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Blood Simple

Blood Simple
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJoel Coen
Written byJoel Coen
Ethan Coen
Produced byEthan Coen
Starring
CinematographyBarry Sonnenfeld
Edited by
Music byCarter Burwell
Production
companies
  • River Road Productions
  • Foxton Entertainment
Distributed byCircle Films
Release date
Running time
96 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.5 million[2]
Box office$2.7 million[2][3]

Blood Simple is a 1984 American independent neo-noir crime film written, edited, produced and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and starring John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya and M. Emmet Walsh. Its plot follows a Texas bartender who is having an affair with his boss’s wife. When his boss discovers the affair, he hires a private investigator to kill the couple. It was the directorial debut of the Coens and the first major film of cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, who later became a director, as well as the feature-film debut of McDormand.

The film's title is derived from Dashiell Hammett's novel Red Harvest (1929), in which the Continental Op muses: “This damned burg's getting me. If I don't get away soon I'll be going blood-simple like the natives.”[4][5] Stylistically, the film has been noted for its blending elements of neo-noir, pulp crime stories and low-budget horror films.[6] In 2001, a director's cut was released, the same year that it was ranked No. 98 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills.


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  1. ^ a b "Blood Simple". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Blood Simple (1985) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on 2022-04-10. Retrieved 2022-04-10.
  3. ^ "Blood Simple (1985)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  4. ^ George Orr (September 8, 2014). "30 Years of Coens: Blood Simple". The Atlantic.
  5. ^ Falsani, Cathleen. (2009). The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. p. 31.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference criterion was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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