BLOOD SIMPLE

"Out here", drawls private eye Loren (M Emmet Walsh) in his opening narration, "you're on your own". It's a cold stance on a particularly muggy place to live: the heart of deepest Texas.

Out in the sweltering desert, Abby (Frances McDormand) has dragged her husband's employee Ray (John Getz) to a motel for a night of fucking. She's making plans to rid herself of her spouse, and is busy roping Ray in to her plans - which isn't difficult to do, because "he likes her".

Loren follows them and takes the appropriate photographs, later stopping by at Abby's husband Julian's (Dan Hedaya) bar to drop said bombshells on his desk.

Ray isn't shy about turning up at the bar the following evening, assuming that he's been sacked but wanting to pick up wages he's owed in the meantime. Understandably, Julian tells him to sling his hook - and warns that he will kill him if he ever sets foot in the place again.

Festering over his slutty wife's repeated cheatings, Julian next meets up with Loren and proposes the murder of her and Ray. Being the snivelling, money-hungry weasel that he is, Loren accepts the job - at a price.

But once the deed is apparently done, Julian gets more than he bargained for when the detective returns to his bar with photos of his handiwork.

What follows is a deliciously dark odyssey of double-crosses, betrayal and corpses that won't stay dead.

Ah, the Coen brothers. They're massively over-rated in my opinion. FARGO was fun, I suppose, but by and large I find their films to be self-consciously 'clever' and smug: THE HUDSUCKER PROXY, RAISING ARIZONA, O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? etc ... all huge endurance tests for me.

BLOOD SIMPLE, however, their feature debut from 1984, remains a favourite of mine since I first saw it on Palace Video's rental VHS.

While its deliberate laconic pace may alienate some, others will immerse themselves in the film's beautifully realised, noirish atmosphere of small town dread and deceit. Characters sweat in the Texan heat while double-crossing each other and speaking only in dialogue of the most hard-boiled variety.

McDormand is the femme fatale, a seductress whose manipulative ways peg her early on as someone only a smitten fool would trust. Getz is the stoic 'man of few words', fatally led by his dick into a situation he can't hope to control. The real stars of this show though are Hedaya and Walsh. Both men create characters that are simultaneously repugnant and compelling; whenever they share the screen, their interactions are electrifying.

Stylistically, the film owes knowingly to the classic noir thrillers of the 1940s, while the grisly violence and neon-dripping night scenes mark it out clearly as a film shot in the 1980s. Though often dark, the film is also carefully colourful and - for such a low budget affair ($1.5 million) - very well lit. Barry Sonnenfeld's cinematography ensures the film is aesthetically tantalising on a constant basis.

Elsewhere, Carter Burwell's sparse score helps create an atmosphere of mounting paranoia, leading the viewer nicely into a perfectly pitched finale which takes the understated thriller manoeuvres of the film up until that point and ratchets them up several notches, events suddenly dipping into horror territory as things come to an ugly head.

In my eyes, Joel and Ethan Coen have enjoyed an extraordinarily successful career in film but have never equalled the cool, callous thrills enjoyed in BLOOD SIMPLE (the title, incidentally, is a slang term for going kill crazy). And the film remains better than the admittedly enjoyable Chinese remake A WOMAN, A GUN AND A NOODLE SHOP.

The original UK DVD release of BLOOD SIMPLE, from Universal, proffered the original theatrical version of the film. This new release from Studio Canal opts for the Director's Cut, which many forum bores have moaned is not as good. In truth, only the most anal would even notice the subtle differences: a line or two of dialogue removed here, a couple of words added or a music cue altered there. None of the differences are substantial enough to bitch about.

The film is presented uncut in its original aspect ratio, in a transfer that is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. The picture quality is very good, offering strong colours and deep blacks. Images are sharp, texture is smooth and clean. In fact, this DVD presentation isn't that far behind MGM's Region A blu-ray in terms of picture quality.

English audio is provided in choices of 2.0 and 5.1 mixes. Both are good propositions, with the former being the preferable of the two due to its natural-sounding balance. Optional English subtitles are well-written and easy to read.

The disc opens to a static main menu page. From there, a static scene-selection menu offers access to the film via 16 chapters.

In terms of extra features, it's with disappointment that I report the only bonus on offer is the film's original trailer.

BLOOD SIMPLE is a masterful thriller which manages to evoke the style of classic noir cinema while offering modern visceral thrills that, at times, verge on horror excesses. Smart but never smug, it's the Coen brothers' best film. I only wish this Director's Cut had been given the Special Edition treatment that it so richly deserves.

Review by Stuart Willis