Blow Out

[tojoed]

One of Brian De Palma’s most acclaimed films, this brilliant fusion of the obsessive sleuthing of Blow-up and The Conversation with themes drawn from real-life political scandals (the JFK assassination, Chappaquiddick, Watergate) starts with sound technician Jack Terry (John Travolta) accidentally recording what might be explosive evidence of a deadly conspiracy.

Brilliantly shot by the then recent Oscar-winner Vilmos Zsigmond, this terrifically stylish thriller co-stars Nancy Allen as the eyewitness who becomes the unwitting target of John Lithgow’s serial killer as he ruthlessly attempts to bury all the evidence.

It’s also a film about the filmmaking process: Terry is originally hired to work on the low-budget slasher film Coed Frenzy, and later turns his technical skills to much more serious use as he tries to reconstruct a political assassination on film in a way that will stand up in court.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• New, restored digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Brian De Palma
• Original Dolby 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
• Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Black and White in Colour: An Interview with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond
• Rag Doll Memories: Nancy Allen on Blow Out
• Return to Philadelphia: An interview with Producer George Litto
• Multitracking Blow Out - An interview with composer Pino Donaggio about his work with De Palma
• A gallery of on-set photos by photographer Louis Goldman
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Joe Wilson

[tenia]

I'm only interested in "Blow Out". Some different extras from the Criterion, with an interview with Zsigmond particularly interesting, so I'll double dip.

In fact, it's the Carlotta's extras.

[MichaelB]

I'm only interested in "Blow Out". Some different extras from the Criterion, with an interview with Zsigmond particularly interesting, so I'll double dip.

In fact, it's the Carlotta's extras.

...but the Criterion transfer. (Arrow has just confirmed this on their Facebook page).

[manicsounds]

Blow Out BD review

[dwk]

Here is the Blu-ray.com review of Blow Out

The film looks virtually identical on the two releases. The only very small, and I mean extremely small, discrepancy I spotted is in the brightness settings. As a result, some of the daylight footage looks a tad darker on the Criterion release (compare screencapture #19 with screencapture #4 from our review of the Criterion release), but the difference is indeed academic. Image depth, contrast, and clarity are identical.

[MichaelB]

While he's right to point out that the Pino Donaggio interview also appears on the Carlotta release, Carlotta's version doesn't have English subtitles.

But then again, the Carlotta is no competition for the Arrow anyway, offering an inferior transfer of the main feature - so the Arrow is the obvious one to go for if you're Region B-locked.