Blood Simple

Blood Simple
1984
Directed By Joel Coen



SYNOPSIS

A bartender named Ray (John Getz) runs away with his boss' wife (Frances McDormand.) His boss Marty (Dan Hedaya) finds out after hiring a private investigator (M. Emmet Walsh.) He then hires the P.I. to kill the couple. The P.I. steals the wife's gun and shoots Marty and takes money. Ray happens upon the body and decides to dispose of it... but Marty isn't quite dead yet



MY THOUGHTS

The Coen brothers hit the ground running with their first film.
This film, like the majority of what was to come from them, is a expert homage to film noir.
Noir is usually set in the big city, but being in a sleepy Texas town adds a unique twist to the formula.
Like many noirs, the pacing is sort of like a slow burn. It starts off almost excruciatingly slow but picks up steam and races toward the climax.
Along the way the film picks up suspense and there's a few moments that could cause you to jump out of your seat, more than your average slasher film.

Blood Simple has a serious tone, lacking much of the subtle humor in their later films apart from a flourish or two here or there. But many other touchstones of the Coen Brothers are here like their use of closeups, low camera angles and some unique camera movements.

The performances are uniformly realistic. The characters seem very real thanks to the dialogue. Their words are true to life and lack 'flowery dialogue' that makes many films more cinematic than life-like. (Quentin Tarantino writes amazing dialogue but really who talks that way in the real world?)

I don't think "Blood Simple" is on par with some of their later works like Fargo, but it's not far off and is well worth a look. The Coen Brothers started off strong and only got better.