Blood Simple: Director's Cut (15.)
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring M. Emmet Walsh, John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya and Samm-Art Williams. 99 mins.
“Now in Russia, they got it mapped out so that everybody pulls for everyone else. That's the theory anyway. But what I know about is Texas. And down here, you're on your own.” Yep, that's an opening statement. Confident, bold, establishing the theme and tone of the film in a few lines. Now all you have to do is live up to it. And Blood Simple does, to such an extent it is among the best American film debuts ever.
Of course, it would be ridiculous to compare the precocious low budget confidence of the Coen Brothers' first film with Citizen Kane: Orson Welles may not have made a film before but he had been an acclaimed writer, actor, director and producer for the theatre and radio for around a decade, and had the backing of a studio. He was hardly a novice. Joel and Ethan were a pair of nobodies, with a bunch of nothing. Joel had helped out on Evil Dead, Ethan had graduated in philosophy from Princeton. How the hell did these two twentysomethings get the confidence and self belief to make a film so assured, so accomplished, so damn entertaining and casually brilliant as Blood Simple, and to do it with very little money?
Blood Simple is back in cinemas this week for no particular reason I can discern, other than it being fantastic. They're calling it a directors' cut but it is just an editing trim the Bros oversaw for a DVD release in the 90s, cutting down and tightening up a few things. I'm sure it is better this way but it isn't noticeable to a non obsessive.
Every element works: the plotting, the dialogue, the visuals, the music, the acting. It's basically a modern day noir, a tale of love and betrayal and double cross and revenge and murder among four people: The private detective (Walsh), the seedy bar owner (Hedaya), his wife (McDormand) and her lover (Getz.) It's like an ineptly played round of bridge, nobody ever knows what is in their partner's hand. The plot follows many of the traditions of bedroom farce, with comic misunderstandings, and ironic coincidences. The only end of a stick anyone ever picks up is the wrong one.
It works, they know exactly how much they can get out a situation, and it's more than you can imagine. Track the course of the Four Tops' number It's The Same Old Song through the film. First it is used as a piece of character development, quickly filling us in on the only supporting character who has any real effect on the film, bar tender Meurice (Williams); then it is used to provide tension, as it can be heard through the wall, and finally (vague spoiler), along with a single drip from a tap, as some kind of existential pay off. They got all that from a song that, though nice enough, is hardly a Motown classic.
(One the subject of music, you can't overlook Carter Burwell's score – barely there, but so effective. It was his first film too.)
Acting wise, insect appeal-ant M.Emmet (there's seems to be some bug crawling across his big sweaty face in almost every scene) steals the film, but only because its the showy role. The other three are just as accomplished. Hedaya has to live down to his In Here I'm Anal description, and does so with alarming ease.
Blood Simple was the start of a truly remarkable career in the films for the Bros Coen but it is worth noting that they started on a black foot. Blood Simple has humour and a sense of irony, but it is nasty. It entertains, maybe even makes you feel good, but deep down it's suggesting that there isn't very much to this life of ours, and what there is, isn't so edifying. It's recurring visual motif is a furnace, always burning away in the background, a symbol that everything is disposable.
In contrast, most of their subsequent movies have been, if not necessarily comedies, blessed with a certain levity, a protective pane separating audiences from harm. Once every decade though they run out something pitch black, a creation that cuts clear through to something truly uncomfortable about the human condition: Fargo, No Country For Old Men. Much as you may like yer Raising Arizonas, Millers Crossings, Lebowskis etc, these are the film that I think they will be measured by. And, by my reckoning, they are about due to deliver another one.
Extras
A parody Introduction By Mortimer Young, for 15th anniversary.
Interviews with Joel and Ethan Coen, who refuse to follow the Ant and Dec tradition of always appearing in name order; M.Emmet Walsh, John Getz and Frances MacDormand. There all good, particularly McDormand.
A fake trailer they made purely to get funding. An idea they got from Sam Raimi on Evil Dead
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring M. Emmet Walsh, John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya and Samm-Art Williams. 99 mins.
“Now in Russia, they got it mapped out so that everybody pulls for everyone else. That's the theory anyway. But what I know about is Texas. And down here, you're on your own.” Yep, that's an opening statement. Confident, bold, establishing the theme and tone of the film in a few lines. Now all you have to do is live up to it. And Blood Simple does, to such an extent it is among the best American film debuts ever.
Of course, it would be ridiculous to compare the precocious low budget confidence of the Coen Brothers' first film with Citizen Kane: Orson Welles may not have made a film before but he had been an acclaimed writer, actor, director and producer for the theatre and radio for around a decade, and had the backing of a studio. He was hardly a novice. Joel and Ethan were a pair of nobodies, with a bunch of nothing. Joel had helped out on Evil Dead, Ethan had graduated in philosophy from Princeton. How the hell did these two twentysomethings get the confidence and self belief to make a film so assured, so accomplished, so damn entertaining and casually brilliant as Blood Simple, and to do it with very little money?
Blood Simple is back in cinemas this week for no particular reason I can discern, other than it being fantastic. They're calling it a directors' cut but it is just an editing trim the Bros oversaw for a DVD release in the 90s, cutting down and tightening up a few things. I'm sure it is better this way but it isn't noticeable to a non obsessive.
Every element works: the plotting, the dialogue, the visuals, the music, the acting. It's basically a modern day noir, a tale of love and betrayal and double cross and revenge and murder among four people: The private detective (Walsh), the seedy bar owner (Hedaya), his wife (McDormand) and her lover (Getz.) It's like an ineptly played round of bridge, nobody ever knows what is in their partner's hand. The plot follows many of the traditions of bedroom farce, with comic misunderstandings, and ironic coincidences. The only end of a stick anyone ever picks up is the wrong one.
It works, they know exactly how much they can get out a situation, and it's more than you can imagine. Track the course of the Four Tops' number It's The Same Old Song through the film. First it is used as a piece of character development, quickly filling us in on the only supporting character who has any real effect on the film, bar tender Meurice (Williams); then it is used to provide tension, as it can be heard through the wall, and finally (vague spoiler), along with a single drip from a tap, as some kind of existential pay off. They got all that from a song that, though nice enough, is hardly a Motown classic.
(One the subject of music, you can't overlook Carter Burwell's score – barely there, but so effective. It was his first film too.)
Acting wise, insect appeal-ant M.Emmet (there's seems to be some bug crawling across his big sweaty face in almost every scene) steals the film, but only because its the showy role. The other three are just as accomplished. Hedaya has to live down to his In Here I'm Anal description, and does so with alarming ease.
Blood Simple was the start of a truly remarkable career in the films for the Bros Coen but it is worth noting that they started on a black foot. Blood Simple has humour and a sense of irony, but it is nasty. It entertains, maybe even makes you feel good, but deep down it's suggesting that there isn't very much to this life of ours, and what there is, isn't so edifying. It's recurring visual motif is a furnace, always burning away in the background, a symbol that everything is disposable.
In contrast, most of their subsequent movies have been, if not necessarily comedies, blessed with a certain levity, a protective pane separating audiences from harm. Once every decade though they run out something pitch black, a creation that cuts clear through to something truly uncomfortable about the human condition: Fargo, No Country For Old Men. Much as you may like yer Raising Arizonas, Millers Crossings, Lebowskis etc, these are the film that I think they will be measured by. And, by my reckoning, they are about due to deliver another one.
Extras
A parody Introduction By Mortimer Young, for 15th anniversary.
Interviews with Joel and Ethan Coen, who refuse to follow the Ant and Dec tradition of always appearing in name order; M.Emmet Walsh, John Getz and Frances MacDormand. There all good, particularly McDormand.
A fake trailer they made purely to get funding. An idea they got from Sam Raimi on Evil Dead
