My Favourite Movies: Blood Simple

I clearly remember watching this movie on video in the mid-1980’s. At the time I was probably not alone in being completely ignorant of the Coen brothers who wrote and directed this dark and disturbing film Noir outing, after all it was their first movie! Looking back with 20-20 hindsight it’s clear that not only did the brothers have talent but that their quirky film making would take them far – including to the Oscars more than once.

Blood Simple (1984) has a deceptively simple plot. Marty (played by Dan Hedaya) is convinced that his wife Abby (Frances McDormand) is having an affair so hires a private detective (M. Emmet Walsh) to find him evidence for a potential divorce. When the evidence is found Marty asks if the detective will kill his wife and her lover Ray (John Getz). For $10,000 the answer is yes. But the detective has no intention of actually killing the illicit couple. He has a much better idea. Providing spurious evidence of their deaths he collects his money and then shoots Marty with his wife’s stolen gun. Thinking he has committed the perfect crime he pockets the money and leaves with a smile on his face. Only later does he realise that one of his fake pictures is missing and he can’t find his lighter. But when he returns to the scene of the crime he discovers that the body has gone and that someone has cleaned up after his killing. It’s then that things become far less simple than he had expected.

Looking back from the giddy heights of 2012 it is easy to see Blood Simple as a crude 80’s Noir knock-off trying to be more than its simple storyline would suggest. In many ways that is a fair assessment. It is indeed a rather crude film. But what elevates it about the norm and makes it, in my mind, a minor classic of its type is the sparse dialogue and the often outstanding cinematography. As my regulars will know I am a sucker for a well framed image. This movie offers plenty examples of that seemingly easy but in reality difficult art of presenting the audience with images that stick in your mind long after the film finishes. Two certainly spring to mind: where Ray is standing behind Marty as he slowly crawls away from the car, illuminated only by its headlights on a dark road, carrying the shovel he brought along to bury the body. The other is where Abby, hiding in her bathroom after driving a knife into the detective’s hand pinning him to a window ledge, watches as he fires his gun repeated through the wall in the hope of killing her.

One of the things I like doing is visiting the old movies of a favourite director to see things in his/her earlier films that show up, often heavily modified, in later offerings. If you too are interested in such things watch this movie and then watch Fargo made some 12 years later. Apart from the fact that both movies starred Frances McDormand you should see the techniques used in Blood Simple much perfected in Fargo. Oh, and don’t be put off by its seeming lack of pace. This movie is definitely worth the effort of sitting and watching the story unfold (and unravel) in front of you!