1. Blow Out (1981)
Director: Brian De Palma Cast: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow Blow Out takes its basic premise from the classic 1966 film called Blow Up, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, but the similarities end there. Director Brian De Palma followed Dressed to Kill with this thriller that marked one of John Travoltas best performances. Travolta plays a movie sound man named Jack who is out at night recording sounds for a project he is working on. Nearby a car has a blowout and crashes into the river. A man is dead, and Jack rescues a woman alive. Jack learns that the dead man was the governor and a U.S. presidential candidate and that Sally (Nancy Allen) is a call girl. The powers that be mobilize in an attempt to sweep Sallys presence in the car under the rug. On the audio playback Jack thinks he detects a gunshot just before the blowout, which would categorize the accident as an assassination. This realization leads Jack on a perilous journey of discovery. And murder. Roger Ebert wrote that De Palma doesn't have just a handful of ideas to spin out to feature length. He has an abundance. And these ideas work well in service to both the plot and the characters. Ebert states that De Palma is more successful than ever before at populating his plot with three-dimensional characters. So true. Blow Up contains all the hallmarks of a great thrillera compelling story, well-developed characters, strong performances, a tight screenplay and crisp direction that never hesitates to tip a hat to Hitchcock now and again.