short reviews 3: Blow Out

Blow Out-- Recently watched this again after many, many years, and I have to say, it may be De Palma's best. Stylistically, it definitely owes something to Dario Argento, plus the story hinges on an incredible coincidence, that being Travolta's character being on that bridge making sound recordings at the exact time of the botched frame up of the Governor of Pennsylvannia, who is running for the Presidency. What was meant to be just a way to ruin his reputation, turns out to be an assassination.The gunman (Lithgow) only shoots out the tire of the car as a means for the crooked reporter (Franz) to get some film showing the politician with a phony prostitute (Allen). What starts as a small crime, distasteful certainly, but not utterly diabolical, grows into something much more, thanks to the inate pyschopathic tendencies of Lithgow's character. It all reminds me of the hijinks of Fargo, where one man's greed and foolishness escalates by uncontrollable forces into multiple murder. And the ending is perfect noir or giallo fair, with the B-slasher film Jack Terry is sound man for finally getting its perfect scream, caught on wiretap during Sally's murder near the end of the film.