Stars: M. Emmet Walsh, Dan Hedaya, John Getz, Frances McDormand, Samm-Art Williams

Director: Joel Coen

Summary: After discovering that his wife is having an affair, a jealous bar-owner decides to hire an asssassin to have her killed. However, the assassin decides to commit the 'perfect crime' and kills the executive instead...

When a bar owner discovers that one of his employees is having an affair with his wife, a complex web of deceit and double crosses ensues in a small Texas town. The Coen brothers' first picture is an intricately plotted film noir filled with surprises at each turn. The cast, largely unkown at the time, includes Dan Hedaya as the cuckolded bar owner, Frances McDormand as the cheating wife, John Getz as the adultering bartender, and the fabulously creepy M. Emmett Walsh as the slimy, sweaty private detective who should not be trusted. The film is a marvel to experience; director of photography Barry Sonnenfeld has created stunning compositions filled with open spaces, and the sound--from the slightest footsteps or dripping water to a sudden shotgun blast--reverberates ominously, as if it is a character unto itself. Directed by Joel Coen and cowritten by Joel and his brother Ethan, BLOOD SIMPLE is an eerie testament to the limitless possibilities of low-budget filmmaking.

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The debut film of director Joel Coen and his brother-producer Ethan Coen, 1983's Blood Simpleis grisly comic noirthat 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 Talesand 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 Simpleestablished the hyperreal look and feel of the Coens' productions (undoubtedly inspired a bit by filmmaker Sam Raimi, whose The Evil Deadhad 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 Keogh, Amazon.com

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	1983
Release Date:	January 1, 2001
Runtime:	95 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	061 893 2
Keywords:	Blood, Simple, General, Thriller
Genre:	Thriller