Thanks to everyone who has posted on this thread: because of your fascinating insights, I have been shopping on the Apple Store for films I had previously never heard of. I absolutely loved Body Double and then, even more so, Sisters. Both films served classic Hitchcockian thrills, with Sisters even featuring a score from the legendary Bernard Hermann. In the absence of any foreseeable Bond action, it is great to be able to use this forum as a portal into other celluloid delights!
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Glad you are enjoying De Palma. For myself, I am pleasantly surprised at how well his films are holding up. I am seeing them in new ways that enrich them.
When Herrmann arrived to look at a rough cut of SISTERS (he had liked the script, and came out of semi-retirement to do the score), he had De Palma stop it almost immediately. De Palma had used pieces of Herrmannâs Hitchcock scores as a temp track, and Hermann could not watch the film with that music.
Herrmann also scored OBSESSION, and was helpful to De Palma in shaping it. When he read Schraderâs screenplay, he told De Palma to drop the third actâit was unnecessary. De Palma did so, and Schrader has been upset ever since.
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Lovely stories thanks 
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BODY DOUBLE
To make a thriller for a major studio in the midst of the 80´s and then ignore every rule for success was setting De Palma up for ridicule and box office disappointment.
But it worked wonders for film lovers. What a deliriously weird movie, visually sly and precise, troubling and harmless, horrific and funny all at the same time.
The way it deliberately follows its own way, disregarding every expectation it sets up, might anger some (it has angered a lot, really), but if you engage with it you will end up having a lot of fun.
The sheer elegance of the sequence in which Jake follows Gloria through the mall, establishing a clear sense of the location and the threat of the villain lurking here and there, is fantastic.
Does the narrative make sense all of the time? No. This is not that kind of movie. It is De Palmaâs dream about Hollywood, and naturally it is a comedy turning into a nightmare and somehow ending up as a mixture of both.
For the driller kill in the middle of the narrative the film became notorious - and back in 1984 just reading about it made me feel scared and disgusted. But watching this scene now I realized how little it actually showed while still retaining the effect of terrifying horror. Compare this with the torture porn of the 2000´s or even gore scenes in contemporary films and you know: this is how it should be directed, because it conveys the horror on a human level, we feel for the victim, instead of just being grossed out and disassociating, like audiences who âenjoyâ âinventive killsâ.
There is nothing enjoyable about a murder, De Palma proves. But there is something enjoyable about a director´s strategy to tell a horrific story and honor his characters.
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I had the same experience. The scene was not as horrific as I had remembered. As you note, it is almost tame by todayâs standards.
I also love when Jake tells Gloria that someone is following her, and she looks at him with incredulity, as if he thought she had not seen him. Jake is the worst shadower in film historyâalmost everybody recognizes what he is doing. On one level, it is a meta-comment on Scottie shadowing Madeleine in VERTIGO. She knows he is following her. In fact, she is performing for him, and wanting him to follow. Any audience concern that he might be spotted is superfluous.
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By the way: kudos to Sam for applying this latex mask always at the right moment and knowing when he should be around 
And the performance Holly gives as Gloria to lure Jake in: to recognize the resemblance with Hollyâs performance in her video is quite a leap; it´s not that distinctive. Then again, Jake quickly getting cast opposite Holly after that meager casting performance is also quite a feat. And using âRelaxâ (a huge hit back then) as a satiric comment on almost everything in that sequence was a very funny idea by De Palma.
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BLOW OUT
Still masterful and with a final 20 minutes which rank with the most captivating and devestating finales in film history.
Jack (Travolta) reliving the tragic failure which haunted him, getting another chance to rescue Sally, having that car crash, then getting even another chance⌠making it up those stairs⌠killing the attacker⌠and then realizing he is too late (again) after all, while fireworks light up the night sky behind him, with Travolta´s desolate face and Pino Donaggio´s quiet sad score taking center stage, leading to that final line and bookending the film with a cruel and self-punishing closureâŚ
For me, one of the best thrillers ever made, DePalma´s best.
And in glorious 4K (I finally upgraded) âBlow Outâ never looked and sounded better.
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CARLITO´ WAY
A perfect movie. The 4K version is gloriously rich in detail, with an interesting 70´s color palette and an ingenious sound mix which, typical for De Palma, does not assault the viewer with too much but only seduces with selected elements, including the masterful score by Patrick Doyle.
Too many critics and most audiences disregarded the film as just one more mafia movie, a variation of DePalma´s and Pacino´s run in âScarfaceâ - but this could not be further from the truth.
âCarlitos Wayâ is the story of a man trying to start a new life while his past keeps dragging him down. When he finally seems to achieve what he has fought for at the last moment fate intervenes.
Although the film begins with Carlito´s end you nevertheless hope he will succeed anyway, such is the emotional power and the suspense De Palma is building, and Pacino has rarely been as charismatic and magnetic.
The finale at Grand Central Station is a master class in creating tension with moving the camera through a clearly delineated big location, a pure joy to watch, cinema at its best.
My absolute favorite De Palma.
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Your review inspired me to rewatch this film yesterday. Iâm trying to remember how and when I first saw it. I donât think it was in the cinema. It may have been on HBO, or perhaps I rented the video.
In any case, I remember liking the movie overall, and being especially impressed by Travolta. âHey, this guy can act!â Yes, he can. Itâs one of the few roles in which I forget Iâm watching John Travolta, the movie star, and I am absorbed by the character heâs portraying.
I also remember being vaguely bothered by Nancy Allenâs character. I wasnât sure if it was her portrayal, the way the character was written, or some combination of the two. The film has many elements of noir, and so I guess I expected her to go the femme fatale route. But she never really does. I was happy that she lost the âbreathless Marilynâ voice about halfway through.
I guess what bothered me is that Sally seemed to completely lack any agency. She relied on Manny, and then after Jack saved her, she came to rely on him. I realize that this portrayal of a woman is De Palmaâs depiction of societyâs view of women ⌠but it still makes for very uncomfortable viewing then, and even more so now.
One unanswered question: What happened to Manny? Did Sally kill him when she hit him over the head with the bottle? Or did Burke get to him later and kill him? Or did he escape altogether? That was not clear to me, even after yesterdayâs viewing.
Those complaints aside, I found this film masterfully atmospheric and engaging. Even knowing what was going to happen to Sally, I still felt the suspense of Jack struggling to reach her. (And, having marched in marching band and drum corps, then later teaching high school color guard, it was kind of fun to watch Jack thrashing his way through the marching band and color guard members. Iâd forgotten about that.)
The âchase sceneâ (Iâm not really sure what to call Jackâs frantic drive to the Liberty Day celebration, since he wasnât chasing another vehicle, just trying to work out, via audio clues, where Burke and Sally were headed) was remarkably intense. It was shocking how close the car seemed to come to hitting people, and horses, at high speed. Iâd be interested in seeing how that was shot.
When I first saw Blow Out, Iâd not yet watched The Conversation. Both films explore similar themes, but do it on their own terms. In The Conversation, I only recall Coppola using the vertigo-inducing camera rotation technique once, in the closing scene. De Palma uses it twice in Blow Out, when Jack discovers that all his tapes have been erased, and again during the climax of Jack holding Sally as the fireworks explode overhead. Itâs beautiful and heartbreaking.
When you think it canât get any more heartbreaking than that, we get the final scene in the studio.
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Thank you for taking part in this conversation and giving your impressions!
I absolutely understand your feelings about Sally.
I think she is basically a very good-hearted human being, to the point of being so naive that she could be manipulated by Manny (who, by the way, I guess survives but is not considered a threat to the conspiracy) and also by Burke.
This might make her look stupid or De Palma misogynistic. But I think De Palma really likes her and positions her as the polar opposite to all those males who just exploit her out of the darkness of their character. Sally is almost child like in her belief that she actually can bring out the truth together with Jack, and that makes her death even more chilling. The moment she cries out because she realizes that Burke is the killer is - to me, at least - heartbreaking.
De Palma creates an image which might even underline that he equates Sally with the pure naivetĂŠ of the idea of his native country when he singles her out in front of the huge flag, crying out in absolute terror and vanishing hope for a rescue by Jack.
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Thanks, I appreciate your assessment of Sally ⌠and I agree. I guess I wished that her character had been a little more fully fleshed out and not so naive. But youâre right, that last scene of her reaching out to Jack is heartbreaking.
How odd that Manny was allowed to survive. I figured he was one of the loose ends that Burke decided he needed to tie up, but that question is never really answered.
When Jack goes to see a photographer, I think itâs not Manny but his friend who does the film developing, correct? That was who he went to, to get his magazine clips made into a filmstrip. Later, he went there and a cop was sitting out front. Was that guy killed? The cop talked about him in past tense, but I couldnât tell if it was because Burke killed him or he had run off.
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I think Burke only kills the âdecoyâ women to mask the murder of Sally.
The film does leave some things open, but for me that adds to the feeling of unease - we never really know what the conspirators will do, and the guy on the phone even does not seem to control Burke.
The focus is on Jack and Sally, and their attempt to tell the truth is depicted as inherently naive because the powerful will not be caught in their scheme anyway.
Kind of prophetic.
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I always think of all the characters, Sally included being what Jack sees of them, they arenât full humans they are what he perceived them to be.
Damsel in distress heâs the Knight. Up until the very end he thinks heâs the star of his own movie, the fireworks kick in and reality with it.
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I was just scrolling through a web-posted script, and I donât even see the scene Iâm thinking of (cop sitting out in front of the film developerâs place). Oh well.
But I think youâre right, that the only people Burke deliberately murders are Sallyâs âdecoysâ and then Sally, herself.
Prophetic, indeed. Although history is filled with similar examples of futile attempts to expose the truth. As it is also filled with conspiracy theories that attempt to fill in the blanks of that which we may never know ⌠or which we know, but the truth is not as massive as its outcome.
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Thatâs a great sentence and observation!
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Thanks. Itâs not really an original thought, though maybe I expressed it in an unusual way. Iâve read books and watched documentaries about conspiracy theories and why we develop them. The explanation that makes the most sense to me is that, when something happens that has a huge impact on people, but what caused it feels disproportionately inadequate, we feel compelled to come up with a cause that matches the magnitude of the impact.
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I apologize for my confusion. I rewatched this particular scene, and it was indeed Manny who Jack was looking for. Manny was lying low to evade the police and make as much money off his film as he could. I guess thatâs why Burke left him alone. Mannyâs self-protective wariness (narcissm?) neutralized any threat he may have posed to âthe operationâ (as did the fact that Sally stole his film, the last piece of evidence that was destroyed by Burke when he threw it in the river).
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