Film Breakdowns - Blood Simple (1984)

Film Breakdowns - Blood Simple (1984)

To become the best, we have to learn from the best.

Blood Simple is an amazing film by the Coen brothers about a man, his girlfriend, her disgruntled ex lover and a contract hit man in their deadly dance of death that leads to burying a body killed by someone else. Fantastic visuals and great storytelling.

Let's begin breaking down my favourite frames from the film that encapsulate what I feel are some of the pivotal points of importance in the story.

Let's get started!

 The opening shot of this movie is a conversation conducted behind two people, we don't even see their faces. The windshield is being pelted with rain and it's dark and moody. A storm is coming is what that tells me. These people, why don't we see them? Why shoot them from behind? Because we don't need to. Why? I haven't figured that out yet myself.

As the man comes in the house we get two circuital pieces of information. First, he strokes the dog meaning he's a kind man at heart with a fondness for comfort and companionship. Secondly, he asks if the dog bites, meaning it is not his house and he hasn't been there before. He is a kind man and in a house he perhaps shouldn't be in.

As she sleeps, the shadows quite literally eat her alive, leaving her half in shadow and half in light. It is a representation of her state of mind at this point. She feels threatened and alone and more importantly, she feels fear. The biggest thing on her mind is fear, as the shadows of her mind begin to take over. She is in equilibrium and must fight for herself.

 

Our contract hitman/theif (whatever he's asked to do) is shown here with a blue key on his face. It is dark and moody, showing us he is not a nice man nor someone you want to have around you. The blue to me suggests being cold. A cold blooded man with no concious and no sense of morality past getting paid. He even enjoys himself by the looks of things.

After the jealous ex lover is killed by the man he hired to kill her, he is left here in his place of death. He is alone, a small man with nothing left. He lost it all and in his bitter resentment, he even lost his life. This is a man who has fell prey to the darker side of human nature and has paid the ultimate price of dying sad and alone.

 In this magnificent room, we have a natural divide in the middle made by the chimney on the furnace/heater (whatever it is). The two people being on opposite sides of the divide who us they are different to each other. He buried and ultimately killed her ex lover but thinks she shot him which she didn't. Their secrets are incompatible. They cannot be together.

When the man is shot, the cross-hairs on the sniper scope aim at the woman. In good films, everything has multiple meanings. Nothing is ever just in general. These cross-hairs are a symbol of the hit man's wrath. He is coming for her, whether he hits her or not, she is now his target. She must overcome her final ordeal.

After outwitting the killer and sticking a knife into his hand, pinning him to the window ledge, he shoots through the wall. This is his last attempt (or so it seems) at his own sense of freedom. The villain has one last move in his bag of tricks and the hero has to die and be reborn to grasp the elixer and finish the story having gained something valuable.

Blood Simple is a marvel of a film and stands to show that all you need to make an incredible movie is a good script, lights, a camera, sound, good actors and the props and locations to pull it off. No visual effects, no 3D, nothing but good film making.