De Palma made his reputation for knocking off Hitchcock but there he has a go at Antonioni, specifically Blow Up. Nothing wrong with that actually - Antonioni didn't really use his concept for a thriller, so why shouldn't someone else? Making the hero a sound recordist is a fresh angle - though sound plays a disappointingly small role in this movie.
But I've got to say - I wasn't wild about the script. It felt obvious in some spots - it's a conspiracy, they're out to get the baddies. It also felt nasty with this Burke killer randomly killing women to cover up his other work. There was lots of talk, on the nose dialogue. I did like how Jack had a history of working with the cops and stuffing up.
The characters are really stupid - Jack and Sally are always taking people's word for things. Sally just goes along with Burke. Jack never thinks things through. That's more realistic and I know it's not the characters fault we have superior knowledge but it's frustrating to watch. The ending is also an incredible downer - Burke kills Sally, Jack almost dies and Burke escapes. I think in the film at least Burke died. But then Jack uses Sally's scream for a crap movie! It just felt yuck.
The reputation of this film has become super high in recent years. I don't get it. Maybe it was amazingly directed.
NB Is the tubby producer "Sam" a tribute to Sam Arkoff?
No comments:
Post a Comment