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

Absolutely eye-popping film noir about an alienated hit-man. Not without a certain musty charm, especially the scene at the Village Gate where a "beatnik" jazz musician sings "Dressed in Black".

"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

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?

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.

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.

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

"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.

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

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.

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

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.

965

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

An excellent depiction of a troubled and isolated man. It kind of reminds me of Taxi Driver. Allen Baron's approach is brooding and methodical, but not distant. We gradually get to know Frankie as light is shed on his misanthropy, and he becomes more and more vulnerable. Even if he's not overly sympathetic, there is understanding and believability. Memorably characterized by gritty second-person narration and great Manhattan cinematography.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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