Blu-Ray Review: ‘BLOOD SIMPLE’

I grew up in a house where many dubbed VHS tapes were at my disposal. I distinctly remember Blood Simple sitting next to my father’s copies of Paris, Texas and A Clockwork Orange. The young, budding horror fan that I was of course opted one day for a film with “blood” in the title. What I got was something totally different than I expected. For many people, Blood Simple was the introduction to the now infamous Coen Brothers. What they did with the film was deliver old characteristics to old crime noir tales in a new, fresh package.

The Movie

 

 

 

 

 

Blood Simple tells the story of two lovers, Ray (John Getz) & Abby (Frances McDormand), who are having an affair behind the back of Abby’s husband Marty (Dan Hedaya). Marty catches wind of it through a hired private detective (M. Emmet Walsh) who tends to treat the situation in a sleazy, light hearted way by antagonizing and poking fun at the cowardish Marty. For those of you that still haven’t seen the Coen Brothers debut, I won’t ruin the rest of the film for you. Needless to say, everything doesn’t go as planned and nothing comes out clean.

Blood Simple has had an interesting release history. Filmed on a low budget by the Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, when the film was released theatrically, there was much risk at stake. However, it paid off and became one of most successful independent films released. When it was first released on video, which was how I originally saw it, the song by The Four Tops ‘It’s the Same Old Song’ was replaced with Neil Diamond’s ‘I’m a Believer’. It was only later that I found out that Diamond’s song (which I hate) wasn’t the original choice. Fast forward to 2001, the “Director’s Cut” was released that restored the Four Tops back into the film along with some tighter edits. We may never get the original theatrical cut on DVD or Blu-ray (I believe the original theatrical cut is available on Laserdisc), but that is fine with me because 20th Century Fox/MGM’s new Blu-Ray is a great way to view this film – in which I think the edits make a tighter film.

The Presentation

This has to be the cleanest version of the film I have seen. Sometimes with low budget films, you worry about the quality of the picture, this is not the case. Granted, they restored this film 10 years ago for the theatrical re-release (aka. The Director’s Cut) but this looks great on Blu-Ray. Some scenes look a little soft but I think that would be a fair compromise given the film’s age.

The DTS-HD audio is clean and mainly uses the front channels for the majority of the presentation. There is slight use of the back speakers that I could hear during exterior shots and the busy bar scenes and when the aforementioned Four Tops track is on full blast.

All the special features, including the Forever Young segment with Mortimer Young, from the previous Universal DVD release have been carried over to this disc. We are treated to an attractive, simplistic main menu. When you play the movie, the feature starts out with the Forever Young segment which you can skip past after you get your laughs the first time around. While we will never have a Coen Bros. commentary it seems like, we get a scripted half spoof, half truth commentary voiced by “Kenneth Loring” of Forever Young Preservation. Yes, the Coen’s play with the fact that they went back and modified this film, but there are some truthful bits in the commentary, plus it is entertaining regardless. With a film that has such an important place in cinema, there is an obvious want for more special features than a fake commentary, a HD trailer and a mock introduction. However, with the film being 27 years old, those assets may not be available.

Overall

If you are a fan of the film and either never owned the DVD or have owned it, I still recommend you pick this up as it is a great hi-def presentation of the film and replaces the DVD in quality.