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 was in career freefall. Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978) had made him one of the biggest stars in the world, but Moment by Moment (1978) and Urban Cowboy (1980) had eroded the momentum. When De Palma cast him as a working-class sound technician in Blow Out — 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. 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, Far Out Magazine (1994)
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 |