Blood Simple
Joel and Ethan Coen's acclaimed debut feature is a crime noir thriller starring John Getz and Frances McDormand that took top prize at Sundance.
When the owner of a small-town Texas dive bar (Emmy-winner Dan Hedaya) learns that his wife (McDormand) is having affair with one of his employees (Getz), he hires a private investigator (M. Emmet Walsh) and devises a plot to have the couple murdered.
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize, 1985 Sundance Film Festival
1984Rating: MA15+, Strong violence97 minsUSAEnglish and Spanish with English subtitles
CrimeDramaThriller
- Director:
- Joel CoenEthan Coen ('The Big Lebowski', 'Raising Arizona', 'True Grit')
- Writer:
- Joel CoenEthan Coen
- Cast:
- John GetzFrances McDormandDan HedayaM. Emmet WalshSamm-Art WilliamsDeborah NeumannRaquel GaviaSeñor Marco
Blood Simple / Reviews
Total Film
With their 1984 directorial debut, the Coen brothers showed the surefootedness with which they would ease themselves into one genre after another, reworking each to fit their deadpan vision.
Full reviewThe New Yorker
It isn't really about anything except making a commercial narrative movie outside the industry.
Full review
Salon
Watching this beautiful restoration of "Blood Simple" I was actually struck by how non-bleak it is, how much the strength of the film lies in images of beauty, defiance and survival.
Full review
Los Angeles Times
"Blood Simple" becomes a dazzling comedie noire, a dynamic, virtuoso display by a couple of talented fledgling filmmakers who give the conventions of the genre such a thorough workout that the result is a movie that's fresh and exhilarating.
Full review
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