#98: BLOOD SIMPLE (1984)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

No, first time

BEST SEQUENCE

A mid-movie scene that takes place on and beside a dark, deserted road.

BEST LINE

“I got a job for you.”

“Uh, well, if the pay's right, and it's legal, I'll do it.”

“It's not strictly legal.”

“Well, if the pay’s right, I’ll do it.”

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

94%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

“Brutally violent and shockingly funny in equal measure, Blood Simple offers early evidence of the Coen Brothers' twisted sensibilities and filmmaking ingenuity.”

IMDB SYNOPSIS

“The owner of a seedy small-town Texas bar discovers that one of his employees is having an affair with his wife. A chaotic chain of misunderstandings, lies and mischief ensues.”

THOUGHTS

• If it wasn’t obvious from my deliberately vague description of my favourite scene, this is one of those times when I’m going to avoid giving away too much of this movie. It twists and it turns, and I was very glad I got the chance to watch it entirely unspoiled. I really knew next to nothing going into it, and it caught me off guard more than once. In fact, I slightly modified the IMDB synopsis above because it gave away just a little too much. Although “mischief” is a weird word to use, IMDB, it makes it sound like they decide to egg each other’s houses. Things get considerably darker than that.
• This is a movie about regular people making dangerous choices based on the information available to them. However, unbeknownst to them, the information available never ever provides the full picture. The intricate part of the plot is that this is never really anyone’s fault. If I was in some of these situations, seeing the evidence and the things these characters were seeing, I’d probably jump to some of the same conclusions (if not follow through on the same courses of action)
• Great cast. You’ve got Frances McDormand in her first film role (by the way, see her in Nomadland this year, she’s great in it). You’ve got Dan Hedaya, possibly best known as Cher’s dad from Clueless, entirely loathsome in this. And you’ve got John Getz, who I don’t recognize from anything else, but he conveys a lot in very few words.
• Best of all, though, is M. Emmet Walsh playing a real piece of shit. He speaks in a whiny Southern drawl that pretty much lets you know he’s a piece of shit before he even starts acting like one (although that doesn’t take very long at all).
• The score is effectively moody and sparse, but my favourite musical component was the repeated use of “It’s the Same Old Song” by The Four Tops, especially as an end credits needle drop after a pretty intense climax and a great final line. Ashley and I have been humming it all week.

• Some very effective lighting effects and camera movements
• For years now, I’ve considered the Coens’ Fargo as one of my all-time favourite movies, and it certainly shares DNA with this one, the first movie the Coens ever made. Fargo is set in snowy Minnesota, Blood Simple in sweaty small-town Texas, but they’re both about normal people making dangerous choices, getting in over their heads, and ultimately dealing with the consequences in one way or another. Not to mention that they both star Frances McDormand, although in very different roles. While Fargo does have some thrilling scenes of its own, Blood Simple is probably the more thrilling of the two, and I can definitely see myself coming back to it.

Up next: #97 on the list, Safety Last!, a silent romantic comedy from 1923. I haven’t seen it, and I’m really not sure what to expect in terms of thrills, but I suspect this movie is included because of the bonkers physical stunts that some of those old silent movies featured. This one is best known for a scene in which the main character dangles from the hands of a giant clock on the outside of a skyscraper