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starring: John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, M. Emmet Walsh, Samm-Art Williamsdirected by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780783261355
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
ISBN: 0783261357
Label: Circle Films
Manufacturer: Circle Films
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Circle Films
Release Date: September 18, 2001
Running Time: 99 minutes
Sales Rank: 32392
Studio: Circle Films
Theatrical Release Date: January 18, 1985
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - 2.5 stars out of 4
The Bottom Line:
A cleverly-plotted neo-noir, Blood Simple is hampered by the fact that only Emmett Walsh shows any charisma--the lead couple is so wooden that the audience is hard-pressed to care a hoot about them; it's not a bad movie, but it's not very special either.
Rating:  - The first masterpiece by the Coen brothers
This early 1980s film started the Coen brothers journey into one of the best filmmaking teams ever.
I have been wanting to see this movie for a long time and was happy I landed on this copy. While it is a good transfer to DVD, some of the others who commented on this said many scenes were deleted from the original. Since it was my first time to view this, I loved it and was totally impressed, now I want to see the original in its entirety.
The Coen brothers always add ... Read More
Rating:  - It all began with this little movie from the Brothers Coen
Geniuses have to begin somewhere, and Blood Simple happens to be the first film by Joel and Ethan Coen, the team that later produced "Raising Arizona", "Fargo" and "No Country For Old Men".
Unknown and without much in the way of budget, the Coens give us the best film noir since movies began being made in color. The film is bloody, indeed, but not for a moment simple.
Dan Hedaya plays Julian Marty, a bar owner who's doing pretty good for himself, except that his wife, played ... Read More
Rating: - What a Treat!
The Coens pack a lot of goin's-on into this clever murder for hire/love story/comedy/thriller that is both brutal and darkly humorous at the same time. Quirky and riveting. One of their best.
Rating: - The electrifying first film from the Coen's
Before No Country For Old Men, before The Big Lebowski, and before Fargo; Joel and Ethan Coen crafted this homage to the crime-noir. Blood Simple stars Dan Hedaya as a sleezy bar owner who plots to have his cheating wife (Frances McDormand in her screen debut) and his bartender (John Getz) with whom she is having an affair murdered. Things don't quite go as planned however when the hitman he hires (M. Emmet Walsh) turns the tables, and things begin to spiral out of control for everyone involved. Simply ... Read More
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