Search - Blood Simple on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Violence, Not For Children Movie Release: 1984 DVD Release: 09/18/2001 Format: DVD - Color,Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV - Closed Captioned Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 36 mins Studio: Universal Studios Members Wishing: 24 Genres: Crime, Post-Noir (Modern Noir), Crime Thriller See Also: Blood Simple

In the first film of brothers Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, M. Emmett Walsh plays Visser, an unscrupulous private eye hired by Texas bar owner Marty (Dan Hedaya) to murder Marty's faithless wife Abby (Frances McDormand) and her paramour, Ray (John Getz), one of Marty's employees. But Visser is no more up-front with Marty than with anyone else; he makes some slight modifications of the original plan so that it better serves his own best interests. After a surprise double-cross and the murder of one of the important players, matters spiral out of control, and the plot gyrates through a complicated string of darkly humorous events. False assumptions, guilt, and fear all lead to a frantic attempt to conceal evidence and the heart-pounding, irony-filled denouement. Blood Simple was re-released in the summer of 2000 with a digitally-remastered soundtrack and -- at the Coens' behest -- a few minutes of dialogue trimmed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Getz - Ray
Frances McDormand - Abby
Dan Hedaya - Marty
M. Emmet Walsh - Visser
Samm-Art Williams - Maurice

The film debut of Joel and Ethan Coen's Blood Simple, one of the great early modern independent films, makes its way to DVD, and the overall results are rather surprising. Most impressive is the image quality. A new anamorphic transfer, framed at the theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 is used, and it looks quite good, far better than would be expected from such a low-budget film. At times the picture seems a little soft, but it is far from distracting. Darker scenes, which there are plenty, come across wonderfully with just the right contrast. The audio, on the other hand, a four-channel surround track, is not quite as impressive. Sound is reproduced through the main front speaker and lacks any punch. Use of the surround speakers is so limited as to be non-existent. As for extra material, there isn't much. Other than some text production notes and cast and crew information, there is a theatrical trailer and a bonus trailer for the direct-to-video title Boogeymen. Also available is an audio commentary track. Some may be delighted with it while others will most likely be disappointed. The reason? The commentary is not a legitimate track, but more of a mock-commentary given by a Kenneth Loring of Forever Young Films. Who "Loring" is remains a real mystery and it would be no surprise if it was actually one of the Coen brothers joking around. Regardless, it's very funny with some comments that are completely off the wall, and with a film as good as this, anything is welcome. ~ Trent Fordham, All Movie Guide