By Sandy Yang
Daily Bruin Staff
In Joel and Ethan Coen’s Oscar nominated
“Fargo,” the bad guys shove dead bodies into a
wood-chipping machine.
In their 1994 film, “The Hudsucker Proxy,” CEO and
multi-millionaire, Waring Hudsucker, plunges 44 floors to his
death. The bellboy cracks, “What do you call a sidewalk when
it’s fully dressed? Waring Hudsucker!”
You wonder, “Is that funny? Is that disturbing? Should I
laugh? What should I do?”
Welcome. You are facing the typical dilemma of a Coen brothers
movie.
You’ll find such moments in all their work from Nicolas
Cage’s baby-napping movie “Raising Arizona,” to
their most recent work, “The Big Lebowski,” starring
Jeff Bridges and John Goodman.
And they’re most skillful at walking that tightrope when
they kill someone off.
It may have started with their first film, 1985’s
“Blood Simple,” a crime thriller that explores just how
many circumstances and means to murder there really are.
Starring Frances McDormand (1997 best actress Academy Award
winner for “Fargo”) and Dan Hedaya, “Blood
Simple” is being re-cut and re-released by USA Films Friday,
July 7.
The story takes place in Texas, in a world of smoky bars, dusty
roads, clunky Pontiac cars and guys who look like they stepped off
“The Dukes of Hazard.” With echoes of
“Fargo,” the plot surrounds bar owner Julian (Hedaya)
who discovers his wife Abby’s infidelity and hires a vulgar
detective (M. Emmet Walsh) to kill her (McDormand) and her lover
(John Getz).
However, everyone has ideas of their own about who should get
eliminated, who murdered who, and what the best way to kill is.
Burying someone alive and throwing corpses into an incinerator are
just a couple of the ways used in the film.
From the original version of this independent film 15 years ago,
“Blood Simple” set the tone for the Coen
brothers’ future films and introduced audiences to their
unique style.
But, the brothers cringe when they recall those early efforts.
So, when faced with releasing “Blood Simple” as a DVD,
the brothers opted to restore and re-cut the film while adding
extras like a Four Tops song, which wasn’t affordable when
the film was first released.
“In craft terms, it’s kind of loose and
flabby,” said elder brother Joel in a press interview.
“With 15 years experience of cutting, we knew how to cut the
movie, like with the perspective of sleeping and looking back at
it. That’s why we cut “˜Blood Simple.'”
But some things remain the same. While their storytelling and
techniques may have evolved, their unique style was evident at the
beginning of their career.
“We were shooting the scene where Steve Buscemi was
pulling the body off the road in “˜Fargo,'” Joel
said, “and we’re looking at it and we (knew) we’d
done that before (in “˜Blood Simple’).”
“It’s the limits of imagination,” he
mused.
The critics and fans don’t seem to think so. At seeing
“Fargo” in March 1996, late film critic Gene Siskel
predicted he wouldn’t see a better movie that year. He was
right. Both Siskel and his then-partner Roger Ebert gave their
coveted No. 1 movie of the year spot to “Fargo.”
Fans have also shown fascination with the Coens’ films.
According to a 1994 Premiere magazine article, a student wrote his
thesis on the Coens’ 1990 film, “Miller’s
Crossing,” and sent the the brothers a questionnaire on what
the symbols and happenings really mean.
Their fans’ interest amuses them though.
“You make these stupid movies,” Ethan said in the
article, “and then a year later you’ve got homework.
It’s really kind of alarming.”
Even at the top of their game as directors, producers and
Academy-award winning screenwriters, the Coens are still somewhat
of an anomaly in Hollywood. They are not given deadlines for their
films nor do their films usually require big budgets, except in the
case of “The Hudsucker Proxy” ($25 million).
Faced with a dozen journalists at a Hollywood hotel, the Coens
answer the questions tersely with few soundbite-friendly quotes.
But they are able to talk at length about the filmmaking process,
equipment and techniques that sound foreign to the average
moviegoer. Dressed in well-worn plaid shirts and jeans, the Coens
don’t seem to have let fame or Hollywood affect them or their
work. They’re just thankful they don’t need a second
job.
FILM: “Blood Simple” opens July 7 at selected
theaters in New York and Los Angeles.