This article is about the film. For the metal band, see
Bloodsimple.
Blood Simple. is a 1985 neo-noir crime film. It was the directorial debut of Joel and Ethan Coen, and the first major film of cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, who later became a noted director. The film's title derives from Dashiell Hammett's novel Red Harvest, in which "blood simple" is a term coined to describe the addled, fearful mindset people are in after a prolonged immersion in violent situations.
In 2001, a "director's cut" DVD was released. It placed 98th on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills. The film was also placed at #73 on Bravo TV's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.
Plot
In an unnamed Texas town, a bar manager, Ray (John Getz) and his boss's wife, Abby (Frances McDormand), are suspected of having an affair by her husband, Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya). Marty hires private detective Loren Visser (M. Emmet Walsh) who subsequently takes photos of Ray and Abby at a local motel. During the tryst, Marty makes a menacing phone call to them, making it clear that he is now well aware of their relationship.
The next day Ray confronts Marty at the bar; it ends badly and Ray quits, at which point Marty threatens Ray's life. Marty then arranges for Visser to kill the pair while Marty goes on a fishing trip to create an alibi. That night, Visser breaks into Ray's home, where Abby has been staying, photographs the couple, and steals her gun. Doctoring the photos to make it appear that he has actually murdered the lovers, Visser goes to collect his $10,000 fee, whereupon he shoots Marty with Abby's gun. Upon leaving, Visser fails to realize that, not only has he left behind his lighter under the fish, but that before being shot Marty had taken one of the incriminating photos and locked it in the bar's safe. Abby's revolver is left at the scene to implicate her in the crime.
Later that evening, Ray arrives at the bar to insist that Marty pay him the wages he's owed. Finding Marty murdered, and discovering the gun, which he recognizes as belonging to Abby, Ray assumes Abby murdered her husband, and endeavors to hide all evidence. Ray cleans the office, moves Marty's body into his car, and drives off. Driving down the highway, he discovers Marty is still clinging to life. Panicking, Ray drives to the middle of a field, digs a hole and throws Marty in, burying him alive.
Meanwhile, at his apartment, Visser burns the doctored copies of the photograph of the "murdered" Abby and Ray, and realizes one is missing. Annoyed, he then goes to light his cigarette, but notices his prized lighter is gone, and believes somebody may have taken it, forgetting that it was under the fish from earlier.
At Abby's apartment, a deeply disturbed Ray tries to explain that he cleaned up Abby's mess. Abby does not understand what Ray is talking about, and they get into an argument. Ray thinks Abby is being coy for some reason he doesn't understand. The phone rings, interrupting their argument; Abby answers. It's Visser, who says nothing. Abby assumes it's more intimidation by Marty, and says so to Ray. Knowing this can't be true, Ray assumes Abby is lying, covering for a call by another lover. He storms out. Abby, still ignorant of her husband's death, goes to the bar to try to find out what Ray is talking about. Abby finds the bar ransacked; Visser had been trying to break into the safe and was interrupted by Abby's arrival, and still hides in the bar watching Abby move about. The now-rotting fish that Marty brought back from his trip are still on the desk where Marty was shot; and the lighter is still underneath.
Returning to the apartment, Abby thinks that Marty refused to pay Ray, that Ray broke into the bar to get his money, and that the two of them got into a fight. Ray interrupts and tells her it was her gun at the bar, that he can't eat or sleep lately, and that Marty was alive when he buried him. Ray returns to the bar, opens the safe and finds the faked photo showing him and Abby apparently dead. As he leaves for Abby's apartment he believes he's being followed.
When Abby arrives at her apartment that night, she turns on the lights and finds Ray looking out a large window. He tells Abby to turn off the light, as he believes someone is across the street watching them. Though Visser is in fact on top of a nearby building, watching the apartment through a sniper scope, Abby thinks Ray is threatening her, and she leaves the light on. Now able to see into the apartment, Visser shoots Ray through the back, killing him. Abby narrowly escapes being shot as well, gets out of sight and knocks out the light. Visser arrives at Abby's apartment as she goes to the bathroom to hide. He searches Ray's pockets for the lighter, and failing to find it, he goes into the bathroom to kill Abby. Abby is not there; he looks outside the window, then reaches his arm over, finding a window to another room in a neighboring apartment, and correctly guesses that Abby climbed out that way. Reaching around, he opens the adjacent window, but Abby slams it on top of his wrist and drives a knife through his hand into the windowsill. Visser screams and shoots holes through the wall, then punches through and removes the knife. Abby retreats back into the apartment, and waits behind the bathroom door, holding a gun. As Visser is about to emerge, she fires through the door, and Visser falls. "I'm not afraid of you, Marty," Abby says, still unaware of the major events that have transpired. Visser, laying out on the bathroom floor mortally wounded by a gunshot to the stomach, suddenly bursts into laughter. He says: "Well, ma'am, if I see him, I'll sure give him the message" and looks at the sink above him, and with an expression of shock finds that the plumbing underneath it is a nonsensical mix of pieces, very much like the simple plan that has arrived to this convoluted final moment... and a drop of water is about to fall on his forehead.
Reception
The film received an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response, and currently holds a 98% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. One of the few bad reviews came from Pauline Kael, who accused it of emphasizing style over content: "The reason the camera whoop-de-do is so noticeable is that there’s nothing else going on. The movie doesn’t even seem meant to have any rhythmic flow; the Coens just want us to respond to a bunch of 'touches' on routine themes".[1]
Robert Hoffman's Motion Picture Encyclopaedia gave the film the maximum 4 stars, calling it a "brilliant debut film of the editing-assistant of the, also amazing, Evil Dead." The reviewers praise the music, the acting by Walsh and the virtuosity of the camerawork by Barry Sonnenfeld. They conclude their review by saying that this film can't be missed.
DVD
The 2001 DVD release features several spoofs of DVD 'special features'. One is an introduction to the film by fictional film historian "Mortimer Young", who claims that the Director's Cut removes some of "the boring bits" and adds other parts. (This was also included in the theatrical release of the Director's Cut.)
It also includes an audio commentary by "Kenneth Loring", the fictional artistic director of the equally fictional "Forever Young Films". Loring offers several entirely spurious "facts": for example, he claims that the scene with Ray and Abby driving in the rain talking about Marty was acted out in reverse as well as upside down, in order to synch the headlights passing the car just as certain lines were said (he claims that filming the scene backwards and upside down was the logical choice to get the timing right, and that the actors are wearing hair spray to keep their hair pointing "down"). Elsewhere in the commentary, he claims that in scenes with both dialogue and music, the actors simply mouth the words and record them in post-production, so as not to interfere with the music; that Marty's dog is animatronic; that the sweat on various actors is "movie sweat", gathered from the flanks of Palomino horses; that Fred Astaire and Rosemary Clooney were at one time intended for the film; and that a fly buzzing about is not real, but the product of computer generated imagery. "Loring" is voiced by actor Jim Piddock, using a script written by the Coen brothers. This commentary has sparked the interest of people such as Jhonen Vasquez.
Director's cut
Blood Simple. was re-released theatrically in 2000 and on DVD in 2001 in a "directors' cut". Unusually for such an exercise it is some three minutes shorter than the original theatrical release. The Coens shortened the film by tightening the editing, shortening some shots and removing others altogether. In addition, they resolved longstanding rights issues with the music: the original theatrical version of the film made prominent use of The Four Tops' "It's the Same Old Song", but this had to be replaced with Neil Diamond's "I'm a Believer" (made famous by The Monkees) for the U.S. home video edition (though not for international video versions). The "directors' cut" reinstated the Four Tops track, as the Coens had always intended.
In 2008, MGM released a movie-only DVD edition of the film, billed as Blood Simple: Director's Cut. This is the same version of the film as the previous Universal edition.
Soundtrack
The score to Blood Simple. is written by Carter Burwell, the first of his collaborations with the Coen Brothers. He went on to write scores for all of their films. Blood Simple. was the first feature film score for Burwell, and as well as working with the Coens, he later became a much-in-demand composer for Hollywood.
The score for Blood Simple. is a mix of solo piano and electronic ambient sounds. One track, "Monkey Chant" is based on "Kecak", the "Ramayana Monkey Chant" of Bali.
Selections from Burwell's score were released on an album in 1987, along with selections from the Coen's next film, Raising Arizona.
Track listing
- "Crash And Burn" – (2:40)
- "Blood Simple" – (3:33)
- "Chain Gang" – (4:47)
- "The March" – (3:34)
- "Monkey Chant" – (1:04)
- "The Shooting" – (2:52)
- "Blood Simpler" – (1:22)
The tracks from Blood Simple. comprise the final seven tracks on a 17-track CD that also features selections from the Raising Arizona soundtrack.
Other songs in the film
Several other songs are used in the film, but are not included on the soundtrack CD:
Remake
On July 28, 2009, it was revealed that Zhang Yimou was working in a remake of the film. The as yet untitled remake will be set in a Chinese noodle shop in a desert, rather than a bar in a Texas town, and revolve around the restaurant owner's plan to murder his adulterous wife and her lover.[2]
References
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