Pino Donaggio (Blow Out) Blow Out
Pino Donaggio (born November 24, 1941, Burano, Venice, Italy) composed the score for Blow Out (1981).
For Donaggio's broader career and critical standing, see Pino Donaggio as Film Composer.
Blow Out was Donaggio's fourth De Palma collaboration
| Year | Film |
|---|---|
| 1976 | Carrie |
| 1978 | Home Movies |
| 1980 | Dressed to Kill |
| 1981 | Blow Out |
| 1984 | Body Double |
| 1992 | Raising Cain |
The Blow Out score is Donaggio's most restrained De Palma work. Where Dressed to Kill and later Body Double use lush, Herrmann-esque romantic strings to score voyeurism and violence, Blow Out's score is more melancholy — a sustained emotional undertow that mirrors Jack's growing desperation.
De Palma called the Blow Out score his favorite Donaggio collaboration
"The Blow Out score is my favorite. The main theme is very moving, especially the music on the credits, after the fade out with John [Travolta] covering his ears." — Brian De Palma, quoted in Pino Donaggio and Antongiulio Mancino, Come sinfonia (Baldini + Castoldi) (book, not available online)
De Palma's singling out the end credits music — the theme that plays over Jack's devastation — confirms that the score's power is inseparable from the ending.
Donaggio's score works against the fireworks spectacle in the climax
The film's climax — Sally's death during the Liberty Day fireworks — requires the score to work against the spectacle. The fireworks are celebratory; the music tells you someone is dying. The dissonance between visual extravagance and emotional devastation is the ending's formal structure, and Donaggio's score provides half of it.
Before De Palma, Donaggio scored Don't Look Now
Donaggio's film-scoring career began with Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now (1973) — another film about a man whose perception betrays him, whose attempt to see clearly leads to death. The thematic line from Don't Look Now through the De Palma thrillers is consistent: Donaggio scores films about men destroyed by what they witness.