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Blood Simple
Sign in to save1984 film by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Film · TMDB
7.3The owner of a seedy small-town Texas bar discovers that one of his employees is having an affair with his wife. A chaotic chain of misunderstandings, lies and mischief ensues after he devises a plot to have them murdered.
Cast
- John Getz as Ray
- Frances McDormand as Abby
- Dan Hedaya as Julian Marty
- Samm-Art Williams as Meurice
- M. Emmet Walsh as Private Detective
- Deborah Neumann as Debra
Themes
- husband wife relationship
- boss
- texas
- lover
- employee
- money
- killer
- double cross
- extramarital affair
- shallow grave
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Ratings
IMDb
7.5/10
108,396 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
94%
Metacritic
84/100
- Year
- 1984
- Runtime
- 99 min
- Genres
- Crime, Drama, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- Awards
- 5 wins & 7 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Joel Coen
- Written by
- Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
- Produced by
- Ethan Coen
- Starring
- John Getz Frances McDormand Dan Hedaya Samm-Art Williams M. Emmet Walsh
- Cinematography
- Barry Sonnenfeld
- Edited by
- Roderick Jaynes Don Wiegmann
- Music by
- Carter Burwell
- Production companies
- River Road Productions Foxton Entertainment
- Distributed by
- Circle Films
- Release dates
- October 12, 1984 ( 1984-10-12 ) ( New York Film Festival ) January 18, 1985 ( 1985-01-18 ) (United States)
- Running time
- 96 minutes
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $1.5 million
- Box office
- $4.3 million
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Duration
- 98
- FilmAffinity ID
- 377631
- Image
- Bloodsimple.png
Show 3 more facts
- publication date
- 1984-00-00
- title
- Blood Simple
- review score
- 84/100
Sources (15)
via Wikidata · CC0
~14 min read
Article
Blood Simple is a 1984 American independent neo-noir crime film written, edited, produced and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and starring John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya and M. Emmet Walsh. Its plot follows a Texas bartender who is having an affair with his boss's wife. When his boss discovers the affair, he hires a private investigator to kill the couple. It was the directorial debut of the Coens and the first major film of cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, who later became a director, as well as the feature-film debut of McDormand.
The film's title is derived from Dashiell Hammett's novel Red Harvest (1929), in which the Continental Op muses, "This damned burg's getting me. If I don't get away soon I'll be going blood-simple like the natives." Stylistically, the film has been noted for its blending elements of neo-noir, pulp crime stories and low-budget horror films. In 2001, a director's cut was released, the same year that it was ranked No. 98 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills.