Blood Simple
Blood Simple (from Weird and Wonderful II: Fifty More Cult Films by George Hughes, available from freefall-productions.com on 02/11/20)
1984 / US / 99 minutes
“In Russia, they’ve got it all mapped out so that everyone pulls for everyone else- that’s the theory anyway… But what I know, is Texas. And down here, you’re on your own.”
Director: Joel Coen / Screenplay: Ethan Coen & Joel Coen / Director of Photography: Barry Sonnenfeld / Music: Carter Burwell / Production: Ethan Coen for River Road Productions / Cast: John Getz (Ray), Frances McDormand (Abby), Dan Hedaya (Julian Marty), M. Emmett Walsh (Loren Visser), Samm-Art Williams (Meurice).
If Streets of Fire is the perfect example of what happens when a studio launches shitloads of money at a big name director’s project that goes horribly wrong, Blood Simple is the perfect example of an independently funded production made by complete unknowns that becomes a huge success, which is especially ironic as, in it’s own way, the Coen Brothers’ debut mixes the same genres- Film Noir and the Western- just in a completely different way.
Joel and Ethan Coen (when they started out they decided Joel would be credited as the director and Ethan as the producer- in reality they each did both and now share the credits) raised the money for Blood Simple by going door to door with their script and a “Fake trailer” of homemade footage they’d already shot to give an idea of what the finished film would be.
The result was critically acclaimed and loved by audiences. Blood Simple is a perfectly plotted, brilliantly performed and expertly crafted small- scale crime thriller. It opens with sleazy private investigator Loren Visser (Blade Runner’s M. Emmett Walsh) following Abby (Frances McDormand) and Ray (John Getz), the man she’s having an affair with.
Visser is working for Abby’s husband Marty (Dan Hedaya), who owns the Texas bar where Ray works. When Visser brings him photographs of Abby and Ray together, Marty hires Visser to kill them both. Visser accepts the job but has no intention of committing two murders when he could more easily get away with committing only one. He fakes the killing of Abby and Ray with doctored photos, takes payment from Marty and then shoots him instead.
Finding Marty in his office, Ray thinks Abby’s killed him and, in a state of shock, starts to clean up the scene to protect her. Driving out into the night desert to bury Marty, Ray is shocked to discover that Marty isn’t dead and is trying to move. In a panic, he buries Marty alive. Meanwhile, Visser realises he left his distinctive lighter in Marty’s office and ends up going after Abby and Ray anyway…
Much more serious than most of the Coens’ stuff (although there is still some humour), Blood Simple remains one of their best and most interesting works because it’s by far the darkest. The title comes from Dashiell Hammett’s novel Red Harvest and refers to the addled, fearful state of mind of people who have been involved in prolonged violent situations. This is precisely what happens to Ray- not the brightest and never the best communicator anyway, he becomes both fearful for, and fearful of, Abby.
Visser trips himself up with one stupid mistake (actually two- he should have checked the man he’d just shot was dead but he never even finds out about that one) that derails his entire plan and if Abby and Ray would just talk to each other about what’s going on things would have worked out a lot better for them. In the final act, Blood Simple becomes an almost farcical comedy of extremely costly errors (Visser himself even sees the funny side of it all in the end).
The then unknown cast are universally excellent (Walsh was the only minor “Name” involved in the whole thing and did it pretty much as a favour) with Frances McDormand going on to marry Joel Coen and starring in several of the brothers’ subsequent films. Dan Hedaya (future solid support in The Usual Suspects and Alien: Resurrection) is both menacing and strangely sympathetic as Marty whilst it’s a shame that John Getz and Samm-Art Williams both just sort of disappeared.
A huge influence on independent filmmakers ever since it came out, Blood Simple’s ghost can be felt in John Dahl’s Neo Noir Westerns Red Rock West (1992) and The Last Seduction (1993) and especially in Danny Boyle’s 1994 debut, Shallow Grave (even the poster was nearly identical) whilst the Coens themselves revisited similar territory with Fargo (1996). More recently, Breaking Bad took a fair bit from it too (I’m going to get crucified for saying this but personally I only found it to be an OK series rather than the best thing ever).
With a genuinely clever story, interesting characters, sharp dialogue and a surprisingly foreboding atmosphere (hugely enhanced by Carter Burwell’s eerie score), Blood Simple easily outdoes all of the slick “Designer Thrillers” that big money stars, writers and directors were knocking out at the time. I first saw it on a tape I’d recorded (on the dreaded “Long Play”) because I was out the night it was being shown on Channel 4 circa 2000. Even in that extremely fuzzy state (although, to be honest, the initial British DVD release wasn’t much better), Blood Simple was incredibly powerful.
It also turned out to be one of my earliest editing experiences as, at the time, I’d just got hold of a rare double VHS recorder (for old school piracy purposes hopefully nobody reading this will care about anymore) and used to try to seamlessly cut the adverts out of films I’d recorded from TV with it. As a result, I ended up watching the same scenes from Blood Simple a lot and developed a good idea of how they were constructed. I’d still advise anyone putting their own film together for the first time to study the fuck out of it too.
1984 / US / 99 minutes
“In Russia, they’ve got it all mapped out so that everyone pulls for everyone else- that’s the theory anyway… But what I know, is Texas. And down here, you’re on your own.”
Director: Joel Coen / Screenplay: Ethan Coen & Joel Coen / Director of Photography: Barry Sonnenfeld / Music: Carter Burwell / Production: Ethan Coen for River Road Productions / Cast: John Getz (Ray), Frances McDormand (Abby), Dan Hedaya (Julian Marty), M. Emmett Walsh (Loren Visser), Samm-Art Williams (Meurice).
If Streets of Fire is the perfect example of what happens when a studio launches shitloads of money at a big name director’s project that goes horribly wrong, Blood Simple is the perfect example of an independently funded production made by complete unknowns that becomes a huge success, which is especially ironic as, in it’s own way, the Coen Brothers’ debut mixes the same genres- Film Noir and the Western- just in a completely different way.
Joel and Ethan Coen (when they started out they decided Joel would be credited as the director and Ethan as the producer- in reality they each did both and now share the credits) raised the money for Blood Simple by going door to door with their script and a “Fake trailer” of homemade footage they’d already shot to give an idea of what the finished film would be.
The result was critically acclaimed and loved by audiences. Blood Simple is a perfectly plotted, brilliantly performed and expertly crafted small- scale crime thriller. It opens with sleazy private investigator Loren Visser (Blade Runner’s M. Emmett Walsh) following Abby (Frances McDormand) and Ray (John Getz), the man she’s having an affair with.
Visser is working for Abby’s husband Marty (Dan Hedaya), who owns the Texas bar where Ray works. When Visser brings him photographs of Abby and Ray together, Marty hires Visser to kill them both. Visser accepts the job but has no intention of committing two murders when he could more easily get away with committing only one. He fakes the killing of Abby and Ray with doctored photos, takes payment from Marty and then shoots him instead.
Finding Marty in his office, Ray thinks Abby’s killed him and, in a state of shock, starts to clean up the scene to protect her. Driving out into the night desert to bury Marty, Ray is shocked to discover that Marty isn’t dead and is trying to move. In a panic, he buries Marty alive. Meanwhile, Visser realises he left his distinctive lighter in Marty’s office and ends up going after Abby and Ray anyway…
Much more serious than most of the Coens’ stuff (although there is still some humour), Blood Simple remains one of their best and most interesting works because it’s by far the darkest. The title comes from Dashiell Hammett’s novel Red Harvest and refers to the addled, fearful state of mind of people who have been involved in prolonged violent situations. This is precisely what happens to Ray- not the brightest and never the best communicator anyway, he becomes both fearful for, and fearful of, Abby.
Visser trips himself up with one stupid mistake (actually two- he should have checked the man he’d just shot was dead but he never even finds out about that one) that derails his entire plan and if Abby and Ray would just talk to each other about what’s going on things would have worked out a lot better for them. In the final act, Blood Simple becomes an almost farcical comedy of extremely costly errors (Visser himself even sees the funny side of it all in the end).
The then unknown cast are universally excellent (Walsh was the only minor “Name” involved in the whole thing and did it pretty much as a favour) with Frances McDormand going on to marry Joel Coen and starring in several of the brothers’ subsequent films. Dan Hedaya (future solid support in The Usual Suspects and Alien: Resurrection) is both menacing and strangely sympathetic as Marty whilst it’s a shame that John Getz and Samm-Art Williams both just sort of disappeared.
A huge influence on independent filmmakers ever since it came out, Blood Simple’s ghost can be felt in John Dahl’s Neo Noir Westerns Red Rock West (1992) and The Last Seduction (1993) and especially in Danny Boyle’s 1994 debut, Shallow Grave (even the poster was nearly identical) whilst the Coens themselves revisited similar territory with Fargo (1996). More recently, Breaking Bad took a fair bit from it too (I’m going to get crucified for saying this but personally I only found it to be an OK series rather than the best thing ever).
With a genuinely clever story, interesting characters, sharp dialogue and a surprisingly foreboding atmosphere (hugely enhanced by Carter Burwell’s eerie score), Blood Simple easily outdoes all of the slick “Designer Thrillers” that big money stars, writers and directors were knocking out at the time. I first saw it on a tape I’d recorded (on the dreaded “Long Play”) because I was out the night it was being shown on Channel 4 circa 2000. Even in that extremely fuzzy state (although, to be honest, the initial British DVD release wasn’t much better), Blood Simple was incredibly powerful.
It also turned out to be one of my earliest editing experiences as, at the time, I’d just got hold of a rare double VHS recorder (for old school piracy purposes hopefully nobody reading this will care about anymore) and used to try to seamlessly cut the adverts out of films I’d recorded from TV with it. As a result, I ended up watching the same scenes from Blood Simple a lot and developed a good idea of how they were constructed. I’d still advise anyone putting their own film together for the first time to study the fuck out of it too.
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