Blast of Silence

A nice crime-pic-slash-character-study. It starts off fairly dull (and the narration is terrible - whose idea was it to put it in second person anyway?) but among its strengths it can count some really excellent, hard-edged B&W photography that lend it an air of gloominess, and a fairly interesting (if cliched) plot with compelling character development.

The lead character is pretty interesting, and the weird narration actually added to the film for me. The tone, photography and narration makes this fairly standard story stand out more.

Interesting 2nd-person VO gimmick (though I couldn't help but wonder if the whole thing could've worked without it). Prescient and no doubt influential film, with an attitude years ahead of its time, despite the occasional beatnik wallowing (that cat on the conga was crazy, man, crazy!). And yes, Ralphie was very creepy indeed. I wonder: was the doublecross at the end because Frankie had gotten cold feet, or had they been planning it all along?

Precursor and companion piece to Taxi Driver. One of cinema's greatest New York stories, a lean, mean, essentially simple crime thriller elevated with psychological shade and aesthetic precision into a tale of urban alienation. It's low-key and pulpy, with a unique second-person narration that functions as Frankie's existential subconscious. The cinematography is street-level gritty, a vérité depiction of big city misanthropy.

About as made for me as this style of movie could be. A precursor to all the Ferrara and Schrader movies of this ilk about a loner searching for meaning within loneliness and the violence they’re putting out in the world. Desperate for anything but the life they’ve built. Hidden in shadows. Just a raw haunted depiction of a person left behind in modern America. When it’s all over is nothing but a man left in a muddy ditch.

Wonderful conflation of noir and character study. The use of voice-over narration is original and very effective.

A wonderful slice of noir: gray, gritty and gloomy, augumented by a smoky jazz score and terrific use of location shots. Most notable is the 2nd-person narration. It's very existentialist, and puts you right inside Frankie's mind. While I imagine the movie would work quite well without any narration at all, its unusual nature really adds something. A very compelling character study that simultaneously feels polished and rough around the edges.

A great and almost forgotten noir classic in which the character study of the lonely wolf killer clearly stands out. Besides that great photography and soundtrack. Highly inspirational.

"Remembering, out of the black silence, you were born in pain." So begins this case history of a hit. The story binds us to the killer (director/writer Allen Baron), and for all his personal ugliness, we're constantly compelled. A few dramatic beats don't quite work (Baron the actor is a bit amateurish), but they pale next to the great semi-documentary cinematography, Meyer Kupferman's thrilling score, Larry Tucker as a sleazy fence, and Lionel Stander's brilliant, Waldo Salt-written narration.

This film noir with a European sensibility is a wonder in that the director had no experience and almost no budget--and yet he manages to make a solid film.

A clear influence on the gangster movies to come, but a movie this well made really deserves a better script.

My expectations that this would be a blast were silenced as soon as I heard the husky Brooklyn-accent voice-over. If there's anything more annoying than overly chatty voice-over narration, it's one that also addresses "you" in second person. The music (by the forgotten Meyer Kupferman, a fantastic composer) is excellent, and it's well shot, but the story is just cliché after cliché. Baron looks a bit like George C. Scott.

The terrible over reliance on voice overs and really slow build up get it off on the wrong foot, but I have to admit the film really grew on me. The deviations from some noir conventions are interesting and the lead character is just sympathetic enough.

There's some groovy photography scattered about, but for the most part it's fairly average.

This movie keeps getting hailed as some kind of noir classic. It's not bad, but I don't see what excites people so much

B-level crime drama that tries to show the humanity (or maybe lack thereof) of a hired gun. There are a few bits that are good: the soundtrack, the noirish look (in a NYC that doesn't have snow at Christmas). The acting is not that good, the voice-over gets a little annoying, and the storyline felt a little too padded even with its short running time.

This charmingly low fi crime flick was shot mostly in real New York locations with equipment left in Cuba by Errol Flynn's "Cuban Rebel Girls". Baron made a deal to use it in exchange for smuggling it out of Cuba. The film was supposed to star Peter Falk, but he got a paying job and Baron stepped in as the lead. It's slow and fairly meditative, infused with serious existential dread, heightened by an odd second-person narration by an uncredited Lionel Stander.

the voiceover borders on hilarious at times--there's a few lines in there that wouldn't be out of place in a PEEP SHOW episode--but in the main i think the character is served well by the film's undeniable odour of poseurdom. the confrontation with his crush is handled extremely well, and i adore everything involving the all-timer wheezing sleazebag performance from larry tucker (writer of bob & carol & ted & alice!). thing has given me a taste for more assassinoirs.

One of the best best portrayals of loneliness and the detachment most people have. You think you’re important in someone’s life and you’re really just drifting through it all. With a voiceover track that usually wouldn’t work but in this film works as another element to cement the loneliness of it all. When it’s just you and your thoughts. Plus also there’s also a cool jazzy soundtrack and a great ending set during a hurricane which they didn’t know was going to happen during filming. Bleak end.

A hidden gem

Blast of Silence estreava há 60 anos em New York. Fiquei meio cabrera com a narração em off no início, não é todo cineasta que tem o dom de fazer isso dar certo, mas esse é o caso aqui, ela acaba ficando menos intrusiva com o desenrolar na estória e dá um toque de mestre ao final. DVDRip Classics.

My top-10's gem...

Narration that addresses the viewer in colloquial terms is a gimmick used surprisingly little in previous noirs, but this proves why - it becomes grating long before the credits roll. Allen Baron's brisk directorial debut is a fairly standard crime drama otherwise, bolstered by a memorable performance from noted screenwriter Larry Tucker as rat aficionado Big Ralph.

"It's still the same thing: dissatisfaction with what is supposed to be The American Dream." http://illusionpodcast.blogspot.com/2014/05/episode-15.html

Succinct and slick with a great jazz soundtrack. It might be a bit too spartan for its own good, but there is no dicking around. There are a series of standout scenes (specifically the jazz bar) and shots (testing the gun). The narration may be polarizing to some, but it mostly works. And even if it falters, it's a pretty creative choice and just adds an extra layer of hard boiled.

81.000

Couldn't get into this, mostly because that horrific narration was so distracting that I completely tuned out to pretty much everything that happened in it. Some nice photography, though. Love seeing New York at Christmastime. Allen Baron looks like a mixture of George C Scott and Lorne Michaels.

81.250

It's got moxie enough for the both of youse.

Intense, super-gritty, tightly woven noir that upends many of the genre's conventions.

I loved it. Some terrific scenes (f ex opening sequence, village gate conga, the party) and Larry Tucker as Ralphie was really memorable. Liked Baron in the lead role as well. Great.

"The tension doesn't so much revolve around the antihero's job, redemption, or ultimate fate but rather the disconnect between its mundane milieu and the grandiose flourishes they're meant to convey." - Eric Henderson

It's an average noir, to be sure, but it was made a couple years after the film noir truly "peaked," so there's really no excuse for this pedestrian jaunt through well-worn territory. The opening sequence is similar to the introduction of "the butcher" in Seul Contre Tous, but that's where the similarities end. As much as I wanted Blast of Silence to be the spiritual predecessor of Noe's masterpiece and the thematically similar Taxi Driver, I found it rather toothless and facile.

Love, LOVE the frequently OTT voiceover, though the film relies too much on a messy story to get to its existential point. Larry Tucker is fantastic in a brief supporting role.

965

Without the quintessential femme fatale, this is more crime than film-noir. Also, this is more brooding and depressive than its contemporaries. The voice-over which goads the antagonist to his doom is creepy and effective, and from what I can remember from other movies of its times, quite unique in its approach. Allen Baron delivers, more so as a director than as an actor.