John Travolta Blow Out

John Travolta (born February 18, 1954, Englewood, New Jersey) starred as Jack Terry in Blow Out (1981).

Blow Out came at the worst possible moment in Travolta's career — and drew his best performance

By 1981, Travolta's stardom had softened. Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978) had made him one of the biggest stars in the world; Moment by Moment (1978) was a clear setback, while Urban Cowboy (1980) was a commercial success that did not match the scale of the earlier two hits. When De Palma (in Blow Out, as director) cast him as a working-class sound technician in Blow Out^b2 — no dancing, no strutting — the performance was strong enough to impress Pauline Kael.

"Travolta finally has a role that allows him to discard his teenage strutting and his slobby accents." — Pauline Kael, The New Yorker (1981)

Jack Terry is a man defined by his competence and his decency. Travolta plays him quiet, focused, and increasingly desperate.

"Playing an adult (his first), and an intelligent one, he has a vibrating physical sensitivity like that of the very young Brando." — Pauline Kael, The New Yorker (1981)

"Travolta gives it gravity and weight and passion." — Pauline Kael, The New Yorker (1981)

It's the opposite of the Travolta the audience knew, and the audience didn't come. The film's commercial failure — $12 million against an $18 million budget — buried the performance for over a decade.

"John Travolta gives one of the best performances of all time in this movie." — Quentin Tarantino, video-store appearance during the Pulp Fiction press cycle (1994)¹

Tarantino resurrected Travolta's career because of Blow Out

Quentin Tarantino listed Blow Out as one of his three "desert island" films alongside Taxi Driver and Rio Bravo. When casting Pulp Fiction (1994), he fought for Travolta against studio resistance — specifically because of the quality of his work in Blow Out. Pulp Fiction relaunched Travolta's career entirely, earning him his second Academy Award nomination. (wikipedia, imdb)

Travolta's career collapsed after Blow Out and took thirteen years to recover

Year	Film	Notes
1975–79	Welcome Back, Kotter	TV breakthrough
1976	Carrie	First De Palma film (small role)
1977	Saturday Night Fever	First Oscar nomination
1978	Grease	Massive commercial hit
1981	Blow Out	Best dramatic performance
1983	Staying Alive	Stallone-directed sequel; critical disaster
1989	Look Who's Talking	Comeback hit
1994	Pulp Fiction	Career resurrection; second Oscar nomination
1995	Get Shorty	Golden Globe win
1996	Broken Arrow / Phenomenon	Action/drama
1997	Face/Off	John Woo; opposite Cage
1998	Primary Colors / A Civil Action	Dramatic roles