{"id":23242,"date":"2023-04-15T23:07:19","date_gmt":"2023-04-16T03:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=23242"},"modified":"2023-04-15T23:57:55","modified_gmt":"2023-04-16T03:57:55","slug":"blow-up-1966-a-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/15\/blow-up-1966-a-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Blow-up (1966) \u2013 A Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

I usually include a spoiler warning with my reviews.\u00a0 But this movie is so awful that if I can stop you from seeing it by giving away the plot, I would consider that an act of mercy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The only claim to fame I will grant this movie is as a source for the homage that Mike Meyers did of it whenever he did his photographer bit in the Austin Powers movies.\u00a0 The absurd behavior that he displayed as he photographed the groovy models in those movies is almost an accurate portrayal of the Thomas character in this movie.\u00a0 And that is the only good thing I can say for Blow-up.<\/p>\n

The movie represents about a day in the life of London photographer \u201cThomas.\u201d\u00a0 He\u2019s played by someone named David Hemmings whom I don\u2019t recognize.\u00a0 There are two actresses in the movie that I have heard of Vanessa Redgrave and Sarah Miles but the only notable part of their performances is they take off their shirts.\u00a0 In fact, most of the main female characters end up topless at some point.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll tell you right up front it didn\u2019t help much.\u00a0 Now I\u2019m not one to disparage the female form in cinema but these attempts at partial nudity were painful.\u00a0 This was during a time (the 1960s) when fashion models were expected to have the physique of famine victims.\u00a0 You can literally count their vertebrae when they turn away from the camera.\u00a0 This is not erotic.\u00a0 It\u2019s mostly silly and at times annoying because of how clumsy these scenes are.\u00a0 I never thought I\u2019d fast forward through a female nude scene but so help me, I did.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the plot.\u00a0 Thomas moves around photographing in a working-class area of London then to his home studio then to an antique store where he is attempting to buy an old wooden propeller then to a park where he photographs a man and woman kissing.\u00a0 This last scene is the center of the plot.\u00a0 The woman sees him taking her picture and demands that he give her the film.\u00a0 He refuses and heads back home.\u00a0 Eventually she finds him and demands the film again.\u00a0 When he refuses, she, of course, takes off her shirt.\u00a0 Now for the next twenty minutes we mostly see Vanesa Redgrave\u2019s back.\u00a0 Eventually he takes his shirt off and then he gives her what she thinks is the film of her in the park and she leaves.<\/p>\n

Now we find out that he kept the roll of film from the park.\u00a0 He prints it and after a very, very long sequence of him blowing up portions of the photos we can tell that there was a man hiding in the trees with a gun and eventually we see that the man who was kissing the girl was shot by the gunman.\u00a0 Now why Thomas didn\u2019t hear a shot isn\u2019t explained but then again who cares.<\/p>\n

Then Thomas goes to visit a friend whose wife is in love with him.\u00a0 Then he goes to see the body that\u2019s still in the field.\u00a0 Then he comes home and finds that his house has been ransacked and his film and prints of the park have been stolen.\u00a0 Then he goes to a party where the Yardbirds are playing and then he goes to another party where his agent is smoking pot.\u00a0 When he wakes up the next morning in the party house he heads over to the park and the body is gone.<\/p>\n

After that he watches some mimes pretending to play tennis on an actual tennis court.\u00a0 Thomas even throws their pretend tennis ball back to them when it goes over the fence.<\/p>\n

The End.<\/p>\n

This movie is purported to be an iconic cinematic masterpiece.<\/p>\n

It ain\u2019t.<\/p>\n

If I can convince you to never watch this movie, I will feel that I have struck a blow for humanity.\u00a0 You will have saved two hours of your life.\u00a0 If in the course of this website\u2019s existence a hundred people decide not to watch Blow-up two hundred precious hours of human life will have been saved.\u00a0 I will count that as my great gift to mankind.\u00a0 Instead watch the first Austin Powers movie and enjoy his parody of Thomas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I usually include a spoiler warning with my reviews.\u00a0 But this movie is so awful that if I can stop you from seeing it by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237],"tags":[43,38,1355],"class_list":["post-23242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-reviews"],"yoast_head":"\nBlow-up (1966) \u2013 A Movie Review - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/15\/blow-up-1966-a-movie-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blow-up (1966) \u2013 A Movie Review - 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