Blow Job

Blow Job (1963)

BOMB (out of 4)

Andy Warhol's directorial debut is a forty-minute movie showing the facial expressions of a guy getting a blow job. Um, yeah. To say this thing was boring would be the understatement of a lifetime. I'm sure this film only made sense to Warhol and God only knows what state of mind he was in. I know this film has it share of fans but I'd certainly love to hear from them.

Kiss (1963)

BOMB (out of 4)

Andy Warhol directed this film, which runs fifty-minutes and features various couples kissing for 3 1/2 minutes each. Man and woman, woman and woman and man and man. Once again, who in the hell would want to watch this?

Empire (1964)

BOMB (out of 4)

Andy Warhol is back again and this time he's got a camera set up shooting the top of the Empire State Building. I watched a 60-minute excerpt of this film, which originally ran a shocking eight hours. Can you imagine watching an eight hour film of nothing but the top of a building? This 60-minute version had me on the verge of suicide so....

Mario Banana 1 (1964)

1/2 (out of 4)

Mario Banana 2 (1964)

1/2 (out of 4)

Andy Warhol directed these two films, which show a man in drag (or an incredibly ugly woman) sucking and eating a banana. Part 2 of the film features the same footage in B&W. The only reason I didn't give these two a BOMB rating is because they thankfully only run three minutes each.

This is not an attack as Empire, nor a nice impression as Sleep, but just a short joke. There is quite a lot of action in the face and it takes only 36 minutes. You will probably forget it as soon as it finishes.

Andy Warhol, the pop artist that said that everyone would be famous for 15 minutes gives to actor DeVeren Bookwalter nothing more than 35 minutes of fame in a short and experimental film called "Blow Job" where his character facial expressions are the only thing shown on screen while he's receiving oral sex from a stranger off screen (since it's a Warhol work we can assure that is another guy who's doing the act and in the IMDb's credits the name of Willard Maas is credited as 'the giver').

It's a single shot with Bookwalter's head, while getting a blow job. He smiles, looks at the camera, lights a cigarette, seems to talk for a few moments (there's no sound, we can't hear a thing) and he enjoys the whole long act. This simple description sounds boring but the film, surprisingly, is not.

It's a daring work of the 1960's and I believe is the responsible for most films including a sex scene without being too graphic, we've just have the sense that something is happening. If today we have that classic facial expression of a guy receiving oral sex, lifting his head in pleasure, being showed in countless films is because of this little classic.

It might be a boring film for many viewers without nothing much too show? Yes, it can be. It can make you think about other things, or even in the behind the scenes of the film, after all there always be people who want to know if the sexual act happened or the actor was really good with his acting. And Bookwalter's acting is great, I mean, can you imagine portraying one single movement throughout a whole film? He was able to use a lot of his expressions (thankful to his good looks too), putting back his head, moving on and on, making subtle movements with his hand, and all these little changes makes his acting pretty good.

Exciting, interesting, a little bit gloomy among many other things, here's a great film directed by Andy Warhol. 10/10

Nicely referenced in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 5, from Episode 96, "Intervention," it is one of the more wicked of Joss Whedon's famous pop culture references. Spike has Warren make a Buffybot for him to play with, since the real Buffy is still more interested in staking him than falling for him. Writer Jane Espenson uses "Blow Job" in a transitional scene that lasts only seconds in Act II. Many of Warhol's films were mandatory when I was in film school, and Blow Job was my favorite for sheer audacity. I think Bill Viola's The Passions video installations at the Getty Museum last year come closest to doing seriously what Warhol did to shock. Both artists take facial expressions and show them apart from the motivating circumstances, changing the viewer's reference point. Wonderful, and Whedon's use of it is delicious.

I dare say a lot of art students thought they would be in for some hot porno when they went to see this. Andy Warhol,Coca-Cola,Macdonalds all the same thing on art sending up life again.Could be messier Warhola was the ultimate used car salesman.