Blood Simple. (1984)

Director:

Joel Coen

Writers:

Joel Coen (written by) &
Ethan Coen (written by)

Release Date:

18 January 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Breaking up is hard

Plot:

A rich but jealous man hires a private investigator to kill his cheating wife and her new man. But, when blood is involved, nothing is simple.

Plot Keywords:

Bartender | Private Detective | Texas | Shot In The Back | Newspaper

Awards:

4 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

John Getz	...	Ray
Frances McDormand	...	Abby
Dan Hedaya	...	Julian Marty
M. Emmet Walsh	...	Loren Visser
Samm-Art Williams	...	Meurice
Deborah Neumann	...	Debra
Raquel Gavia	...	Landlady
Van Brooks	...	Man from Lubbock
Señor Marco	...	Mr. Garcia
William Creamer	...	Old Cracker
Loren Bivens	...	Strip-Bar Exhorter
Bob McAdams	...	Strip-Bar Exhorter
Shannon Sedwick	...	Stripper
Nancy Finger	...	Girl on Overlook
William Preston Robertson	...	Radio Evangelist (voice)

Also Known As:

Bérgyilkos (Hungary) [hu]
Blood Simple - Blut für Blut (West Germany) (video title) [de]
Blood Simple - Eine mörderische Nacht (West Germany) [de]
Blood Simple. (Finland) [fi]
Blood Simple. (France) (director's cut) [fr]
Blood Simple: The Thriller (Japan: English title) (director's cut) [en]
Gosto de Sangue (Brazil) [pt]
Kansiz (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Mono aima (Greece) [el]
Sang pour sang (France) [fr]
Sangre fácil (Spain) [es]
Sangue facile (Italy) [it]
Sangue por Sangue (Portugal) [pt]
Simplemente sangre (Argentina) [es]
Smiertelnie proste (Poland) [pl]
Véresen egyszerü (Hungary) [hu]

Runtime:

99 min | 94 min (director's cut)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo | Dolby Digital (re-release)

Certification:

Australia:R | Netherlands:16 | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:18 | Brazil:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Argentina:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Norway:16 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:18 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Austin, Texas, USA

Company:

Foxton Entertainment

Trivia:

Officially, the title is spelled with a period at the end - it appears this way on screen. Most television listings and video releases leave the period off.

Goofs:

Continuity: The amount of blood on Loren's glove changes from before he pulls out the knife, and after he's shot and lying on the floor.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Private Detective Visser: [narrating] The world is full o' complainers. An' the fact is, nothin' comes with a guarantee. Now I don't care if you're the pope of Rome, President of the United States or Man of the Year; somethin' can all go wrong. Now go on ahead, y'know, complain, tell your problems to your neighbor, ask for help, 'n watch him fly. Now, in Russia, they got it mapped out so that everyone pulls for everyone else... that's the theory, anyway. But what I know about is Texas, an' down here... you're on your own.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Llamando a un ángel (2008)

Soundtrack:

El Sueno

Good Study

The Coens are like Soderbergh, they alternate between risky adventures and "commercial" projects. Only in the Coens' world, it is not so much a matter of commercialism but a matter of respect for the genre. Half of their films are profoundly layered, with a typical genre at the "bottom" and all sorts of annotation and commentary in layers on the top.

Its the same in abstract painting, the real stuff that is: to be good at distancing yourself from representational art, you have to master it before you leave it. So the Coens work on mastering a genre before they extend it (and goof all over it).

Naturally, their first project is a straight genre picture. Naturally, it is good (even excellent in its class), if not particularly novel.

Noir is an abused term. I think there are only two notions that are necessary. The first is the existence of a capricious fate, producing coincidences that toy with humans (usually humans). The second is the placement of the viewer (via the camera) in some sort of conspiracy with this fate. In some nefarious way, the viewer _causes_ some of these.

You'll have to decide whether a noir film made after the period in which it was developed can be enjoyed in the same way. It does necessarily carry some distance, the study rather than the intuition. But the hardest thing in noir is ending. These guys do it as perfectly as I know: the last vision of a dying man, watching something inconsequential but inevitable.