There is something about a good crime movie that brings to light the worst and most perverse traits of Mankind, that really forces the characters to open themselves to the viewer and show them the complexity of the human mind and spirit
the stuff of great drama! 'Blood Simple' was the Coens' outstanding debut; as far as I'm concerned, it remains their best movie after 'Barton Fink' their undisputed masterpiece! and I personally regard it higher than 'Fargo.' It is one of my favourite movies, second only to 'Chinatown,' I'm constantly watching it. Ironically, I originally disliked it the first time I saw it three years ago? because I found it very slow-paced (which is only a fault in the viewer and never in the movie) and boring; today I know I was wrong
'Blood Simple' is easily one of the most thrilling and fast-paced movies ever made with a plot that is as simple as it is gripping!
This movie is built on the narrative device of 'dramatic irony,' which Alfred Hitchcock used a lot in his movies to create and maintain suspense: withholding vital information from the characters but allowing the viewer to always know what's going on, thus trapping the viewer on his powerlessness to change what he knows is about to happen to characters dear to him. For the whole 90 minutes of 'Blood Simple' only the viewer ever has the whole picture in his mind; the characters, they have small fragments of a disjointed, mystery puzzle that leaves clueless in their own personal worlds, unable to trust anyone. This lack of harmony results in all sorts of misunderstandings and situations that will eventually result in tragedy for the four main characters.
On the surface, the movie is very simple: Julian Marty (impeccably played by Dan Hedaya) hires private investigator Loren Visser (Emmet Waslh gives the finest performance in the movie as an unlikely and violent villain) to find out with his wife, Abby (the brilliant Frances McDormand in one of her earliest performances) is sleeping with; and this happens to be Ray (John Getz, whom I didn't know until this movie, but was fascinated with his performance) after some interesting incidents, Marty pays Visser to kill the couple and this is when 'Blood Simple' becomes a distinctive Coen movie. I mean, the first 27 minutes are already brilliant and unique with a rare, raw energy to it. But the last 60 minutes are just outstandingly good! The dialogue is acid, witty, economical; the editing is tight, it's wonderful how one scene seamlessly transits into another; the cinematography, built on dimly-lit interior sets, shadowy spaces, neon lights and other artificial light, is beautiful and unsettling in the way it creates a dark atmosphere. And the sound, with crackling sounds everywhere, helps a lot too!
In 90 minutes, the Coens also breathe life into four distinct characters: they're complex, bigger than life, built on just a few strokes of good lines that immediately define them. Marty is obsessive in the way he stalks his wife, domineering, and just disgusting in the way he looks at and treats women: one has the feeling he's this macho cowboy, with his boots, open shirt showing his hairy chest and oily hair, to whom women are just objects. Ray and Abby are a lovely couple, and although she remains this innocent, naïve character until the end, Ray is a tortured man on the inside, doing horrible things for love and slowly growing into paranoia and mistrust.
But Visser, he's the cherry on the top. M. Emmet Walsh just plays this vicious human being to a T! He's completely remorseless, amoral, lacking whatever values a normal person would behave. He's greedy, untrustworthy, ruthless, cowardly too, and will do anything for money he outdoes Carl's and Gaer's inhumanity in 'Fargo;' in many ways, he was the Coens' warm-up for these two memorable hoods, but in many ways he was also a better creation. The way Visser is driven to accomplish his goal and the total callousness of his methods just make him one of the finest villains in modern cinema.
For such a short movie, 'Blood Simple' is filled with memorable, even disturbing scenes. There's so much tension in the air when Ray is burying Marty alive in a desolate field, you could cut it with a knife! That's probably the scene that stuck most on my mind when I saw this movie. It gives Ray whole new layer of complexity, and it pays off with one of chilliest lines in a movie ever! However, nothing tops the last ten minutes of the movie, the climax per se, the claustrophobic confrontation between Abby and Visser: it's just fascinating in the way it's handled. For one thing, the Coens show a lot of creativity in a scene that basically takes place inside one single apartment where Abby is locked with Visser; the fact she never saw Visser before and the fact she thinks it's Marty all along make it even chillier!
If we want to define this movie's premise, it could be something like 'mistrust leads to ruin,' since it is Abby and Ray's lack of mutual trust that ruins their relationship. 'Blood Simple' is a beautiful movie full of some of the best human horror I have ever seen ambiguous characters doing monstrous things, and yet they ring ever so true with real life. It's a bold movie that says a lot about the darkest side of human nature in the middle of a great conflict, and it makes for one of the most outstanding dramatic experiences I have ever gone through.
This movie is built on the narrative device of 'dramatic irony,' which Alfred Hitchcock used a lot in his movies to create and maintain suspense: withholding vital information from the characters but allowing the viewer to always know what's going on, thus trapping the viewer on his powerlessness to change what he knows is about to happen to characters dear to him. For the whole 90 minutes of 'Blood Simple' only the viewer ever has the whole picture in his mind; the characters, they have small fragments of a disjointed, mystery puzzle that leaves clueless in their own personal worlds, unable to trust anyone. This lack of harmony results in all sorts of misunderstandings and situations that will eventually result in tragedy for the four main characters.
On the surface, the movie is very simple: Julian Marty (impeccably played by Dan Hedaya) hires private investigator Loren Visser (Emmet Waslh gives the finest performance in the movie as an unlikely and violent villain) to find out with his wife, Abby (the brilliant Frances McDormand in one of her earliest performances) is sleeping with; and this happens to be Ray (John Getz, whom I didn't know until this movie, but was fascinated with his performance) after some interesting incidents, Marty pays Visser to kill the couple and this is when 'Blood Simple' becomes a distinctive Coen movie. I mean, the first 27 minutes are already brilliant and unique with a rare, raw energy to it. But the last 60 minutes are just outstandingly good! The dialogue is acid, witty, economical; the editing is tight, it's wonderful how one scene seamlessly transits into another; the cinematography, built on dimly-lit interior sets, shadowy spaces, neon lights and other artificial light, is beautiful and unsettling in the way it creates a dark atmosphere. And the sound, with crackling sounds everywhere, helps a lot too!
In 90 minutes, the Coens also breathe life into four distinct characters: they're complex, bigger than life, built on just a few strokes of good lines that immediately define them. Marty is obsessive in the way he stalks his wife, domineering, and just disgusting in the way he looks at and treats women: one has the feeling he's this macho cowboy, with his boots, open shirt showing his hairy chest and oily hair, to whom women are just objects. Ray and Abby are a lovely couple, and although she remains this innocent, naïve character until the end, Ray is a tortured man on the inside, doing horrible things for love and slowly growing into paranoia and mistrust.
But Visser, he's the cherry on the top. M. Emmet Walsh just plays this vicious human being to a T! He's completely remorseless, amoral, lacking whatever values a normal person would behave. He's greedy, untrustworthy, ruthless, cowardly too, and will do anything for money he outdoes Carl's and Gaer's inhumanity in 'Fargo;' in many ways, he was the Coens' warm-up for these two memorable hoods, but in many ways he was also a better creation. The way Visser is driven to accomplish his goal and the total callousness of his methods just make him one of the finest villains in modern cinema.
For such a short movie, 'Blood Simple' is filled with memorable, even disturbing scenes. There's so much tension in the air when Ray is burying Marty alive in a desolate field, you could cut it with a knife! That's probably the scene that stuck most on my mind when I saw this movie. It gives Ray whole new layer of complexity, and it pays off with one of chilliest lines in a movie ever! However, nothing tops the last ten minutes of the movie, the climax per se, the claustrophobic confrontation between Abby and Visser: it's just fascinating in the way it's handled. For one thing, the Coens show a lot of creativity in a scene that basically takes place inside one single apartment where Abby is locked with Visser; the fact she never saw Visser before and the fact she thinks it's Marty all along make it even chillier!
If we want to define this movie's premise, it could be something like 'mistrust leads to ruin,' since it is Abby and Ray's lack of mutual trust that ruins their relationship. 'Blood Simple' is a beautiful movie full of some of the best human horror I have ever seen ambiguous characters doing monstrous things, and yet they ring ever so true with real life. It's a bold movie that says a lot about the darkest side of human nature in the middle of a great conflict, and it makes for one of the most outstanding dramatic experiences I have ever gone through.