December 20,1992
Even in the wide open plains of Texas, film noire can still exist. The filmmaking team of the brothers Joel and Ethan Coen postulate the notion that Texas can be the perfect setting for film noire. In
Blood Simple, there is no need for the claustrophobic feel of a big city to enhance the bleak aspect towards life in film noire; it can easily be done in the great vastness of the plains of Texas. The Coen brothers are able to serve up a unique thriller with offbeat humor and still stay true to some aspects of film noire. They don’t just follow the genre’s conventions, but direct the film in a style all their own that they elevate film noire to an exciting level. In every way imaginable Blood Simple is typical of a film in the genre, but there are times in the film in which the Coen brothers break the mode of film noire which makes for a very original film. Their debut in Blood Simple will lead the Coen brothers to be a strong creative force in cinema.
Blood Simple opens, as most film noire movies do, with a character doing a voice over narration. Later, you’ll recognize the voice as being that of the private detective, Visser (M. Emmet Walsh). With the Texan drawl and a heaping dose of sarcasm in his voice, the brooding, pessimistic attitude of film noire comes through within the first few minutes of the film. Visser’s narration consists of one idea: nothing is fair in the world, especially in Texas. In fact one of Visser’s lines is, “One thing I know about is Texas, and down here you’re on your own.” The narration has a very pessimistic outlook and sets the tone for the rest of the film. Texas too can have the brooding, dark atmosphere that is the trademark feel of the big city in film noire. Even though the narration does not continue past its first use, the pessimistic attitude, which the narration was filled with, remains the major theme for the rest of the film. Incidentally, to show how deeply dark this film is, the character doing the narration will be dead by the end of the film.
Another film noire convention that the film utilizes is the character of the leading female role as being that of a “black widow.” They are femme fatales that cause the downfall of the men in the film. Abbey (Frances McDormand) destroys all the male characters who come to know her. First, it’s her husband, Marty (Dan Hedaya), who suffers. Marty must put up with the ungrateful wife that Abbey is. He also has to put up with her many extra-marital affairs. In defense of her though, Marty is not a loving husband; he drove her out of the marriage. The second man to fall because of Abbey is Ray (John Getz). Their affair together seems to be a promising one, but he can never fully trust her. His lack of trust leads Ray to suspect that he is close to being shown the door and ousted for another man. The mistrust Ray has is an obstacle for their love. In the end, Ray is murdered and cannot get the chance to express his love for her which is ultimately sad and an example of the pessimism in the film. The last man to die in the end is Visser. He literally dies at her hands. All the males seemed to have been chasing after Abbey, and in the end died because of her.
Abbey is a black widow in all meanings of the words. She looses her husband, and Ray who tried to court her is dead. But in film noire conventions, the woman has an active role in causing the downfall of the males. What the entire film is about is Abbey and her extra-marital affair with Ray. She starts the chain of events that led to the murder of her husband and lover and the killing of Visser. She doesn’t know it, but she is the driving force behind the violence and tension of the film.
As film noire suggests by its very name, things are dark both thematically and visually. The bleak outlook on life is reflected in the sparse usage of light. Many of the scenes in Blood Simple occur during the night. By having things happen at night, the director can control the lighting scheme. Joel Coen and his cinematographer, Barry Sonnenfeld, return to the classical noire style in many of these night scenes. The classical style is very expressive with the use of light. Everything seems to happen beneath low key lighting. The use of expressive lighting usually happens in the interiors of cars. In the first scene after the introductory narration, Ray and Abbey are in a car driving down a mysterious stretch of road; they are lit in a low key lighting scheme. Their faces are practically in the dark and are illuminated by the instrumentation on the dashboard. Partial showing of people’s faces in film noire makes for the character to be more mysterious.
Low key lighting also utilizes pools of light to separate the important aspects on the screen. The final scenes of Blood Simple also have the expressive lighting that is found in classical film noire. They take place at Abbey’s apartment which has huge, undraped windows suitable for expressive lighting. When it’s dark in her apartment, menacing shadows are cast throughout the room. The final scene in which Abbey is stalked by Visser contains many examples of low key lighting, pools of light, and menacing shadows. During the scene, she hides among the shadows, and most of the time the only part of her figure which can be seen is part of her face. It is the way light and shadows are used that gives film noire that dark, brooding atmosphere. Another fitting example of expressive lighting within the climactic scenes is when Visser fires blindly at Abbey through the thin walls of the apartment. His shots go through the wall, and they leave behind holes in the wall from which light streams through into the dark. Again, this scene reflects the pessimistic attitude, because it happens at night when the world is more menacing and dangerous.
The darkness within the frame also pervades the theme of the movie. Blood Simple is very bleak, and it does not have a happy outlook towards life. Besides opening with a cynical narration, there are many points in the film that exude the bleak attitude common to all film noire movies. One such example is the unhappy ending to Abbey’s affair. Most everybody is dead, and her lover, as well as husband are on the casualty list. Marty, Ray, and Visser, the male characters, die after they have become involved with Abbey. Love doesn’t conquer all but gets shot through the heart by a high powered rifle. Another cynical example is the foreshadowing of death. To imagine oneself riddled with bullets is very morbid and pessimistic. Ray gets a glimpse of his fate when he finds a picture of himself murdered. What can be more bleak than having the knowledge that your fate is that of being murdered in the prime of your life? Even what people say is tinged with a pessimistic view of life. Marty at one point comments on his messed up life. He says, “I’m staying right here in hell.” His life is a living hell without Abbey, and although he doesn’t know it, but it is also a hell with her. Abbey, as a destructive force in the lives of her men, is also very pessimistic. The black widow theme surrounding her character plays on the darker side of male-female relations. Finally, the most fatalistic image from the picture is the closing shot. It is from the point of view of the dying Visser as he looks up at the bottom of a bathroom sink and watches as a drop of water is on the verge of falling on his head. The director seems to be stating that life is like the underside of a dirty sink; it’s all mildew and scum. The bathroom sink metaphor sums up the entire feeling of a downbeat life and cynical world which hangs over the heads of the characters of the film.
One convention of film noire which Blood Simple does not seem to address is the suffocating atmosphere of the city. It doesn’t exist in the film, because there is no city; it’s just the vast expanse of Texas used as the backdrop to the suspence. But still, the Coens are able to get across that Texas can be as oppressive a place as a big city through their choices of interiors. The Coens don’t need a huge city to overwhelm the characters and make them appear insignificant, because they supply their own oppressive areas. Enclosures exist throughout the film from the confines of the interior of a car to the claustrophobic effect of being buried alive. Nothing symbolizes the confinement of the characters in their own private hell than Marty’s premature burial. The Coens also use effective lighting to enhance the dark feel of the film. Darkness and shadow pervades most of the film and it can symbolize how confining life is. The Coens without an urban setting can still convey enclosures by subtle means which are hard to get at a first glance.
Being in a genre which has been a cliché for some time could lead you to suspect that Blood Simple is a predictable film. But when the Coen brothers decide to do film noire, they do it in style. They are extremely original in their approach to filmmaking, as well as to storytelling. The many twists of the plot and the double-crosses will leave you engrossed in the film. As an example of film noire, Blood Simple does a fine job in following many of the conventions of the older, more classic noire films, and it forges a different route compared with those classic films. In some sense Blood Simple fits the noire genre by not being a perfect example of the film noire style, because the genre’s films are varied, and it’s hard to pick one which best exemplifies the genre. With Joel and Ethan Coen at the helm though, film noire won’t be as easy to attach a cliched epitaph to.
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