Above is a Japanese poster for Brian De Palma’s 1981 thriller Blow Out, his update of the classic British thriller Blowup. In the latter film a photographer thinks he’s accidentally shot a photo of a murder, and in Blow Out a movie sound man thinks he’s accidentally recorded one. And indeed he has, a political assassination actually, which brings highly connected villains out of the woodwork to engineer a cover-up. The movie stars John Travolta in his hunk incarnation, pouting his way through the twists and turns of the mystery, along with Nancy Allen as his shakedown artist sidekick. De Palma’s movies often underwhelm upon release but usually age well. This is a good example. Audiences were cool toward Blow Out but it’s a solid, giallo influenced thriller, wrapped in Kennedyesque conspiracy. It premiered in the U.S. in the summer of 1981 and reached Japan today in 1982 with the title ミッドナイトクロス, or Middonaito kurosu, which means “midnight cross.”
