The Blackout

I really think that this film is underrated, since I enjoyed it quiet a lot.The unique Ferraras atmosphere is present in it, and i didn't find it any confusing. Grait acting especially from Denis Hopper is pleasant to watch, and a good soundtrack makes this film even better thrill.

I would advise it to people who like David Lynch, not for surrealism, which is not present here, but for the created mood and atmosphere. Not a regular Hollywood stuff. Althou the plot is quiet easy to follow,Ferarra's ability of doing things his way makes it a great experience for the audience...

Good film, but maybe not for everyone

my rating: 9/10

Back in the hazy days of grip/electric life, I got a call to work as the BB Grip on my 2nd (and last) Abel Ferrara film - "The Blackout". I accepted the gig with one non-negotiable caveat - I would never be willing to enter what I term "the meat grinder" (defined as any space within 150 feet of the madman auteur). "The Blackout" IS Abel Ferrara....albeit a PG-13 version. In a sense, the experience of making the film was an act of performance art...art lived as actual "life" or perhaps life lived as a Bosch nightmare...on the one hand, it was genius; on the other, pure madness. What remains is a snippet of documentary into the soul of AF.

It takes a while to get into the movie's mood - Modine's druggy trawl through a razor-sharp Miami is not very well differentiated despite Ferrara's excellent handling, teetering at the edge of surrender to the prevailing decadence but always retaining a distinct alienation and fascinated disgust. Later on the style becomes more tightly formal and controlled, befitting Modine's cleared up state, and Ferrara's portrayal of his obsession and disquietude is very effective in a more conventionally expositional way. Towards the end the mechanics of the ultimate revelation really take over, but Hopper's final long profane shouting fit at Modine after he learns the truth is too hard-hitting to be set aside, and the high-risk final image is oddly touching - the movie is a plausible account of a true lost soul grappling for stability in a world of temptation and internal darkness, with neat (albeit stunt) casting.

I don't understand all the negative reviews at imdb about this movie. There are a lot of things I liked. First, the camera techniques are wonderful and capture that floaty feeling when a person is high, confused, and purposeless. Second, i love the idea of a person blacking out during a critical moment of their lives, and feeling the need to reconstruct the events in order to know themselves. This movie did a great job of using this device as the plot. Third, the ending came as a surprise...it is not revealed until the last 10 minutes and it comes as a surprise that feels quite right.

I might add that I loved the scene when Modine drinks again, alone in a hotel room, and feels that familiar, egotistical feeling, as if drinking and getting high are enough to make a person important or substantive.

Neurosis and character antipathy do not make for commercial success. THE BLACKOUT bypassed cinemas in the US, and here in Australia. The multiplex monster has no room for mavericks like Ferrara.

As there are no others quite like the rebellious Ferrara, he takes liberties from his own catalogue. This time, there are shades of SNAKE EYES (1993), and it pre-empts NEW ROSE HOTEL (1998). In form though, it owes much more to Hitchcock, and VERTIGO.

Like VERTIGO, THE BLACKOUT masquerades as a thriller, but is more concerned with the nature of identity. Relocating to Miami, the film is aesthetically great, though Modine looks (justifiably) clueless. The axis of the film is the concept rather than plot and the clash of high-art pretension with low-brow sleaze is conscious.

Some ideas don't come off, and the form of THE BLACKOUT is awkward. But if it is too cold and removed for most filmgoers tastes, it is still a showcase for an uncompromising, daring director, willing to upset accepted conventions.

The biggest disappointment is that his invention is left in this case to an unheralded release, and will go largely unnoticed.