Blood Simple

This article is about the film. For the metal band, see Bloodsimple.

Blood Simple.
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Joel Coen Ethan Coen (uncredited)
Produced by	Ethan Coen Joel Coen (uncredited)
Written by	Joel Coen Ethan Coen
Starring	John Getz Frances McDormand Dan Hedaya Samm-Art Williams M. Emmet Walsh
Music by	Carter Burwell
Cinematography	Barry Sonnenfeld
Editing by	Roderick Jaynes Don Wiegmann
Distributed by	Circle Films (1985) USA Films (2000)
Release date(s)	September 7, 1984 (1984-09-07) (Toronto International Film Festival) October 12, 1984 (1984-10-12) (New York Film Festival) January 18, 1985 (USA)
Running time	99 minutes 96 minutes (Director's cut)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1.5 million
Box office	$4,218,701

Blood Simple is a 1984 neo-noir crime film. It was the directorial debut of Joel Coen and the first major film of cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, who later became a noted director. The film's title derives from the Dashiell Hammett novel Red Harvest, in which "blood simple" is a term to describe the addled, fearful mindset of people after a prolonged immersion in violent situations.

In 2001, a "Director's cut" DVD was released. It ranked #98 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills. The film also placed #73 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

Plot

Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya), the owner of a Texas bar, suspects his wife Abby (Frances McDormand) is having an affair with one of his bartenders, Meurice (Samm-Art Williams). A jealous and violent man, Marty hires private detective Loren Visser (M. Emmet Walsh) to follow her.

Abby is not, in fact, involved with Meurice, but she has decided to leave Marty. Ray (John Getz), another of Marty's bartenders, offers her a ride to Houston. They end up in bed at a local motel instead, where Visser takes pictures of them during the night. The next morning, Marty places a menacing phone call to them at the motel, making it clear that he is well aware of their tryst.

The following day, Ray confronts Marty at the bar, quitting his job. Marty threatens Ray's life and, out of spite, further advises him to not trust Abby. Marty hires Visser once again, this time to kill the couple while Marty takes a fishing trip in Corpus Christi to create an alibi. Visser breaks into Ray's home, stealing Abby's gun and viewing the sleeping couple through their bedroom window. Later, he presents Marty with doctored photos that appear to show their bullet-riddled corpses, and collects his $10,000 fee. Visser then shoots Marty with Abby's gun in a double cross, leaving the gun at the scene to frame Abby for the murder. He leaves, forgetting that he also left behind his cigarette lighter, which is engraved with his name, underneath the fish on Marty's desk.

Later that evening, Ray—having not been murdered by Visser after all—returns to the bar to collect his wages. Finding Marty's body and Abby's gun, Ray assumes Abby murdered her husband. He decides to cover up the murder, cleaning the office of Marty's blood and disposing any evidence he finds in a backyard incinerator. Ray puts Marty's body in his car and drives off to a remote rural field to dispose of it. However, Ray discovers that a bleeding Marty is still clinging to life. He decides to throw Marty into the hole he has dug, and buries him alive not long before sunrise. Ray calls Abby from a phone booth after leaving the scene; she thanks him for calling her in the morning, but he misinterprets this as her gratitude for his role in Marty's murder.

Visser burns the photographs of Abby and Ray, which had been manipulated to look like he had killed them. He realizes one is missing, having been locked in the bar's safe by Marty before he was shot. Annoyed, Visser reaches for his cigarette lighter only to find it missing as well. Meanwhile, a deeply disturbed Ray visits Abby and tries to explain that he "cleaned up your mess". Abby, of course, does not know what Ray is talking about. Ray assumes Abby is being coy, and they get into an argument. They are interrupted by a telephone call, which Abby answers. It is Visser, who says nothing. Abby assumes that Marty has called her and says so to Ray. But Ray assumes Abby is lying, covering for a call from another lover. He storms out.

Confused by Ray's behavior and ignorant of her husband's death, Abby goes to the bar to find it ransacked. Visser had been looking for his lighter (which is still on the desk, under the now-rotting fish) and trying to break into the safe to retrieve the photograph, but was interrupted by Abby's arrival. Observing the scene, Abby now thinks that Ray killed Marty because of a money dispute. She accuses him of this the next time they meet, but he explains that he found her gun at the bar and that he buried Marty alive. Ray returns once more to the bar and opens the safe, finding Visser's faked photo. He realizes he is being followed as he leaves for Abby's new apartment.

When Abby arrives home that night, she turns on a light and finds Ray looking out the large window. He tells Abby to turn off the light because someone is watching them from across the street. Abby thinks Ray is threatening her, and she leaves the light on. Visser is actually on the roof of a nearby building with a sniper rifle and, seeing Ray illuminated in the window, shoots him dead. Realizing Ray was right, Abby scrambles for safety and knocks out the light. Visser arrives at the apartment as she hides in the bathroom. Failing to find his prized lighter in Ray's pockets, he goes to the bathroom to kill Abby, who is not there. He reaches out the window for a window to the neighboring apartment. Reaching around, he opens it, but Abby slams it down on his wrist and drives a knife through his hand into the windowsill. Visser screams and shoots holes through the wall, punches through with his fist, and removes the knife. Abby retreats back to the apartment and waits behind the bathroom door, holding a gun.

As Visser is about to emerge, she fires through the door, and Visser falls. "I'm not afraid of you, Marty," Abby says, still unaware of the major events that have transpired. Visser, lying on the bathroom floor, mortally wounded by a gunshot to the stomach, suddenly bursts into laughter. He says: "Well, ma'am, if I see 'im, I'll sure give 'im the message", and looks at the sink directly above him. The camera switches to his point of view. He and we are staring at a drop of water hanging on the U-bend. It drops. As it hits him (and the screen), the film cuts to black.

Cast

• John Getz as Ray
• Frances McDormand as Abby
• Dan Hedaya as Julian Marty
• M. Emmet Walsh as Loren Visser
• Samm-Art Williams as Meurice
• Deborah Neumann as Debra
• Holly Hunter (uncredited) as Voice of Helene Trend
• Barry Sonnenfeld (uncredited) as Voice of Marty's vomiting

Reception

The film received an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response at release and has held up well, currently holding a 96% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Robert Hoffman's Motion Picture Encyclopaedia gave the film the maximum 4 stars, calling it a "brilliant debut film of the editing-assistant of the, also amazing, Evil Dead." The reviewers praise the music, the acting by Walsh, and the virtuosity of the camerawork by Barry Sonnenfeld. They conclude their review by saying that the film "can't be missed."

Home media

The 2001 DVD release features several spoofs of DVD 'special features'. One is an introduction to the film by fictional film historian "Mortimer Young", who claims that the Director's Cut removes some of "the boring bits" and adds other parts; this was also included in the theatrical release of the Director's Cut.

It also includes an audio commentary by "Kenneth Loring", the fictional artistic director of the equally fictional "Forever Young Films". Loring offers several entirely spurious "facts": for example, he claims that the scene with Ray and Abby driving in the rain, talking about Marty, was acted out in reverse as well as upside down, to synch the headlights of passing the car just as certain lines were said (he claims that filming the scene backwards and upside down was the logical choice to get the timing right, and that the actors are wearing hair spray to keep their hair pointing "down"). Elsewhere in the commentary, he claims that, in scenes with both dialogue and music, the actors simply mouth the words and record them in post-production, so they won't interfere with the music; that Marty's dog is animatronic; that the sweat on various actors is "movie sweat", gathered from the flanks of Palomino horses; that Fred Astaire and Rosemary Clooney were at one time intended for the film; and that a fly buzzing about is not real, but the product of computer generated imagery. "Loring" is voiced by actor Jim Piddock, using a script written by the Coen brothers.

Director's cut

Blood Simple was re-released theatrically in 2000 and on DVD in 2001 in a "director's cut". Unusual for such an exercise, it is some three minutes shorter than the original theatrical release. The Coens shortened the film by tighter editing, shortening some shots and removing others altogether. In addition, they resolved long-standing rights issues with the music: the original theatrical version of the film made prominent use of The Four Tops' "It's the Same Old Song", but it had to be replaced with Neil Diamond's "I'm a Believer" (made famous by The Monkees) for the U.S. home video edition. The "director's cut" reinstated the Four Tops track as the Coens had always intended.

In 2008, MGM released a barebones DVD edition of the film, billed as Blood Simple: Director's Cut with the same version of the film as the previous Universal edition.

Soundtrack

Original Motion Picture Soundtracks: Raising Arizona and Blood Simple
Soundtrack album by Carter Burwell
Released	1987
Genre	Film score
Length	39:26
Label	Varèse Sarabande
Coen Brothers film soundtracks chronology
Blood Simple (1984) Raising Arizona (1987)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic

The score to Blood Simple is written by Carter Burwell, the first of his collaborations with the Coen Brothers; he went on to write scores for all of their films. Blood Simple was also the first feature film score for Burwell, and he became a much-in-demand composer in Hollywood.

The score is a mix of solo piano and electronic ambient sounds. One track, "Monkey Chant" is based on "Kecak", the "Ramayana Monkey Chant" of Bali.

Selections from Burwell's score were released on an album in 1987, along with selections from the Coen's next film, Raising Arizona.

1. "Crash and Burn" – (2:40)
2. "Blood Simple" – (3:33)
3. "Chain Gang" – (4:47)
4. "The March" – (3:34)
5. "Monkey Chant" – (1:04)
6. "The Shooting" – (2:52)
7. "Blood Simpler" – (1:22)

The tracks from Blood Simple. comprise the final seven tracks on a 17-track CD that also features selections from the Raising Arizona soundtrack.

Other songs not on the CD

• "It's the Same Old Song" performed by The Four Tops
• "Louie Louie" performed by Toots & the Maytals
• "The Lady in Red" performed by Xavier Cugat and his Orchestra
• "Rogaciano"
• "He'll Have to Go" performed by Joan Black
• "El Sueno" performed by Johnny Ventura
• "Anahi" performed by Maria Luisa Buchino and her Llameros
• "Sweet Dreams" performed by Patsy Cline

Remake

In December 2009, Zhang Yimou released a loose remake of the film as a comedy. A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop is set in a Chinese noodle shop in a desert and revolves around the restaurant owner's plan to murder his adulterous wife and her lover.

External links

• Blood Simple at the Internet Movie Database
• Blood Simple at AllRovi
• Blood Simple at Box Office Mojo
• Blood Simple at Rotten Tomatoes

Awards
Preceded by Old Enough	Sundance Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic 1985	Succeeded by Smooth Talk