Ever noticed how John Travolta just sorta slipped off the face of the earth for most of the ‘80s?

He was still acting, it wasn’t the result of some fed-up creative hiatus; In fact, he starred in twice as many movies in the ‘80s then he had in the previous decade, two of which won him the Razzie award for “worst actor” in 1983. He even made a brief foray into the music world with The Road to Freedom, his 1986 collab album with L. Ron Hubbard (*shudder*). But every project he got involved in was ultimately doomed to fail. Seriously, they were all dumpster fires, except for one:

Brian De Palma’s pre-Scarface masterpiece, 1981’s Blow Out.

A direct homage to Ingmar Berman’s Blow Up, Blow Out is a psycho-drama about a sound effects mixer who - after catching the seemingly accidental death of an incumbent governor on tape - finds himself caught in the crosshairs of an elaborate political conspiracy.

At the time of its release in 1981, Blow Out tanked at the box office, mostly due to its cynical tone and bleak ending - taking Travolta’s career with it. But critics were unanimous in their praise for the film; Roger Ebert, the most celebrated film critic of all time, gave Blow Out 4 out of 4 stars, citing the its “cinematic intelligence,” and an ecstatic review from The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael compared it to classics like Nashville and The Godfather in its ability to transcend genre.

The general consensus was that Blow Out was the best work of Travolta’s career thus far (yes, better than Saturday Night Fever), and as fate would have it, would remain so until the release of Pulp Fiction 13 years later. But even Tarantino admits it’s one of his favorites of all time.

But don’t take his word for it; watch it here and let us know what you think. —Jackson Todd