Blow-Up (1966) Reviews

Blow-Up (1966)
Member Rating:  
Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni's first English-language production was also his only box office hit, widely considered one of the seminal films of the 1960s. Thomas (David Hemmings) is a nihilistic, wealthy fashion photographer in mod "Swinging London." Filled with ennui, bored with his "fab" but oddly-lifeless existence of casual sex and drug use, Thomas comes alive when he wanders through a park, stops to take pictures of a couple embracing, and upon developing the images, believes that he has photographed a murder. Pursued by Jane (Vanessa Redgrave), the woman who is in the photos, Thomas pretends to give her the pictures, but in reality, he passes off a different roll of film to her. Thomas returns to the park and discovers that there is, indeed, a dead body lying in the shrubbery: the gray-haired man who was embracing Jane. Has she murdered him, or does Thomas' photo reveal a man with a gun hiding nearby? Antonioni's thriller is a puzzling, existential, adroitly-assembled masterpiece. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

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Starring:
David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, (more)
Director(s):
Michelangelo Antonioni
Format(s):
DVD  | Digital SD
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Average Ratings

(33 member reviews)  

Member Reviews

Christine A.

I think this was lucky to even get half a star! Miserably slow and horrible ending...I had to wake myself up in the middle a couple times! Bad acting, bad plot, bad filming...

Yes   |   No


AUDREY B.

This movie was a total waste of time. You don't find out anything in the end. It was stupid.

Yes   |   No


Janet R.

waste of time watching it

Yes   |   No


L G.

This is hardly a thriller. The murder mystery is secondary to this just being a period movie about the swinging London scene. It would have been more entertaining had it been a more focused movie.

Yes   |   No


Linda N.

I remembered this movie being very controversial at the time because it showed drug use and nudity. However, I didn't remember how SLOW the plot was. The copy I received also had very poor soft audio (maybe the original did too?) so it was hard to follow. Sorry I wasted my time watching.

Yes   |   No


Eileen B.

You have to place this movie in the context of the Sixties and also of moving-making at that time. In that context, this is a classic. My husband and I watched it together, and both of us looked at each other quizically when it ended. What was that??? Then he went to bed, and I watched the version with the commentary by a movie critic. He explained it all frame by frame and it was an enjoyable journey back into the Sixties. So I recommend seeing it this way. This is one of Antonioni's early movies, followed later by his famous Last Tango in Paris, which also has a similar vein of ennui running through it. Blow Up was also really pushing the boundaries of films when he dared to show people smoking a certain herb in this movie. Watching this movie makes us realize how far we have come in fifty years! And seeing the very young Vanessa Redgrave was a real bonus treat.

Yes   |   No


Brian and Huyen B.

A classic which takes its time to develop. Not everything needs to be rushed. A piece of mood and suspense. Too many people, probably pumped up on sodas, on fast food and the half-hour sitcom, demand fast action and cleanly resolved endings. If you can't sit through a symphony, then you won't like this movie.

Yes   |   No


Keith G.

A film I appreciated more on a second viewing. But, while it's clear how influential it was on other film-makers, for me it feels more dated and awkward than earlier Antonioni films. There is that great sequence in the middle, when Hemmings starts to discover the hidden images in the photos he took, but other than that sequence, this has less of the visual brilliance of other Antonioni films offsetting the sometimes simplistic characters and ideas. A running feeling I have about Antononi, he is simply judging the shallowness of society and his characters instead of getting inside it, And he repeats himself on that theme obsessively. Many, perhaps most, still think of it as a masterpiece, and if only as an important piece of film history, more than entertainment, it's worth seeing.

Yes   |   No


Raymond H.

Still good after all these years! I origianally saw it in 1967 and it holds up. I now love seeing the vintage photo equipment. This is a very well done DVD.

Yes   |   No


Keith M.

Antonioni makes very "atmospheric" films (kind of out there), but I liked this one because of the story within the picture. The ambiguous ending seemed appropriate in the ambiguous 60' London that Antonioni captured so well. Hemmings and Redgrave are perfect. De Palma's "Blow Out" didn't come close.

Yes   |   No


 
 
 

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    Member Reviews
    Read all (33)
     
    Christine A.

    I think this was lucky to even get half a star! Miserably slow and horrible ending...I had to wake myself up in the middle a couple times! Bad acting, bad plot, bad filming...

    Yes   |   No

     
    AUDREY B.

    This movie was a total waste of time. You don't find out anything in the end. It was stupid.

    Yes   |   No

     
    Janet R.

    waste of time watching it

    Yes   |   No

     
    Read All 33 Reviews
       

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