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106 of 126 people found the following review helpful:
Director's Cut? I DOUBT IT!, April 10, 2003
Blood Simple is one of the all-time great independent films. As a devotee of this film it goes without saying that I know nearly every line of dialogue and every cut. Well... if you too are a fan , my advice to you is: PASS ON THIS EDITION! I was absolutely shocked to see that this film had been re-edited! And NOT for the better. In fact, this was not a new edit in the traditional sense (scene shifting; scene re-edits etc.). All they did with this version was to simply lop off lines from the existing original final cut! That's right. They just shortened scenes, most often taking the form of the scene ins and outs (first and last lines in each scene). For instance, M.Emmet Walsh's last line to Marty in the VW when he contracts Walsh. Or how about the humorous placing of Getz's cigarette in the stuffed wild boars mouth at Marty's house? Or the exchange between Samm-Art Williams and the redneck at the juke box. Those lines are now gone completely. And remember that version of The Monkee's "I'm A Beliver" which was used in that scene? Its been dumped for a Four Tops tune. This is just a few in a long list of disturbing changes. As a film editor, I asked myself, what imporovements were made with these new cuts? The answer is a resounding, NONE! My point is this. If you buy this DVD expecting the same old Blood Simple in a new, crisp DVD edition, you will be sorely disappointed. You will be constantly distracted by the jarring edits rather than being able to enjoy the film... Again, worthless.
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33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
Two for the price of one..., November 17, 2003
A lot of people have tried to figure out the Coens. In my own Amazon review of Barton Fink, I took a stab at making sense of their intentions. But you know, it took seeing Blood Simple - The Director's Cut, with its intelligent and insightful commentary by "film historian Kenneth Loring", to turn that lightbulb on above my head. For all of the skill the Coens display in marshalling symbols (the hat in Miller's Crossing, the picture in Barton Fink, the UFO in The Man Who Wasn't There; on and on), you would think they have something in mind. Something specific, in a metaphorical sense. Some philosophical point to advance. Some kind of meaning, in other words. But if you take an artist's premiere work to be prototypical in some way, then a viewing of Blood Simple (especially with the commentary track) will tell you all you need to know about Joel and Ethan Coen's artistic sensibilities.Blood Simple has been called film noir, and it is that, in spades. But it is also a screwball comedy (yes, you read that correctly). In the great Preston Sturges tradition, each character thinks he or she knows what's happening, but only has a small piece of the puzzle. Only we, the audience can see the whole picture. The fun is in watching how one absurdity piles upon the next as the characters act on bad information. That's the very definition of screwball comedy -- only in this case, we get increasingly horrific (if satirical) set-pieces in place of the usual witty repartee and sight-gags. You see, the Coens intend nothing more than to tell an interesting story. That is exactly what they do, and no more. Trying to label it, find its "meaning", or stuff it into a genre-specific box is pointless. Each film simply is what it is - a ride through an odd world of dark humor and quirky plot machinations that push your emotional buttons even as they ultimately amount to not much more than a diversion. You must be at least this tall to buy a ticket. Kenneth Loring, a deadpan creation of theirs, would disagree. His commentary on Blood Simple is a satire of those obvious, frequently pompous film commentaries you find on Criterion discs. It's full of ridiculous trivia (animatronic dogs, digital flies, car interiors supposedly filmed in reverse), self-important observations ("There is nothing more fascinating than the human face; it's movie...MAGIC!"), silly anecdotes (the confrontation with Merchant-Ivory writer Ruth Prawer-Jablava had me rolling on the floor), and exactly the kind of "analysis" I tried to do on Barton Fink. The point, if there is one, is that there's nothing to figure out. Just enjoy Blood Simple - and all the Coen films - for what they are: pure...movie...MAGIC!
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Diverting and original, but a little too slick, December 13, 2000
Joel and Ethan Coen made their cinematic debut in this well-plotted, diabolical thriller about a Texas saloon owner (Marty, played by Dan Hedaya) who hires a morally deranged private eye (M. Emmet Walsh) to murder both his two-timing wife (Abby, played by Joel Coen's significant other, Frances McDormand) and her lover (Ray, played by John Getz).This is one of those movies that looks good as you're watching it; it's even amazing how it all fits together; but later you look back and see how contrived it was. Everything is set up a little too well, with the viewer aware of so many things the characters are not, for example where the Zippo lighter is and how many bullets are left in the revolver and how the gun got to be where it is. That's the sort of thing good writers are supposed to do: start, or at least place themselves, at the end and then work backward. Problem is, you can get too cute, and that's what happens to Coen and Coen here. If everything is too pat and works too well, the viewer is left with an empty feeling of having been hustled by contrivance. McDormand, lately seen in as the homespun pregnant police chief in Fargo (1996) also directed by Coen, does a good job here of looking like a cheap and easy woman with strong survival instincts. Getz seems just about as stupid as his character needs to be. (His attempted cover-up of the murder was worthy of an appearance on "America's Dumbest Criminals.") Hedaya as the sleazy saloon keep is particularly slimy, and M. Emmet Walsh in his VW beetle with the doll with lighted boobs hanging from the rear view mirror is fully degenerate in that old Southern style. Some annoyances: Why do Abby and Ray sleep and mate with the blinds up so the P.I. can conveniently photograph them? (Who does THAT?) Did I lose track of the number of bullets left in the revolver or was there a gap in their placement, and even if there really was one left at the end why doesn't Abby wait until she can see him to shoot, and how come she doesn't check to see if the gun is loaded? And how come the window is about four inches open, instead of closed or open more, after Abby climbs out the bathroom window into it; and how come Walsh is feeling around in the window? Is he using his hand as bait? Coen and Coen admitted in a recent article in the New Yorker that this was not their best work, and had they been more experienced, they would have done it differently. Of course. But there is an undercurrent of black humor and irony and a whole slew of original touches (the car and the car's tracks in the farmer's field at break of day, the quiet rural Texas roads at night, the dead fish on the desk, etc.) that suggest a rare cinematic talent in the making. Fargo (1996) was a mature expression of that talent. It will be interesting to see what they do next. Regardless, this is already a cult classic and the kind of movie that afficionados understandably like to own. If you're a film noir fan, you should definitely see this, despite its acknowledged shortcomings.
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based on 108 reviews.
