Blood Simple (Director's Cut)
by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
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Actor: Dan Hedaya, Frances McDormand, John Getz, M. Emmet Walsh, Samm-Art WilliamsDirector: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cinematographer: Barry Sonnenfeld
Editor: Joel Coen
Writer: Joel Coen
Editor: Ethan Coen
Editor: Don Wiegmann
Producer: Daniel F. Bacaner
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-09-18
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Circle Films
DVD Reviews of Blood Simple (Director's Cut)
DVD Review: What a Treat!
Summary: 5 Stars
The Coens pack a lot of goin's-on into this clever murder for hire/love story/comedy/thriller that is both brutal and darkly humorous at the same time. Quirky and riveting. One of their best. DVD Review: The electrifying first film from the Coen's
Summary: 4 Stars
Before No Country For Old Men, before The Big Lebowski, and before Fargo; Joel and Ethan Coen crafted this homage to the crime-noir. Blood Simple stars Dan Hedaya as a sleezy bar owner who plots to have his cheating wife (Frances McDormand in her screen debut) and his bartender (John Getz) with whom she is having an affair murdered. Things don't quite go as planned however when the hitman he hires (M. Emmet Walsh) turns the tables, and things begin to spiral out of control for everyone involved. Simply speaking, Blood Simple is a riveting ride with plenty of atmosphere and even some unnerving moments that seem straight out of a horror flick, and for it's entire running time will keep you glued to the screen. It isn't as sophisticated or well-crafted as their later works would be, but there isn't any denying that Blood Simple didn't set the stage for the greatness from the Coen brothers to come.DVD Review: There's nothing simple about this bloodbath...
Summary: 5 Stars
Without doubt one of the Coen's darkest films, `Blood Simple' is also one of their best. Slow, brooding and manipulative, `Blood Simple' unfolds like one of the most unsettling horror movies of our generation, and it does so with such distinguished fire we can't help but be stirred inside. This is one of those movies that are so mesmerizing that one doesn't initially notice the haunting aspects of the plot until it is too late and we are sucked deep inside.
The film follows Ray and Abby, two lovers who are hiding from Abby's vengeful husband Julian (who also happens to be Ray's boss). When Julian can't take his wife's cheating heart any longer he hires Private Investigator Loren Visser to kill them, but when Loren decides to try and pull one over on Julian everything goes downhill and spirals into an amalgam of tragedy.
The films darkness sheds light on the overwhelming consequences of betrayal, and while Julian doesn't appear to be the most respectable of men his wife's actions are really the root cause of the characters turmoil. `Blood Simple' is a wonderful example of the cold and obviously embellished results of a wandering heart and it exposes the evil that is lingering in us all, waiting for a chance of justifiably expose itself. On the outset the film may appear to be nothing more than a well constructed horror thriller but it is a very smart character study and a truly mesmerizing answer to the cheating spouse. Even the ending is remarkable intelligent and on point with the films reasoning for it leaves the guilty party (ambiguous SPOILER here) alone to contemplate her actions.
The performances within this film are also stellar. I was most impressed with Dan Hedaya, an actor who always seems to find himself with a thankless supporting role. He is finally given a chance to exercise his acting muscle here as Julian and is utterly commanding and fear inspiring in each scene. Frances McDormand makes one amazing debut here, proving why she is so loved in the first place. The film is not very interested in her until the third act really, but she is so moving in that act. M. Emmet Walsh is incredibly creepy as Loren and John Getz is effectively apathetic (another smart play on the `other man' persona).
The final few frames of the film are some of the most intensely crafted scenes in the history of the genre and that whole `hand coming through the window' scene is remarkable to say the least. If you take nothing else away from this film, take away the fact that that last scene is one of the best scenes in the history of film.
`Blood Simple' is dark and gory and intense. It's also humorous (this is a Coen film) and intelligent. Underneath the films `horror' veneer is a film about as honest as they come in its dissection of the marital bonds and the aftereffects of their severing.
DVD Review: Blood Simple (1985) "The Director's Cut"
Summary: 4 Stars
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' cover) for the US home video edition (though not for international video versions). The "directors' cut" reinstated the Four Tops track, as the Coens had always intended.
DVD Review: Doesn't Hold Up
Summary: 2 Stars
I've heard about this movie for a very long time. I've always wanted to see it. But now that I have, I want my time back. The characters are frustrating to the point where they all needed a good smack on the back of the head. M. Emmett Walsh's acting was the one high point. Even if the script isn't clear about his motives, Walsh shows what a great actor he really is. I can't say the same for anyone else in the movie. I know the film makers were trying to be funny (burying someone in a plowed farm field is supposed to be humorous.) But the pacing is so slow, it's painful. The trailer quotes Alfred Hitchcock's line about it taking a long time to kill someone. But he was talking about the suspense, not about the stupidity of the crime. This movie is a perfect example of "Stupid people are more irritating than evil people."
Description of Blood Simple (Director's Cut)
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 KeoghGeneral DVDs
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