Blood Simple (1984)

reviewed by
Kevin Patterson


Blood Simple *** (out of four) R, 1984 Directed by Joel Coen. Written by Joel and Ethan Coen. Starring John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, M. Emmet Walsh.

It might surprise some to know that Joel and Ethan Coen, who have brought such unabated lunacy to our movie screens as "Raising Arizona" and "The Hudsucker Proxy," made their feature film debut with "Blood Simple," a grim and often gruesome tale of revenge, murder, and literally fatal misconceptions in rural Texas. It bears some resemblance, story-wise, to the Coens' recent "Fargo," but even the darkly satirical humor and the enjoyably quirky characterizations that characterized that film are scarce here; "Blood Simple" is pretty much cold and brutal from beginning to end.

The premise of "Blood Simple" is really just a slight variation on the standard love-triangle/revenge scheme: sleazy bar owner Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya) hires a shifty private detective (M. Emmet Walsh) to kill his wife Abby (Frances McDormand) and her illicit lover Ray (John Getz). Things start to go haywire when Walsh decides instead to fake the murder with photographic trickery but, upon collecting the money, becomes uncertain as to whether or not Marty is capable of keeping his mouth shut about the scheme.

To reveal any more details of the story would be to give away too much, but what ensues is a series of bloody (and I do mean bloody) confrontations, each triggered by one or more characters misunderstanding what is actually happening. Every act of violence or deception in this film makes sense when seen through the perpetrator's eyes, but we, the audience, are made privy to the "big picture" and thus can recognize that each misdeed is somehow either unnecessary or directed at the wrong person. This aspect of the story, along with the intense atmosphere of repulsion and brutality - one gets the sense that if guns and, in one case, shovels, were not available, some of these characters would claw each other to death - are the most effective components of the film. The Coens might have done well to title the film "Fear and Loathing in Texas."

Some have labeled "Blood Simple as a modern-day noir, but, while I am not an expert on either genre, it seems more like a horror movie than anything else. The Coens seem much more interested in the plot twists and the atmosphere of confusion and paranoia than they do in the characters, and the final sequence is nothing more than a showdown between the one (relatively) innocent character and the only one of the murderers left alive. That said, "Blood Simple" is a very good horror movie; the fear and suspense here are genuine. The Coens also add plenty of quirky touches that nudge the weirdness meter upwards, such as when a character enters an empty room and accidentally steps on a gun, discharging it as it skitters across the floor, or when a murder attempt unfolds in a way such that Abby mistakes her attacker for another character who has in fact been killed earlier in the film.

That said, "Blood Simple" is not exactly flawless. For one thing, the motivations for the killings are still a little thin at times; I can understand that the characters had tracks to cover (or at least thought they did), but I found it a little hard to accept that all of them would so quickly resort to murder. And although they at least didnŐt have anyone get hacked to death with a knife, the Coens also aren't quite immune to horror cliches; they indulge in a prolonged dead-guy-seems-to-have-come-back-to-life-but-then-we-find-out-it's-only-a-dream scene that had me rolling my eyes. The film also ends so quickly after the final confrontation that I found myself wondering if they had simply run out of film.

"Blood Simple" is not quite the masterpiece of neo-noir that many seem to think it is, but it's a decent movie and it showcases the Coens' ability to handle suspense and violence in a visceral but non-exploitative manner. I would firmly recommend it to all "Coen-heads" as well as anyone looking for something original in a thriller.

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