Blood Simple uses the elements of classical noir in a modern
setting so seamlessly that we hardly even recognize it as noir. The detective, the lighting, the
camerawork, the settings, the fatalistic tone to the film are the basic
elements of noir, but the Coen brothers spin and alter these elements in a way
that has hardly ever been seen. We
have a private investigator (M. Emmet Walsh) who is no Humphrey Bogart in the
slightest; he is fat, grungy, and despicable. The woman in the film (Frances McDormand) is no Barbara
Stanwyck either; she isn't strikingly beautiful or charismatic, and she doesn't
play the role of the femme fatale, which is a perfect twist on that overused
element of noir.
The movie reflects certain situations in people's lives that make them question who they really are, experiences we all undoubtedly share. The feeling that even a good person can do bad things, that doing what we think is right can be wrong. That being in the wrong place at the wrong time can be cost us our lives. We see ourselves in the characters, as the guy who simply tries to help out a friend but through something that can only be described as fate, end up spiraling down a path of destruction and self-doubt.
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