Blow Up Reaction Paper

Robert Hubbard

February 24, 2010

Hammond

Blow Up Reaction Paper

I found blow up to be a very interesting movie. Often I am disappointed these days after leaving a theater, because the plot of the movie has no creative aspects at all. Todays fast paced movies with images and camera shots rapidly firing across the big screen often lose the art of film. Blow Up was a piece of art. There was a creative plot, making the audience think and wonder at what would happen next. This creates a more active viewing of a movie. Though the movie was old in style and had a slow pace with long camera shots, it was a gripping movie due to plot depth and artistic camera angles.

The plot was exciting. An ordinary photographer is out in a park shooting a couple, unaware of the evil unfolding beneath the surface. The strange encounter with the woman makes him ponder as to what he could have photographed. My favorite scene was when he was studying the pictures and finally discovered the man with the gun by following the woman's gaze from another picture. The movie has a sort of unresolved ending. The hero never catches the murderer and he has no proof that anything ever took place. The kids at the end of the film playing imaginary tennis are symbolic of the fact that he knows that he witnessed a murder, but to everyone else he might as well have imagined it up like a fake game of tennis.

The movie also uses a technique that is often used in film. Starting and ending the movie in a similar location or with a similar action. The kids with white face paint are at the beginning of the film running around asking for money, with no real relationship to the plot. Then they appear again at the end of the film when they ride through the park and start playing an imaginary game of tennis. This time they are showing the viewer the theme of the film. That life is how you view it.

I enjoyed watching the film and it was an interesting shot into life in England in the 60's.