1985 witnessed the debut of a number of notable filmmakers, starting in January with the singularly brilliant Blood Simple. A ripe slice of Texas noir as envisioned by a couple of nice Jewish boys from Minnesota, it didn’t shatter box office records or make everyone rethink the genre. But as it toured various festivals in the months leading up to its theatrical release, everyone realized that a major new pair of talents had come to the forefront.
The most miraculous part was how those talents – brothers Joel and Ethan Coen – arrived seemingly fully formed with this movie, and while they certainly stretched their boundaries creatively in the ensuing three decades, they didn’t require a lot of fine tuning to reach their creative potential. Blood Simple is an undeniably grim movie, marked by violence, greed and the kind of willful self-destruction that noir makes eerily beautiful. But the Coens also infuse it with a deeply sardonic sense of humor: the kind that makes you wonder if it’s all some kind of massive put-on. Think you could never laugh at the sight of a man getting buried alive? Think again. Blood Simple understands the foolish absurdities of our own petty schemes, even as it shows us what happens when those schemes spin horrifically out of control.
It starts with a relatively straightforward double-cross. A scuzzy honky-tonk owner (Dan Hedaya) hires an equally scuzzy detective (M. Emmet Walsh) to murder his wife (Frances McDormand) and the bartender she’s sleeping with (John Getz). Said detective instead doctors up some photos, shoots his would-be employer and sets up the philandering couple for the crime. Easy, right? Only if you know the genre you know that nothing ever goes according to plan – even if the plan is evil – and the resulting hash of mistakes, presumptions and hairpin turns leaves everyone compromised in thoroughly unpleasant ways.
The Coens never flinch away from the harsh stuff (see “buried alive,” above) and the fascinating scenario holds its share of nasty surprises for the audience. But they spring those details on us with such grace that we stay fast regardless of what’s unfolding onscreen. The comedic elements serve the same purpose as the plot twists: to keep us off our guard and wondering feverishly what’s going to hit us next. It’s a tough balance. The brothers have to maintain the integrity of their scenario while quietly deflating it at the same time… and my God do they make it look easy. These characters all behave in ostensibly rational ways, following whatever bliss (money, sex, even love if you look hard enough) without much fuss or complaint. To see them stumble in such epically gruesome ways makes a testament to the folly of our own ambitions, and the way a few misperceptions can turn the easiest plan into a total cluster fuck.
Blood Simple also demonstrates a solid grasp of time and place, something that all of the Coens’ movies reflect. Their settings become characters as strong as the people inhabiting them, and here we see all we need to know about this world in the bleak, flat plains and relentlessly pumping oil wells of the Texas panhandle. The Coens reinvented the notion for their home state in Fargo, then came back to this territory in No Country for Old Men, but it found its first – and perhaps its purest – incarnation here. Their trick still works thirty years later, and the ease and rapidity with which the filmmakers have repeated it assures us that it was no fluke. These two were born to make movies, and their vision – though inspired here by Chandler and Hammett – owes allegiance to no one but themselves. A new pair of players entered the game with this one… and thank God they show no signs of leaving.
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I'm not a big fan of the 80's movie reviews. I don't like living in the past. Like the song says, I think that... these are the good old days. That said, I gotta admit you sucked me with this movie. Those who haven't seen it...should seek it out...unlike a lot of the silly garbage they cranked out in the 80's this is an excellent flick.