Blood Simple Review

A couple of weeks ago I attended the Signs and Wonders screening of Blood Simple, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film is about a wealthy man named Julian Marty who is jealous of a man named Ray because he is sleeping with Julian's wife, Abby. Julian's jealousy goes too far when he tries to hire an private investigator, Loren Visser, to kill Ray and Abby for revenge. Unfortunately, Julian's plan doesn't work out the way he intended.

My initial thought of the film is that it builds really well with the tension of the plot. I felt the beginning of the movie started off slow when Ray and Abby are having an affair in a hotel and Julian finds out thanks to his private investigator, Loren. Things take an interesting turn when (SPOILERS!!!!!) Julian is killed by Loren. I honestly wasn't expecting this because you would have assumed that either Ray or Abby would have been murdered because of Julian's jealousy. From there, the movie's plot got interesting because nobody knows that Loren killed Julian besides Loren himself. Ray thought Abby did it and Abby thought Ray did it. Also, the movie's ending scene in the apartment was very intense and very satisfying.

I felt that the cinematography was very engaging with it's strong contrast of light and dark. Two particular scenes come to my mind with this interesting contrast. First, the infamous scene of when Ray is trying to cover up Julian's murder. The dark, panned shot from the car's headlights to the the hole Ray was digging was creepy and chilling. I feel that the spotlight of the cars headlights shining on Ray signifies that we can't hide from our sins even if we shy away in the dark. The other scene I really found fascinating was towards the end of the movie when Loren is stuck in the window sill of the apartment and he tries to shoot Abby through the wall. The audience hears "BAM! BAM! BAM!" as each bullet creates a new hole of light from the bathroom that Loren is in. Not only is the scene gripping and beautifully shot but I also felt the same message of how we can't hide in the darkness when there is sin on our plates.

I also wanted to point out this movie is fairly similar to the Coen Brother's Academy Award winning  No Country for Old Men. Both films...

have similar opening scenes.(Voice over of the characters with still shots of the Western landscapes)

have similar settings.(Texas)

have hired-guns.(Loren Visser VS Carson Wells)

have characters that desire money.

have main characters that aren't good people.( Julian, Loren, Ray, Abby VS Llewelyn Moss, Anton Chigurh, Carson Wells)


Overall I really enjoyed this movie(especially the rising tension and the cinematography) and I was very impressed when I heard that this was the Coen Brother's very first film. Amazing!