MovieChat Forums > Blow Out (1981) Discussion > My issue with the ending (spoilers)

My issue with the ending (spoilers)

posted a month ago by Melton (5560)
6 replies | jump to latest

I’m all for a downer ending when it works for the story (see many Roman Polanski films), but having Sally get killed after Jack’s agonising ordeal to try and save her felt… arbitrary.

De Palma loves to ape Hitchcock, and I think he was going for a Vertigo-style double death - our hero failed to save someone once, and he tragically fails again. In Vertigo this is because Scotty has a fatal flaw - he falls in love too hard and he suffers from vertigo.

In this film Jack doesn’t have a fatal flaw, he just gets horribly unlucky twice. He bugs a cop as part of his job who sweats, causing the mechanism to fail and expose him to gangsters who kill him. Then at the end of the film he bugs Sally and fails to save her because the bad guy gets on a train with her and drags her away to a secluded space in which to strangle her.

What’s the lesson here? Where’s the insight into the human condition? What did Jack do wrong to cause this double tragedy?

The silly thing is that Sally was the one who wanted to meet up with the ‘reporter’/villain. Jack actually tried to talk her out of it, so it’s not like he has an unhealthy habit of throwing innocent people into danger. He’s not some obsessive ‘bugger’ like Harry Caul who lives life through other people. He’s a decent guy who life takes a dump on for no good reason 🤷🏻‍♂️

Also, why does he just bug her and hang back? Why not go with her, or watch from afar? Her murder seems entirely avoidable but the film wanted a bummer ending so it artificially nerfed Jack into a dummy.

There were other issues along the way such as the implausible tape erasures, smashing a bottle over Manny’s head from two inches away, a gigantic crowd completely ignoring a gun-toting psychopath wrangling a screaming young woman that, all combined, made this a disappointment for me.

It’s still a good film with a surprisingly great central performance from Travolta, but I was expecting more from ‘De Palma’s masterpeice’. Nah, Mission Impossible remains his best film.

[–] christomacin (4730) a month ago

"Nah, Mission Impossible remains his best film."

You can't be serious. Mission: Impossible is a generic action film that could have been directed by any number of directors, and little more than a paycheck for De Palma. Blow-Out and a few of his other films show De Palma's true style.

The downer ending was a warning. The message of the film, telegraphed by the Maxi-Pads in the bathroom stall where the prostitute is mistakenly killed, is to "Stay Free". We didn't heed that warning.

[–] Melton (5560) a month ago

Yep, totally serious,

Mission: Impossible features all of De Palma’s incredible visual flare, including eccentric vertical shots and split diopter takes, with his signature ultra-tense suspense sequences (the stealth computer room extraction scene remains an unparalleled classic and deploys an ingenious use of silence).

The helicopter shot of a speeding train pushing into an entirely stable take of some characters sitting around a table on the train blew my mind until I learned how he achieved it.

The editing is also groundbreaking. Cruise being told what happened to the team by Voight while cutting to what really happened - showing that Cruise is working out the truth as he is being lied to by his ‘trusted’ boss - is something I haven’t seen before or since.

It’s a dizzyingly clever thriller peppered with groundbreaking action and bold artistic flourishes. Hell, wiping out the entire team in the opening scene had my jaw in the floor. There’s nothing quite like it.

De Palma’s relationship with the audience has always been mixed but this one hit big and launched the most consistently awesome action series ever, and completely surpassed Bond during the Craig era (apart from the unbeatable Casino Royale). Everything just fell into place in M:I, and it has a much better script than Blow Out.

Perhaps De Palma was a better director than writer…

[–] christomacin (4730) a month ago

I don't agree with you at all. Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Blow-Out, Scarface, The Untouchables, Casualties of War, and Carlito's Way are much more significant films and much better examples of his style.

[–] Melton (5560) a month ago

They’re alright and they each have great sequences, but they’re flawed and don’t hang together perfectly like M:I.

Earlier you said:

the bathroom stall where the prostitute is mistakenly killed

What do you mean by ‘mistakenly killed’?

[–] thingmakersback (1444) a month ago

I agree with you, but also think that Mission Impossible, while the best possible version of the concept, (all the sequels are mere generic action flicks of variable quality) is just not distinctively De Palma.

[–] Melton (5560) a month ago

Oh it’s dripping in De Palma’s signature style, it just has a much better script and a truly liberating budget. My full thoughts here:

https://moviechat.org/tt0082085/Blow-Out/679430a345995510665728cf/My-issue-with-the-ending-spoilers?reply=67946d945b69e64e66629ed3