Review of Blood Simple (1985) by Oaks B — 31 Mar 2009

This debut feature film by the Coen brothers is a resounding success, a suspenseful thriller that keeps you tied to your chair until the end. The Coens may not ever inspire my own personal fandom or reverence, as their filmmaking is more technically proficient than singularly artistic or innovative, but damn they are nothing if not competent as filmmakers. The music, cinematography, editing, shot-composition and lighting are spot-on in "Blood Simple," proving from the start that they aim high and hit the mark when it comes to pulling off their genre-based exercises, here a gritty Western noir. While this film may be a little short on character development, it is heavy with atmosphere and suspense, and the performances of these confused, scared characters trying to survive their way through a muddled murder-for-hire plot are all uniformly effective...

Seeing this first feature after having viewed much of the Coens' successive works, themes and preoccupations that have reoccurred in their other films find root here: misunderstandings that turn into whodunits (or is that the other way around?), large sums of money (and where IS that money?), Texas, an opaquely narrated opening, and of course, plenty of testosterone, gunshots and blood. I feel compelled to again express my small disdain for these albeit accomplished filmmakers in that their vision is less vision than mastery of the medium, but the four star rating I am assigning "Blood Simple" is unequivocally deserved: it is a gripping and satisfying noir that deserves commendation and once begun will effortlessly nab your undivided attention with its pervasive tension and thrill.