Complications Arise
Blood Simple is set in Texas. Ray (Getz) is a barkeeper who works for Julian Marty (Hedaya). Abby (McDormand) is married to Julian, but it’s not a happy marriage. The opening scene has Ray and Abby driving on a dark road on a rainy night. Abby seems to want to leave Julian, but she is weary of him. Rich, vengeful, and someone with connections, Julian is one of those people you do not want to upset.
Ray and Abby have an affair, something that Julian finds out about from his slimy private eye associate, Loren (Walsh). Walsh snaps some incrementing photos of the couple in a hotel and this sets Julian’s rage ablaze. He decides to have them both killed. Loren accepts the task in exchange for ten grand, so while Julian is away on a quick out of town fishing trip, Loren gets to work.
Things were already pretty complicated for these four people, but Loren’s actions accelerate the intensity of the matter significantly. He schemes to not only take Julian’s money without killing Ray and Abby, but to also frame Abby for the murder of Julian. Ray and Abby get themselves into a mess far more than they had ever hoped for when Ray stumbles upon the crime scene. Deceit, misunderstandings, and confusion abound between the key characters in this engaging murder flick.
Blood Simple is not a movie I would normally watch, it just did not look very interesting to me. However, within about a half hour (when the contract killer is hired), the intrigue really ramps up. The acting is solid, as is the script; it’s a smart crime thriller, complete with drama, suspense, and just the right amount of violence.
The Blu-ray
This is a very straight-forward Blu-ray release in terms of its presentation and extra features. Perhaps the most notable aspect of this release is that it is an altered version of the original movie. When you start the movie, there is a brief video introduction that talks about how Blood Simple was digitally touched up and altered, removing some scenes, even adding others. I had not heard of this movie before reviewing this Blu-ray, much less having watched the original, so I don’t know what was actually changed. While I can often appreciate using modern technology to spruce up old films, it’s not always the right decision. Regardless, it’s a shame both versions of the film were not included on this release, or at the very least, some kind of extra feature explaining all of the differences.
That aside, the presentation quality is pretty good. The colors are a little flat, liking that certain vibrance seen in modern releases. The picture is in 1:85:1 ratio, too, which makes it full screen for many HDTVs, mine included, but it looks natural this way and does not looked stretched or ‘off’ in anyway. The lone audio track is English 2.0 DTS-HD, and it gets the job done in this dialogue-driven film. English and Spanish subtitles are also included.
As for the extra features, there’s very little. An audio commentary track with Kenneth Loring from Forever Young Films, who conducted an interview with DVDTalk.com, talks about restoring Blood Simple. The only other extra is the trailer, in SD, which runs about a minute and forty seconds. It’s really too bad that some additional interviews with the cast and crew could not be put together for this release, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we saw this re-released in 2014 or 2015 as a 30th anniversary edition.
To the summary…
