VOTE: Blow Out vs The Conversation

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Interesting death match. The films are undoubtedly in the same vein, but I have trouble pitting them exactly against each other. I agree that The Conversation is very well-crafted, maybe even better so than Blow Out. But it's a stretch to say it's superior in every way. Both films express a man's paranoid personal journey and they highlight different psychological breaks through interesting camera movements and conveying of different themes. But the at-times tedious pace of The Conversation works against it when compared with the (in)tense sequences of murder and sabotage and audial voyeurism in Blow Out. Both scores are pretty great. I'd give it to The Conversation by a hair, but I think I'd rather re watch Blow Out more frequently.

Blow Out is a fine thriller made with that visual flair and unique touch De Palma had when on top of his game, but The Conversation is simply one of the greatest studies of guilt and paranoia - and the man experiencing them - ever committed to film.



"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan

The Conversation had more ideas in it. It's particularly interesting when a phrase you've been hearing over and over completely changes when you hear it with a different line reading. Never seen that done before or since.

Blow Out, while interesting, had too many bits of business. Going through these physical activities that aren't that interesting and don't mean much.

But no doubt that's just my taste.

I vote blow out