The Top 100 Project

The blood-soaked Blood Simple represents the debuts of not only auteurs Joel & Ethan Coen, but also their star (and Joel's future wife) Frances McDormand. They don't seem to agree though with the widely-shared view that their first film was an expertly-plotted noir. It's one of their best movies, in fact. When the Coen Brothers go down to Texas to shoot a nihilistic movie about death and contract killings, classics like this and No Country For Old Men result. And considering it was an independent production without any stars, it was quite a hit. The brilliant highlight sequence is John Getz covering up what he thinks is the murder of Dan Hedaya, the man he's cuckolded. So enjoy episode #2 in Revenge Month and our 657th episode overall as we, yes ARE having a good time in our yellow suit and hat while we review Blood Simple. Well, Actually: the Sundance film festival (the "Utah/US Film Festival" as it was known at first) got its start in 1978, while the Toronto International Film Festival got its start in