Blood Simple (Director's Cut)

4.5

Starring: John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, M. Emmet Walsh, Samm-Art Williams
Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Made: 1985-01-18
Rating: R
Region: 1 - North America
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The debut film of director Joel Coen and his brother-producer Ethan Coen, 1983's Blood Simple is grisly comic noir that marries the feverish toughness of pulp thrillers with the ghoulishness of even pulpier horror. (Imagine the novels of Jim Thompson somehow fused with the comic tabloid Weird Tales, and you get the idea.) The story concerns a Texas bar owner (Dan Hedaya) who hires a seedy private detective (M. Emmett Walsh) to follow his cheating wife (Frances McDormand in her first film appearance), and then kill her and her lover (John Getz). The gumshoe turns the tables on his client, and suddenly a bad situation gets much, much worse, with some violent goings-on that are as elemental as they are shocking. (A scene in which a character who has been buried alive suddenly emerges from his own grave instantly becomes an archetypal nightmare.) Shot by Barry Sonnenfeld before he became an A-list director in Hollywood, Blood Simple established the hyperreal look and feel of the Coens' productions (undoubtedly inspired a bit by filmmaker Sam Raimi, whose The Evil Dead had just been coedited by Joel). Sections of the film have proved to be an endurance test for art-house movie fans, particularly an extended climax that involves one shock after another but ends with a laugh at the absurdity of criminal ambition. This is definitely one of the triumphs of the 1980s and the American independent film scene in general. --Tom Keogh

Reviews

“Cohen Bros. 1st / Most Original Story”

If you are a Coen's Bros. show more

From Amazon

“Blood Simple (Director's Cut)”

A classic movie!!!! If you don't own a copy, you better snatch one up before they are all gone. It's no longer in print!! A don't miss!!!!

From Amazon

“Review of Blood Simple”

Excellent movie and a premonition of what the Coen Brothers would bring later (Fargo, et. al.} If you haven't seen it, I strongly recommend it.

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“Great title, great promise in the Coens' first effort”

I barely remembered this film from my first time watching it, 20 years ago or so in a theatrical revival, possibly while still in college. show more

I barely remembered this film from my first time watching it, 20 years ago or so in a theatrical revival, possibly while still in college. The cleaning up of the blood, the burying of the body...that was about it. The fact that it was closer to horror than comedy - in fact it's probably the least-funny of all the brothers' work up until A SERIOUS MAN. Because I hadn't seen it for so long, I can't really comment on the differences between the original and "director's" cuts - you'll have to look at some of the other reviews for that. My original viewing is just a faint memory....

I'm very pleased to say that the film was worth remembering, and re-watching, and it's fascinating in hindsight that it establishes so much of the Coen brothers' principle preoccupations and methods right off the bat. Frances McDorman stars in the first of several roles she has played for her husband Joel and brother-in-law Ethan, as an unhappy wife married to a successful Austin-area club owner (Dan Hedaya, magnetic) who gets involved with one of hubby's employees (John Getz) and calls down her husband's wrath, setting a series of violent events in motion engineered by his unsavory and totally amoral private eye, played with the perfect combination of sardonic humor, good ol' boy jollity and complete ruthlessness by M Emmett Walsh. The music is by Carter Burwell, a collaborator ever since, and Barry Sonnenfeld's photography contributes a palette at turns high-contrast and bright, or burnished and glossy, that they have used ever since albeit with Sonnenfeld taking leave after RAISING ARIZONA. The noirish atmosphere and storyline, too, show signs of what's to come - comparisons to FARGO and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN in the nature of the violence and betrayals are pretty easy to make.

What's most interesting to me, overall though, is how serious the film is. Walsh is funny, sure, and there are moments of dark humor throughout, but the prevailing tone is one of tragedy and loss, of poor decisions made poorer through bad luck and stupidity; there is little of the Coens' usual snarky, often juvenile jokesterism. McDormand's Abby strikes me as the most interesting character in many ways, though the most inscrutable; her real feelings for both husband and lover never seem really accessible either to us or to anyone in this minor-key bloodbath. She sets the whole story in motion, but through the whole center portion of the film is mostly off-camera or of secondary importance, which makes her final completion of the dance of vengeance all the more gripping.