"The world is full of complainers. But the fact is, nothing comes with a guarantee. I don't care if you're the Pope of Rome, President of the United States or Man of the Year, something can all go wrong. But go ahead, complain, tell your problems to your neighbor, ask for help, and watch him fly. Now in Russia, they got it all mapped out so that everyone pulls for everyone else. That's the theory anyway. But what I know about is Texas, and down here... you're on your own."

Blood Simple is a neo-noir that was directed and written by the Coen Brothers, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen. This film was the first film by them and shows the beginning of their style. The film had a budget of 1.5 million USD, all from private investors. The film was shot entirely in Texas, and filmed in 48 days. It was originally released in 1983 with a rating of R.

the Yarn

There's a woman, and I know what you're going to say, there's always a woman. Well, this woman's name was Abby. Abby had a problem, and that was that she just didn't love her barkeeper husband Marty anymore. So, she was able to get one of Marty's bartenders, Ray, who had always had a thing for her to drive her out of town.

Thing is, they didn't make it very far. Instead, they stopped at a hotel, and did the mystery dance if you know what I mean. Well, there was a problem. Marty had been suspect to Abby for quite awhile and had a pee-eye on her. So, Marty heard about the whole thing soon enough. Before you even know it, Marty has paid off this pee-eye to ace 'em both.

Well, things really don't look pretty from there on...

Now it's the same old song/But with a different meaning/Since you been gone

Blood Simple is very obviously a homage to classic film noir and detective novels from the title down. The title itself comes from a phrase that Raymond Chandler coined for what a person is like after killing someone. The plot is simple, but like many noir has a twist.

In most classical noir, the private eye is the main protagonist. Instead, we have the private eye being the physical antagonist of the film. The film has the the thought train that the audience will think that the new boyfriend is going to be the one to kill Marty, but instead it's the private eye.

The thing is, the rest of the characters think like this as well. When Ray finds Marty's corpse, he immediatly assumes that Abby did it(though her pearl handle revolver doesn't help). So, he sets to cleaning up the mess.

In that scene, I believe that the film is most beautifully summarized. For as Ray is cleaning up the mess, and dragging the body to his car the jukebox is playing an old song. The song is "It's the Same Old Song" and its chorus lyrics sum up the entirety of the film's reference to classical film noir.

Main Cast:
John Getz - Ray
Frances McDormand - Abby
Dan Hedaya - Julian Marty
M. Emmet Walsh - Private Detective Loren Visser

Sources:
IMDB - http://www.imdb.com.
The title is derived from Dashiell Hammett's novel Red Harvest. Although there is no single official definition, being blood simple, or getting the fever, as Hammett later refers to it, is being surrounded by murder until murder becomes in your own mind a viable solution to practically any problem. Life becomes cheap, killing begets more killing.
"What have you been doing?" she demanded as we carried our drinks into the dining room. "You look ghastly."

I put my glass on the table, sat down facing it, and complained:

"This damned burg's getting me. If I don't get away soon I'll be going blood simple like the natives. There's been what? A dozen and a half murders since I've been here. Donald Willsson; Ike Bush; the four wops and the dick at Cedar Hill; Jerry; Lew Yard; Dutch Jake, Blackie Whalen and Put Collings at the Silver Arrow; Big Nick, the copper I potted; the blond kid Whisper dropped here; Yakima Shorty, old Elihu's prowler; and now Noonan. That's sixteen of them in less than a week, and more coming up."

She frowned at me and said sharply:

"Don't look like that."

I laughed and went on:

"I've arranged a killing or two in my time, when they were necessary. But this is the first time I've ever got the fever. It's this damned burg. You can't go straight here. I got myself tangled at the beginning. When old Elihu ran out on me there was nothing I could do but try to set the boys against each other. I had to swing the job the best way I could. How could I help it if the best way was bound to lead to a lot of killing? The job couldn't be handled any other way without Elihu's backing."

-- Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest, 1929

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