‘Blood Simple’: The Coen Brothers’ Career-Changing Movie, a Hilarious and Violent Masterpiece

Joel and Ethan Coen’s (collectively, the Coen Brothers) unique style of filmmaking, which frequently veers between grim tragedies and outrageous comedies, is well-known to fans. Their stories usually centre on crime and the fallout from bad decisions made by regular people, even though they experiment with different genres. Their first movie, ‘Blood Simple’, eloquently depicts these recurrent themes. This funny and brutal neo-noir, which came out in 1984, perfectly captures what a Coen Brothers movie is all about.

‘Blood Simple’, which is set in a tiny Texas town, stars M. Emmet Walsh as Loren Visser, a dishonest private investigator who is employed by Julian Marty, the bar owner (played by Dan Hedaya), to spy on his wife Abby (played by Frances McDormand) and her bartender Ray (played by John Getz). Julian asks Loren to kill them once he confirms their affair, but Loren shoots Julian and takes his money instead. Believing Abby tried to murder her husband, Ray finds Julian’s bleeding body and buries him alive. Loren plans to complete the task after realizing he left his lighter at the crime site, but he underestimates Abby and she outwits him.

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Despite being set in the 1980s, ‘Blood Simple’s’ plot and style are evocative of 1940s film noir classics, with plot twists and betrayals reminiscent of Double Indemnity. The Coens differentiate their work as one of the early neo-noirs, similar to Chinatown and L.A. Confidential, by using the more liberal post-Production Code era to depict explicit violence and s*x. The Southwest setting of ‘Blood Simple’ is distinctive; it shifts classic urban noir themes onto the open range while preserving a feeling of moral uncertainty.

After ‘Blood Simple’, the Coens took another approach with ‘Raising Arizona’, a comedy about a couple who abduct a child. Notwithstanding the change in tone, the two movies have comparable narrative patterns, such as intricate narratives that stem from a single bad choice and a mix of humour and violence. Later productions such as ‘Fargo’ and ‘The Big Lebowski’ demonstrate this effective approach, with ‘Blood Simple’ serving as a precursor to the Coens’ subsequent classics.

–Farheen Ali