As a location scout, I love taking a closer look at older movie locations, so here’s the first part of a deep dive I’ve been working on for you Philly fans: Brian De Palma’s Blow Out, comparing 1981 Philadelphia to what it’s become 45 years later…
The movie opens with a scene that fills me with anxiety as a scout, because it would be extraordinarily difficult to pull off today. We see John Travolta out recording ambient sounds on a pedestrian bridge…
This was shot under the Henry Avenue bridge alongside Lincoln Drive, and the pedestrian bridge is still there to this day:
We then see a man next to a bench, apparently out for a stroll. Except look closely – there is BARELY enough room for the bench (it’s basically pressed against the wooden fence). That’s because it’s not really a sidewalk so much as a curb against traffic whizzing by on Lincoln.
My assumption is that the production closed all of Lincoln Drive, from Rittenhouse to Ridge, for the shoot over the course of several long nights, which allowed them to play it as more of a quiet park location with a transverse. We see a car smash through the fence…
And plunge into the Wissahickon Creek. Today, I can’t even imagine how many environmental studios alone would need to be conducted to get permission, let alone a laundry list of other concerns. Back in the 1980s? Chances are, that car is still down there.
Miss my day trips from NYC to Philly dearly since moving to LA. I’ll post more from Blow Out in the coming weeks.
Leave a Reply