Blood Simple

Blood Simple, made in the mid-1980's, helped to establish the cheaper indie film, independent of the Hollywood mill system, as a force to be reckoned with. It also launched the careers of the film's makers, Joel and Ethan Coen, as an artistic duo equally to be reckoned with. Finally, the movie itself, a film noir entry with post 1950's elements of sardonic humor, helped to prove that that genre - one of America's prime contributions to theatrical film making - was still alive, if only occasionally ticking.Pretty much based on its title - `blood simple' meaning the less than intelligent condition those involved in murder frequently display in their attempts to cover up the crime - the film mixes a fairly straight forward narrative with a few curves and symbolic gestures thrown in that were to become the Coens' trademark. One can speculate endlessly, of course, on various artifacts - the whirling fans, the cigarette lighter, the decaying fish, etcetera - provided in the movie, but for the most part they in the end would appear to be little more than examples of - and quite likely a homage to - Hitchcock's celebrated McGuffin - ie: an item around which a plot seems to revolve but which in the end has no real significance to the film's denouement. (Although one exception to this rule is to my mind the hat which forms a central icon in the Coen's later masterpiece, Miller's Crossing, where it obviously signals Gabriel Byrne's authority and integrity as an independent human being.)Blood Simple presents a basically ensemble cast of 4 actors, all of them at that time pretty much new to movies. Frances McDormand, never looking more attractive (watch the bathroom scene where she lets down her hair and splashes water on her face, wherein she bears a distinct resemblance to an equally young Jane Fonda), embarks here on a successful career in both future Coen releases and other films. She conveys a frank innocence marred by an apparent propensity to sexual affairs (though in fact this is based mainly on hearsay - her only discretion actually shown in the movie occurs with the John Getz bartender character after she is in the act of leaving her husband.) Her own first display of the Blood Simple condition actually occurs beforehand, with her returning to her and her husband's house and then moving in with Getz rather than keeping on in her plan to flee to Houston, where presumably the Getz character, having little or no visible tie to either his job or his home, could easily join her. Getz, always somewhat wooden in his performances, actually uses this shortcoming to good advantage as the phlegmatic bartender, who finds himself forced to commit his own `blood simple' crime in order to cover up for the crime he supposes his new lover has committed. Dan Hedaya gives what is to be his usual sinister but somewhat dry-witted performance as the husband, while as the private eye M. Emmett Walsh shows yet again his superb ability to portray redneck sleaze elevated to almost surreal heights by a high-pitched cackling laugh. The ending, though in some ways a bit too obvious, at least rivets with its macabre violence and moody, again Hitchcockian, setting.Much has been made of the so-called return from the grave by one of the corpses in the movie. Not revealing the identity of the victim, nevertheless it can be pointed out that this incident is of course presented as an obvious dream sequence and not as reality. But what makes the scene distinctly curious is that the sequence also appears to the McDormand character as a sort of premonition or augury of the movie's final denoument. What no one else seems to have noted is the presence in the scene of window glass spread over the floor of her apartment, glass which did not actually appear until near the end of the film in the finale's first shooting scene.The DVD version has been presented as a director's cut, though most of the cuts are little more than a tightening of dialogue to increase the pace a bit. Also removed was some banter involving Getz's bartender friend, as well hardly pertinent to the plot. One cut, however, that does bother is Getz's brief cigarette shtick with McDormand's piggy bank: at the end of the movie he is attacked by this very artifact, but the viewer hardly knows what it is since in the new version it appears only in a couple of long shots. The Coens make up for the few removed minutes by tacking onto the front of the movie a comic turn by a man purporting to be the head of the company that `restored' the movie for its DVD presentation, which along with the commentary track provided is nothing but a send-up of both restoration projects (greatly needed and hardly seeming to be a subject for satire) and DVD commentaries (often deserving of a thorough parodying). Yet why in this movie the Coens felt the need for such a presentation is unclear; one could see it attached say to one of their comedic entries such as the estimable Raising Arizona, but here in a film noir, as funny as the un-credited commentator may have been with his droll presentation of the `original' Blood Simple plot, it seems out of place and self-indulgent.Finally, much has been made of Blood Simple's resemblance to a later Coen Brothers film: Fargo. Both it is true follow the same basic idea of stupidity following a crime. But the to me fatal flaw in Fargo is that this stupidity also occurs systematically during and before any actual crime, by characters who are for the most part congenitally dumb. This unfortunately negates the entire basis of film noir, which was of basically `average' people being caught up in a dark universe not of their making and beyond their control. The other pertinent flaw in Fargo was that the McDormand cop was presented as a positive, intelligent and fully capable character around which all the flawed characters revolved, thus again removing much of the film noir sense of existential inevitability from the plot - we knew from the start that she would in the end win out over these cretins, which is exactly what she did. All in all, with its total immersion in the film noir world of everyman characters facing forces and confusions they are unable to cope with, I find that Blood Simple is a far better film than Fargo, in fact second only to Miller's Crossing thus far in the Coen Brothers' oeuvre.

I heard this was the film debut of the fabulous Frances McDormand. This is a tidy little slow moving story about jealousy and murder in a small Texas town in the 1980's. Definitely worth a watch or two or three.

You'll love it! A classic.

Great plot, great acting. Dark, moody, and funny in its own way, I saw this film when first released in theatres and have watched it numerous times over the years. Loved it initially, and still enjoy it 40 years later.

This classic neo-noir has been cleaned up a bit and is ready to delight another generation of cinephiles. While obviously a low-budget independent film, you can't watch Blood Simple without being astonished at the sophisticated imagery and innovative cinematic techniques. It would seem unbelievable that this was the Coen Brothers' first film if subsequent features hadn't reinforced one's awareness of their unique talent. Carter Burwell's music is breathtaking, as integral to the action as Bernard Hermann's score was to Psycho. The cast is superb and DP Sonnenfeld works wonders with shots and lighting.Frances McDormand is Abby, the wife of Marty, a scuzzy bar owner in Texas. Abby is fed up and movin' on with Ray, one of Marty's employees and, you know, that's just not the kind of thing Marty is going to stand for. He hires the magnificent M. Emmett Walsh to follow the pair. As in the best film noir, no one is pure and no one doesn't lie. Double- and triple-crosses, misunderstandings and betrayals leave a bloody trail brilliantly realized on film with composite fades, Raimi-esque runs, excruciating foley work and a haunting score.The DVD extras are disappointing in quantity but not quality. There is a theatrical trailer; cast and filmmaker credits; interesting and informative, if short, production notes; English, French or Spanish subtitles or captioning for the hearing-impaired; and a commentary track. While one can't help but be disappointed that there isn't a Coen commentary, the remarks made by Kenneth Loring are absolutely brilliant. If this is, as he states, the "aficionado version", it is largely due to the erudition of this complex man; ultimately Loring leaves the film behind, far far behind, as he explores Merchant-Ivory films, explains animatronics, calls our attention to miniature smoke, exposes Adrian Butts, and laments the loss of the Bulgarian "Son of Todor" storyline. You will never see film in the same way again, once Kenneth L. is done with you.It is a real pleasure to see this essential film out on dvd.

Saw this on its release (in 80's) and loved it then. Found a video VHS copy in a charity shop a while back and played it again - loved it even more. Not their slickest but what it lacks in mature style it more than compensates for with black humour, grisly tension and wacky characters. M Emmett Walsh is a revelation as the P.I. The grainy quality of the VHS made it even better. The knife in the windowsill scene and the "burial" in the field are both gut wrenching. They would go on to peak (IMO) with Fargo and Big Lebowksi and in some ways perhaps have failed to fully realise the potential they showed in this debut. Great cinema.

If you're a fan of the Coen brothers or just film noir, this should be in your collection. They've done an incredible blu-ray transfer job, apparently digitising the original 35mm film rather than lazily transferring from a lower resolution digital source which sadly a lot of studios do for older movies. The result is quite frankly amazing and looks like it was shot last year, not in 1982 (the obvious giveaway being a very young looking Frances McDormand!). Quite some debut.

This is such an odd different film with an amazing plot I just don't understand how it's not better known. Everyone I've ever shown it too agreed. The Coen Bros don't rate it all that highly - maybe it doesn't have the panache of later films but its been in my top ten now for 30 years. Do yourself a favour watch it on a dark night with a drink - it will be best couple of hours you spent this year!

This is the 2000-released version of the film, which presents the 4:3 ratio version of the film without cropping the edges of the screen. You can therefore see the film in its full size. Unfortunately it is a very worn/grainy film and as bad in quality as a counterfeit DVD. Universal cannot lecture on counterfeit DVDs when they produce DVDs that are just as bad. Although this is a badly worn/grainy film, it has very high light contrast which is good so that in light scenes you can pick out little details on clothes etc a little better. However in dark scenes you can hardly make out anything and it looks bad. The overall presentation looks a little too grainy and worn, which is somewhat surprising given that it is only a 2000 release. There clearly is an issue of poor quality regarding this DVD which should be addressed.You can purchase a "widescreen" digitally remastered version only by purchasing the 2010-released DVD box set called The Coen Brothers Collection. However, although the DVD box set widescreen version of the film is indeed smoother, it is also defective because it has significantly centre-cropped the picture so that you don't see the original image full size and you don't see everything the filmmakers intended. The cropped-edges can only be seen by comparing the full size 4:3 version with the widescreen cropped version side-by-side.Until Universal sort out the issues regarding how the film can be presented on DVD in its original form properly, Blood Simple - a terrific film with an abrupt ending - will remain a film that is of poor physical condition. In an ideal world the DVD would be withdrawn rather than sold for £5.79 as at the time of writing.

Great film…not widescreen