. The supporting cast includes John Lithgow and Dennis Franz. The film's tagline in advertisements was, "Murder has a sound all of its own".
Directly based on Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blowup, the film replaces the medium of photography with one of audio recording. The concept of Blow Out came to De Palma while he was working on the thriller Dressed to Kill (1980). The film was shot in the late autumn and winter of 1980 in various Philadelphia locations on a relatively substantial budget of $18 million.
Blow Out opened to very little audience interest at the time of release despite receiving a mostly positive critical reception. The lead performances by Travolta and Allen, the direction by De Palma and the visual style were cited as the strongest points of the film. Critics also recognised the stylistic and narrative connection to the work of Alfred Hitchcock, whom De Palma admires, and giallo films.[4][5] Over the years since its initial theatrical release, it has developed status as a cult film[6] and received a home media release by the Criterion Collection,[7] a company which specializes in "important classic and contemporary film," which re-ignited public interest in the film. Quentin Tarantino praises De Palma as the "greatest director of his generation" and cites Blow Out as one of his three favorite films that he would take to a desert island.[8]
^"Filmways Board Elects Armstrong President, Chief Operating Officer". Wall Street Journal. August 18, 1981. p. 38.
^Boyer, Peter J. (August 6, 1981). "FILM CLIPS: Sigalert on 'Honktonk Freeway'". Los Angeles Times. p. h1.
^"Blow Out". Turner Classic Movie Database. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
^Lambie, Ryan (July 4, 2016). "Blow Out, and Why Cinema Needs Shock Endings". Den of Geek. London. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
^"Blow Out (Movie Review)". Bloody Good Horror. November 5, 2015. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
^Muir, John Kenneth (August 21, 2009). "CULT MOVIE REVIEW: Blow Out (1981)". Reflections on Film and Television.
^"Blow Out (1981)". Criterion Collection. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
^Kench, Sam (June 13, 2021). "Quentin Tarantino's Favorite Movies of All Time — 20 Cinematic Gems". StudioBinder. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
BlowOut is a 1981 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written and directed by Brian De Palma. The film stars John Travolta as Jack Terry, a movie...
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process of Blow by Blow but Appice's parts were edited out after a dispute with Beck's management. The fourth key contributor to Blow by Blow after Beck...
cult favorites such as Sisters (1972), Phantom of the Paradise (1974), BlowOut (1981), Body Double (1984), Casualties of War (1989), and Carlito's Way...
of hurtling into the unknown". "Lurgee" ends with a "meandering" solo. "BlowOut" starts with "tense, jazzy" drumming and raked chords and concludes with...
process became known as "blowing in" the furnace, while a furnace that had to be shut down and went cold had been "blown out", terms that are still applied...
Gui Chui Deng (Ghost BlowsOut the Light) (Chinese: 鬼吹灯; pinyin: Guǐ Chuīdēng), also referred to as Candle in the Tomb, is a fantasy novel series written...
much higher than the marked burst pressure. Blowout panels, also called blow-off panels, areas with intentionally weakened structure, are used in enclosures...
leading roles in Carrie (1976), Grease (1978), Urban Cowboy (1980), and BlowOut (1981). He earned nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor for...
and invisible. The vortices are able to ruffle hair, disturb papers or blowout candles after travelling several metres. The design consists of a short...
California, Berkeley, but dropped out to start a game company. After the company closed following the dot-com crash, Blow worked as a game-development contractor...
and individual terms often containing variants and synonyms of blowing (puffing, blow-out etc.) and noise (whistle, squeak etc.).[citation needed] Modern...
2023. "Mary Makes It Easy". bbc.co.uk/iplayer. Retrieved 10 December 2023. "The Big BlowOut". www.channel4.com. Retrieved 9 June 2022. AJ Odudu at IMDb...
Isabella Blow (née Delves Broughton; 19 November 1958 – 7 May 2007) was an English magazine editor. As the muse of hat designer Philip Treacy, she is credited...
called Get the Hell Out of the Way of the Volcano. The first Blow releases, Everyday Examples of Humans Facing Straight into The Blow and Don't Do the Bomb...
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