Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8765 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-01-01
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 95 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The debut film of director Joel Coen and his brother-producer Ethan Coen, 1983's Blood Simple is grisly comic noir that marries the feverish toughness of pulp thrillers with the ghoulishness of even pulpier horror. (Imagine the novels of Jim Thompson somehow fused with the comic tabloid Weird Tales and you get the idea.) The story concerns a Texas bar owner (Dan Hedaya) who hires a seedy private detective (M Emmett Walsh) to follow his cheating wife (Frances McDormand in her first film appearance) and then kill her and her lover (John Getz). The gumshoe turns the tables on his client, and suddenly a bad situation gets much, much worse, with some violent goings-on that are as elemental as they are shocking. (A scene in which a character who has been buried alive suddenly emerges from his own grave instantly becomes an archetypal nightmare.) Shot by Barry Sonnenfeld before he became an A-list director in Hollywood, Blood Simple established the hyperreal look and feel of the Coens' productions (undoubtedly inspired a bit by filmmaker Sam Raimi, whose The Evil Dead had just been coedited by Joel). Sections of the film have proved to be an endurance test for art-house movie fans, particularly an extended climax that involves one shock after another but ends with a laugh at the absurdity of criminal ambition. This is definitely one of the triumphs of the 1980s and the American independent film scene in general. --Tom Keogh

Amazon.co.uk Review
The debut film of director Joel Coen and his brother-producer Ethan Coen, 1983's Blood Simple is grisly comic noir that marries the feverish toughness of pulp thrillers with the ghoulishness of even pulpier horror. (Imagine the novels of Jim Thompson somehow fused with the comic tabloid Weird Tales and you get the idea.) The story concerns a Texas bar owner (Dan Hedaya) who hires a seedy private detective (M Emmett Walsh) to follow his cheating wife (Frances McDormand in her first film appearance) and then kill her and her lover (John Getz). The gumshoe turns the tables on his client and suddenly a bad situation gets much, much worse, with some violent goings-on that are as elemental as they are shocking. (A scene in which a character who has been buried alive suddenly emerges from his own grave instantly becomes an archetypal nightmare.) Shot by Barry Sonnenfeld before he became an A-list director in Hollywood, Blood Simple established the hyperreal look and feel of the Coens' productions (undoubtedly inspired a bit by filmmaker Sam Raimi, whose The Evil Dead had just been coedited by Joel). Sections of the film have proved to be an endurance test for art-house movie fans, particularly an extended climax that involves one shock after another but ends with a laugh at the absurdity of criminal ambition. This is definitely one of the triumphs of the 1980s and the American independent film scene in general. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

Special Features
English
Region 2

Customer Reviews

a real masterpiece... even better than "Fargo"
I watched this movie three times and really liked it. Coen Brother's cinematic debut is a wonderful example of how to let the pictures tell most of the story. In essence, the story is real simple: A greasy and sleazy bar owner hires an even sleazier private eye to kill his wife and her paramour. But things do not turn out quite as planned. There are enough twists and turns to keep a viewer guessing even after the movie is over. Especially, second part of the movie is a first-grade thriller with violent, bloody, suspenseful, and endless twists. The last word: an absolutely fantastic film - one of the best I have ever seen. Dark entertainment at its best!

Blood simple is........... the work of pure genius!
This is the perfect example of a totally underrated masterpiece! Less obvious comic than the Coen's susequent films, this has a degree of beyond-black humour, but is mostly a study of the way things go wrong when people don't use their heads. "Who looks stupid now?" is an appropriate send off line delivered from a murderer to a victim, as all the dumbness naturally leads to death.

This has everything that a good film must have; a good story, good direction, good acting, great music and enough twists to keep the jive bunny happy! The razor-sharp debut of Oscar nominated Joel and Ethan Coen will have you on the very edge of your seat. This is a great film and is definately one of the best crime films ever made....ever.

Macabre, even for Texas
Even though there may be one or two instances where the squeamish will want to avert their gaze, they'll still be mesmerized by BLOOD SIMPLE until the last drip of gore. Even my wife hung tough to the end, though remarking at one point, "No one dies quickly in this movie."

Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya) is a creepy Texas bar owner whose wife Abby (Frances McDormand) is spending quality time in the sheets with one of her husband's employees, Dan (John Getz). After an initial confrontation during which his finger gets broken and his groin kicked, Marty hires a slimeball private eye (Loren Visser) to kill Abby and Dan while he (Marty) goes fishing. What should be a straightforward bloodletting becomes grotesquely complicated by a series of mistaken identities.

Don't expect a plausible plot. Don't be surprised that law enforcement makes no appearance whatsoever. Indeed, enough clues are left in the commission of assorted crimes for a trainee to make an arrest after only one day in the police academy watching COLUMBO reruns. No matter, however, because justice is served all around.

The fascination of this production derives from the camera perspectives, sound and video editing, set lighting, and the vision of the directing and producing Coen brothers. The sight and sound of a rolled-up newspaper smacking a screen door, the slow drip of blood from the end of a finger, the sudden appearance of a streetlamp-lit VW Beetle on a darkened street, the approaching headlights of a far-off truck, the slow decay of fish on an office desk, the labored stab of a knife through living bone and gristle, the anticipation of a sniper's bullet through a window. All are these, and more, send thrills of delight and/or dread up the viewer's spine. The fact that all acting performances are flawless is almost a bonus.

This is imaginative entertainment, capable of inspiring both an appreciative "Oh, wow!" or shocked "Eeeewww!", best seen on a dark and lonely night clutching a bowl of popcorn and your favorite teddy bear.