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Plan On A Track
| Attack This Weekend! |
UO Ducks
vs
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Men's Track Meet
Saturday y April 13
First field event 12:30
First track event 2:00
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Student tickets $1.25
'Blood Simple' clever tale
Blood-simple
(American
slang, first us
ed by Dashiell
Hammett) 1.
state of fear
and confusion
that follows the commission of
murder; “He’s gone blood
simple.”
“Blood Simple” (first feature
by Minneapolis film makers
Joel and Ethan Coen) 1. Gripp
ing invitation to grisly
suspense and wickedly inven
■ tive plotting in form of modern
film noir. 2. Stylish, self
assured directoral debut rooted
in classic Hollywood thrillers
and the American detective fic
tion tradition, yet as visually
inventive and Original as the
best of those-classics; “Have
.you seen ,‘Blood Simple’? It's
the best .American film of the
year tp date.” ,
. This is high praise for a low
budget effort like this, but it is
oh so richly deserved. Made in
Texas for just more than $1
million, Messrs; Coen and
Coen put such Hollywood
pastiches as “Body Heat” to
shame With their riveting tale
of deceit, corruption and
murder,
“Blood Simple” is more
than simply a homage to great
noir thrillers of the ’40s and
’50s. This is an effective mix
ture of the sleazy tales of James
Cain with the amorality of
Dashiell Hammet’s detectives
and characters, told with the
flair and brutal intensity of
“Kiss Me Deadly” or “The Big
Heat.”
The plot is too good to give
away, but the premise should
be sufficient. We open up in
the back of a car going down
the highway, the occasional
headlight flashing into the
camera. Two characters, Ray
(John Getz) and Abby (Frances
McDormand) are in the front.
Ray is a bartender working for
Abby’s husband, Julian Marty
(Dan Hedaya), a Northern
fellow drastically out of place
in this Texan locale.
Abby doesn’t like her violent
husband; she likes the soft
spoken Ray. Ray likes Abby,
A patron-filled tavern is one setting in "Blood Simple. ".
but he also likes his job. Marty
used to like both of them, but
finds out, through the efforts
of a sleazy divorce detective,
Visser (M. Emmet Walsh), that
they redefined their priorities
in a hotel room one night.
Visser is the crux the film,
the monkey wrench thrown in
to the traditional love triangle.
Walsh is brilliant in his por
trayal of a man who truly en
joys his slimy assignments.
With flies perpetually buzz
ing around his face, his sick
laugh as he recounts the seedy
details concerning Ray and
Abby’s bout of lovemaking and
an attitude that gives amorality
a good name, Walsh
epitomizes the depth of sleaze
the Coens reach. Only Walsh’s
drawling, sloppy character
could believably accept
Marty’s new proposition —
$10,000 to eliminate the
lovers.
From there on nothing is as
it seems. The intricate tale
envelopes all four characters in
a way none of them would
have guessed and pulls in the
only real innocent bystander of
the story, Marty’s other
bartender Maurice (Samm-Art
Williams). None of the
characters are in the least bit
aware of what the others are
up to; rash decisions are made
and deadly consequences are
the result.
Director Joel and producer
Ethan, who together wrote the
screenplay, have captured the
classic.elements of American
film noir effectively in a
modern setting. The
claustrophobic settings, high-,
contrast lighting, striking
visual motifs and exciting
camerawork are all here, but
they are in the faithful service
of Joel's brutal, black-humored
vision.
Yes, this is richly funny in a
grisly way. The attention given
to detail pays off in marvelous
touches — a set of freshly
caught fish slowly rot on a
desk top over the few days the
film covers, a motif of ceiling
fans leads to some very clever
transitions and in. the finale a
series of bullet holes through
an apartment wall creates one
of the most strangely beautiful
images of the film as tiny
beams of light split the
darkness of another room.
You're not going to find a
more intense, inventive 96
minutes for your money than
“Blood Simple.” The Coen
brothers have treated us to the
best original film noir in years,
and once and for all have pro
ven that bigger is not always
better, especially if it refers to
film budgets.
Sean Axmaker
in jaetiori
i
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