Blood Simple (Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, 1984)

When you are as enthusiastic and knowledgeable about film as the Coen Brothers, your first feature film has to set your stall out in terms of what your main issues are in relation to society, film, cinematography and indeed your own personality(-ies). Ethan & Joel Coen's love of 1940s film noir shines brightly in what is essentially a cold-hearted revenge movie where the audience is given the power of all knowledge over the main characters in the piece and takes pleasure in seeing the protagonists on screen struggle to come to terms with the increasing madness happening all around them. Texas bar owner Dan Hedaya taps up gun-for-hire M. Emmet Walsh to take care of his estranged wife Frances McDormand and her handsome lover John Getz. The subtle ways through which this simple premise becomes anything but is one of Blood Simple's guilty pleasures. The direction is eerie, darkly lit for the most part and expansive when required. One of the most atmospheric films in recent times, there are periods where words are not required as the narrative moves along with just picture motion. As we have seen with subsequent characters in Coen crime thrillers, nearly everyone is hard to like but each individual viewer will still pick out one person who they would like to see win through in the end. Splashed with healthy doses of misdirection, deception, double-crossing and cheating, Blood Simple is the foundation upon which the Coens built their legacy and much of what they say here is still very relevant. The evil that men/women do when protecting their money or pursuing affairs of the heart can never be underestimated. M. Emmet Walsh's hired gun shares displays many of the callous characteristics which the Coens love to see in their bad guys.