Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

“Blow Out” exposes the real American way

The 45th anniversary of Brian De Palma's film meets America's 250th, proving corruption is as American as apple pie

Published July 4, 2026 9:00AM (EDT)

In the nail-biting climactic sequence of Brian De Palma’s 1981 thriller, “Blow Out,” Jack (John Travolta), a sound designer for low-budget, softcore slasher movies, races through the streets of Philadelphia, where a parade has gathered to celebrate 135 years since the Liberty Bell was last rung. He pushes past marching bands with their instruments held high and parade spectators decked out in red, white and blue regalia. The music and cheers blur into a low hum, drowned out by the deafening sound of a ticking clock only Jack can hear. A handful of precious seconds stand between justice and another innocent person falling victim to America’s rot. What a staggering picture: this single speck of righteousness, clawing through a sea of blind patriotism, praying that, this time, morality will prevail.

But it doesn’t. It can’t. De Palma may be best known for his stylistic trademarks and penchant for perversion, but he’s also one of American cinema’s great realists. (And, admittedly, my personal favorite.) His films treat themes of voyeurism, casual criminality and sexual debauchery with as much reverence as dreams and artistic process. De Palma paints pictures that don’t conflict so much as they coexist, like two sides of a coin — purity and........

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