Blood Simple

1984 thriller

Rating: 17/20

Plot: Bar owner Marty gets word from a private investigator who drives a VW Bug that his wife is cheating on him with an employee. He hires the same private investigator to kill them both. Since this is the Coens' world, one in which all private investigators drive VW Bugs, you can guess that it doesn't go as well as expected.

Here's the reason that I like the Coen Brothers' movies so much: it's the non-sequiturs, the little details or asides that have nothing to do with what's really going with the characters but adds that little extra bit of humor or despair or suspense or whatever that gives their stories a unique flavor. It's like they take deliberate detours because even though they know the straight path from Point A to Point B is the easiest way to go, it's just not the most interesting. Sometimes, it's sound effects in Blood Simple--a bug zapper, a blurping computer. And sometimes, it's the visuals--Walsh's smoke rings after decapitation is threatened, Maurice's quick shuffle on the bar in those white Chuck Taylors of his, the shovel dragging on the asphalt, a newspaper hitting the door. And then sometimes, it's a bit of film that some editors, if they come from a newspaper background where skimping on letters can save some cash, would say, "Hold up a second. Is this scene necessary?" I love the one where Ray has forgotten to turn off his headlights and the guy who was flashing at him to let him know as he approached makes this strange little finger gun sign as he passes. And poor Marty who leaves Ray's house with his tail between his legs and drives off only to realize that he needs to turn around and pass the house a second time. The Coens also create suspense so well in this. It's impressive how you still get that feeling in your stomach during the scene when the detective goes to the house where Ray and Abby are sleeping even though you've seen this before and know exactly what's going to happen. That camera following the detective as he rushes out of the house. It's so effective, and foreshadows the Coens' flamboyant style in their following films. You can also see it in the shot when the camera moves over the bar and is forced to hop over an unconscious guy's head and another overhead shot interrupted by the ceiling fan's blades. And back to the suspense. Can you beat that final twenty minutes? Again, you know what happens because you've seen the movie, but it still manages to pack a punch, a lengthy scene that doesn't have any dialogue at all until it does at the end and shocks you with a little dramatic irony. And then you're immediately hit with a bit more irony with the Tops' "Same Old Song." The music, if you isolate it, seems pretty dated, but it's effective here, especially in that scene where the detective goes to kill Ray and Abby and the opening scene with some accompanying ominous windshield wiper rhythm. Solid performances here, too, with M. Emmet Walsh giving a prototypical Coen performance as the dick. "Give me a call whenever you want to cut off my head. I can always crawl around without it." The guy sweats like a pro, too. My favorite bit of dialogue is this one:

Marty: I got a job for you.

Detective: Well, if the pay's right and it's legal, I'll do it.

Marty: It's not strictly legal.

Detective: Well, if the pay's right, I'll do it.

Of course, that's not the very best line in the film because there's "Hey, mister. How'd you break your pussy finger?" in there somewhere. That's said to Dan Hedaya's Marty, and normally, I'd say Hedaya is the type of person you wouldn't want to say something like that to. In Blood Simple, he plays a really interesting character, one who's got this very thin outer shell of tough guy but is nothing but goo on the inside.

A sidenote: I remember watching this the first time and hating the scene where we're shown the detective's lighter under the fish because they drew attention to it twice. I remember thinking, "C'mon, Coen Brothers. I'm not that dumb. We get it. We don't need to see it twice." Then, the lighter turns out to be barely more than a red herring. Cute.

Another sidenote: Did you know that Barry Sonnenfeld did the vomiting sound effects for Marty?