(out of
four)
By David N. Butterworth
Dan Hedaya and M. Emmet Walsh weren't exactly household names back in 1984, and they
aren't exactly household names today, but in Blood Simple, Joel and Ethan Coen made
them shine.
These two splendid and dependable character actors have sizable roles in the film, now
in re-release as part of its 16th anniversary (leave it to the Coens to thumb their noses
at the more conventional rollouts of 10 and 25 years). And although John Getz and Coen
Bros. regular Frances McDormand ("regular" because she's married to Ethan)
receive top billing in this stylish noir thriller, it's Hedaya and Walsh who truly are the
stars.
Each turns in their best ever performance in Blood Simple.
Hedaya plays a sleazy Texan bar owner who hires Walsh's private
investigator to kill the wife (McDormand) he suspects of cheating on him (Getz plays the
lover; his days are numbered too). Of course, murder is never that easy, 'specially in
Texas.
Walsh's character drives around in a beat-up VW bug, sweats profusely, and wears an
amazing jaundice-colored suit. His twangy delivery could best be described as an
uninformed whine. Hedaya's Marty, on the other hand, mistrusts everyone, sweats profusely
and, when the going gets tough, just won't lie down and take it like the Texas heel he is.
A startling film noir, Blood Simple pays homage to the hard-boiled detective
stories of Dashiell Hammett, with its intricate tale of a cuckolded husband, brooding
lovers, an oily PI, a botched murder, guns, money, fish, and ceiling fans–lots and
lots of ceiling fans. But it's got a style all its own. And wit. So confident are the
Coens in their writing abilities that they use the same gag twice...and it's just as funny
second time around!
Blood Simple was (and 16 years later, still is) a remarkable debut from the
brothers, egghead NYU film school grads who went on to produce (Ethan), direct (Joel), and
write (together) several outstanding films. In fact, Blood Simple was the beginning
of an extraordinary one-two-three punch from the Coens. They followed it up with the
hysterical screwball farce, Raising Arizona (with Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter),
and then the fabulous period piece, Miller's Crossing (which starred Gabriel Byrne
as an Irish gangster and John Turturro in a small, early role). Barton Fink,
considered by many to be the brothers' best work of that period (until Fargo came
along, that is) was their fourth film and the first to expose their Achilles’ heel.
It was just too quirky, too bizarre–a clever idea usurped by showoff-y
camerawork and a flamboyant yet overindulgent visual style. The Coens had set themselves
an impossibly high standard to maintain, it seemed.
This digitally-restored print of the one that started it all comes complete with a
newly-recorded stereo soundtrack and a spurious, tongue-in-cheek prologue from a stuffy
Alistair Cooke-type who delights in explaining that this is actually a shorter edit
of the version that played in theaters in 1984. Leave it to the Coens–they've taken
out all the boring bits!
But they've left in all the good bits: cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld's striking
color schemes (rain yellowed by headlights on a windshield, a white drive-in screen set
against a quickening sky, a silver cigarette lighter shining out from under a catch of
greening fish); Carter Burwell's minimalistic, John Carpenter-styled score; and some
wonderful–and wonderfully creepy–performances, especially from the likes of
Hedaya and Walsh.
Blood Simple is simply great stuff.
