I can't quite place my finger on why I didn't like this film. 'Blood Simple' was the first feature from acclaimed brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, and yet it had a certain roughness that I couldn't connect with. I suppose that the simplest way to explain my feelings would be as follows: 'Blood Simple' is an ultra-low-budget amateur film, and it feels exactly like one. This needn't necessarily be a negative; if a film acknowledges its low-budget roots, it can use this fact to great advantage. My problem with the Coen's film is that it simply looked cheaply-made, and that detracted massively from a work that was clearly trying to evoke the spirit of some of the smoothly-made, classic film noirs of the 1940s and 50s.
Ordinarily, I might be tempted to put the film's "visual cheapness" down to the directors' ultra low-budget, but, in this case, we already know that the Coens would later becoming masters of creating something from nothing. For example, working on a comparatively low budget (though, admittedly, not as low as this one), they would go on to produce 'Miller's Crossing,' among the most handsome motion pictures of the 1990s. 'Blood Simple,' conversely, just looks uncertain, crudely-constructed and, ultimately, like the work of amateurs. The plot of the film is something that we've already seen dozens of times, but I suspect that this was the Coens' intention. Like many of their films, they were not attempting anything strikingly original, but rather chose to reproduce the spirit of many of the classic film noirs, and to sprinkle it with their own unique brand of twisted black humour. I've certainly enjoyed many of their similar later films, but this one, I thought, missed the mark.
The cast is very small, with most of the film focusing almost exclusively on four characters. This helps create a sense of intimacy, though it also acts as another cold reminder of the minuscule budget on which they must have been working. The acting itself is a bit variable: I wasn't overly fond of John Getz as Ray, but his arch enemy, Julian Marty, is played with genuinely repulsive sliminess by Dan Hedaya. I suppose that Frances McDormand was pretty good as Abby Marty's wife and Ray's lover but the sheer stupidity of her character often frustrated me, coupled with her seemingly constant nervousness and feigned innocence. However, on the other end of the scale, M. Emmet Walsh is a complete revelation as Loren Visser, the nasty, crude cowboy private investigator whom Marty hires to murder his adulterous wife and her lover. As you can guess, things don't quite go to plan.
As a debut film, I have to acknowledge that 'Blood Simple' was an ambitious undertaking, even if it wasn't, in my view, wholly successful. The story is exciting enough, but riddled with stupid moments, the most glaring example being a dead man who has been motionless with a copiously-bleeding gunshot wound for about an hour suddenly coming to life and finding the energy to start crawling down the road. I'm all for unlikely scenarios, but this was a bit too outlandish for me to be able to suspend disbelief. However, 'Blood Simple's' greatest success lies in the fact that it gave two talented filmmakers as well as cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, who made his major debut here the experience they needed to work towards greater things. In any case, for another noir from the minds of the Coen brothers, look towards 'The Man Who Wasn't There (2001),' which I absolutely loved.
Ordinarily, I might be tempted to put the film's "visual cheapness" down to the directors' ultra low-budget, but, in this case, we already know that the Coens would later becoming masters of creating something from nothing. For example, working on a comparatively low budget (though, admittedly, not as low as this one), they would go on to produce 'Miller's Crossing,' among the most handsome motion pictures of the 1990s. 'Blood Simple,' conversely, just looks uncertain, crudely-constructed and, ultimately, like the work of amateurs. The plot of the film is something that we've already seen dozens of times, but I suspect that this was the Coens' intention. Like many of their films, they were not attempting anything strikingly original, but rather chose to reproduce the spirit of many of the classic film noirs, and to sprinkle it with their own unique brand of twisted black humour. I've certainly enjoyed many of their similar later films, but this one, I thought, missed the mark.
The cast is very small, with most of the film focusing almost exclusively on four characters. This helps create a sense of intimacy, though it also acts as another cold reminder of the minuscule budget on which they must have been working. The acting itself is a bit variable: I wasn't overly fond of John Getz as Ray, but his arch enemy, Julian Marty, is played with genuinely repulsive sliminess by Dan Hedaya. I suppose that Frances McDormand was pretty good as Abby Marty's wife and Ray's lover but the sheer stupidity of her character often frustrated me, coupled with her seemingly constant nervousness and feigned innocence. However, on the other end of the scale, M. Emmet Walsh is a complete revelation as Loren Visser, the nasty, crude cowboy private investigator whom Marty hires to murder his adulterous wife and her lover. As you can guess, things don't quite go to plan.
As a debut film, I have to acknowledge that 'Blood Simple' was an ambitious undertaking, even if it wasn't, in my view, wholly successful. The story is exciting enough, but riddled with stupid moments, the most glaring example being a dead man who has been motionless with a copiously-bleeding gunshot wound for about an hour suddenly coming to life and finding the energy to start crawling down the road. I'm all for unlikely scenarios, but this was a bit too outlandish for me to be able to suspend disbelief. However, 'Blood Simple's' greatest success lies in the fact that it gave two talented filmmakers as well as cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, who made his major debut here the experience they needed to work towards greater things. In any case, for another noir from the minds of the Coen brothers, look towards 'The Man Who Wasn't There (2001),' which I absolutely loved.