The Movie: I put this movie in my Netflix queue after finding out that it provided some inspiration for the Coppola film, The Conversation. And while I can definitely see where the influence came from, this film just didn't carry quite the same impact for me.

Blow Up is about a hip fashion photographer who goes for a walk with his camera and happens to catch some grim goings on in the backgrounds of a couple of shots he took. He actually doesn't notice it at first, but as his suspicion grows, he starts enlarging portions of his photographs to get more information (hence the film's title).

I guess the real problem is that the action in the story doesn't really start getting going until he makes that initial discovery in one of his film prints, but honestly, half the film has already gone by before this happens. The entire first half of the film is basically just a look at the lifestyle of a high fashion photographer... the beautiful models, the girls that are willing to do anything to get their picture taken, and of course, the huge egos.

And despite the fact that this first half of the film has all those beautiful women (along with a healthy dose of nudity), it's just waaaaaaaaay too slow. This film just takes way too damned long to get going. It would seem to me that The Conversation is an entire movie inspired by just the second half of Blow Up -- the part that shows the obsession with the subject matter in the photo.

Was it a bad film? No, I wouldn't say so, but it wasn't particularly great either. Another thing of note is that the film does contain a live performance by the Yarbirds from the time when both Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck were members, so that might be worth it enough for some people to check this film out.

The DVD: The video transfer on this DVD is clean... maybe even a bit too clean... with a 60's era film you'd expect to see a healthy dose of film grain, after all, film stocks weren't as good back then as they are now... this film has been cleaned up quite beautifully, but perhaps they went a bit overboard with it? I don't know. Colors are also bold and bright... and again, perhaps too bright for the age of the film. But the bottom line is that it looks fantastic, regardless of whether it's true to the original form or not.

Audio is about what you'd expect from a 60's era film, and exhibits the somewhat limited dynamic range you'd expect. As far as special features go, you get a music only audio track, and a commentary track by a film historian (i.e. someone who just appreciates the film but was not involved in its creation)... neither of which I checked out. There might also have been a trailer but honestly, I don't remember.