I don't know if you've heard of the Coen Brothers. But, they're an amazing creative team responsible for some of the greatest films of all time. Including, but not limited to, Raising Arizona, A Serious Man, Fargo, Miller's Crossing, No Country for Old Men, and so on. Point being they have made some pretty stellar films that will stand the test of time. But, it all starts with the riveting, Blood Simple.
Blood Simple is a neo-noir thriller from 1985. The story revolves around a sleazy p.i., a even sleazier night club owner, his wife, and her lover. When the night club owner highers the p.i. to kill his wife and her lover, everything goes awry. This is when all of the dark humor and twist and turns of a Coen Brothers' film kicks in. Although, for the most part the film stays on the darker side, even leaning towards horror in the third act. The film is perfectly layered and keeps the viewer engaged. It is one of the few debut pictures that seem fully developed and provides a clear picture of Coen Brother films to come.
Leading up to this film, Joel Coen was working on industrial films as a production assistant. He eventually found a calling as a film editor. He eventually worked his way up the ladder and landed the assistant editors gig on Evil Dead. There he met and worked with Sam Rami. Blood Simple also gave a start to one of my other favorite directors, Barry Sonnenfeld. The film was Barry's big breakout as a director of photography. He would eventually go on to shoot the next two Coen Brother films along with, Big and Misery.
The final shot of Blood Simple, is the perfect summery of the film and every Coen Brothers' film ever made. It's dark humored, tragic, beautiful, and relatively violent.
-Paul
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