Blow Out (1981)

The latest in the recent batch of Brian De Palma movies that I have been catching up on, Blow Out is also my favourite of the directors work so far. It keenly marries his directorial flourishes to a compelling story, proving a good old fashioned thriller along the way, with a few twists.
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The film starts wonderfully, in a voyeuristic POV shot we witness a serial killer stalk a college dormitory. Told with a real sense of menace but also a sly wink and a nod, it is soon revealed that this whole sequence is merely a film within a film, a movie that John Travolta's Jack Terry is working on as the sound engineer. When the killers spree ends with a somewhat pathetic scream, he is charged with recording a better one. Quite why a skilled sound man is working on low budget horror films is something revealed in the film, but it also allows the film to provide a sort of meta commentary on itself from within. Whilst recording the new sounds for the film, Travolta accidentally overhears a car accident, which claims the life of a senior politician. He rescues a woman (Nancy Allen) from the river where the car ends up, and soon discovers that there was more to the incident than a simple accident and soon he becomes embroiled in a conspiracy, and his sound recording could be the only clue to solving it.
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It is a neat premise and the film knowingly skirts the conventions of these types of thrillers. On top of an intriguing plot the characters fascinate too, Jack soon takes a liking to Sally and the two of them tentatively build up a relationship. Both leads impress, Travolta in one of his most understated but effective roles, and Allen playing sweet and naive in a way that still remains believable. On the other end of the spectrum John Lithgow has a memorable role as a hitman and he brings his usual menace to the role. To give much more away about the twists in the tale would spoil a tale best left untold, but this is a rare case of a thriller holding my attention throughout and providing a clever and exciting conclusion. The Hitchcock parallels are always evident with De Palma, but he does a lot here to distinguish his own voice. It is also a nice ode to analogue technology, made as it was before the rise of digital equipment, and there is a fascinating sequence where Travolta's character has synch up separate audio and video recordings, it's painstaking but the sort of nitty gritty detective work that I appreciate in these types of films.
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The story is nicely grounded as well, focused as it is on a relatively small number of characters and never unravels to become overblown or too fantastical. Combine this with a snappy pace and several memorable sequences and you have a smart, effective thriller that I found a joy to watch.