It’s more than a little surprising to learn that, of all the Coen brothers’ 18 features,is their second-highest rated movie on the Tomatometer. Critically bested only byTrue Grit(96%), the debut from writing-directing-producing-editing juggernautsandis Certified Fresh at 94%, beating Best Picture winnerNo Country for Old Men(93%) and titles that are more synonymous with their tough-to-pin-down, oddball sensibility, whether it’s cult faveThe Big Lebowski(82%), dark suburban meditationA Serious Man(90%), high-octane quotable comedyRaising Arizona(91%), or the decidedly un-mainstream thriller that?somehow still managed to?become?mainstream,?Fargo(93%). This is by no means a dig atBlood Simple. It’s just that the taut neo-noir likely isn’t the first title brought up when you’re told “I love the Coen brothers” at a party.Blood SimpleJoelEthan Coen

Shot in 1982,Blood Simpleweaves a worst-case-scenario about illicit lovers played by?and?hiding in plain sight from McDormand’s pugnacious bar-owner husband (), while a shady and chatty PI under Hedaya’s employ () plays the angles. In typical Coen brothers fashion, the plot twists and turns, and things fall apart, and it’s all laid out with a measured, confident visual style that’s clever but never too showy. To mark its 35th anniversary, let’s take a look at how?Blood Simpleoffered?us glimpses of the greatness to come from Hollywood’s most original filmmaking duo.John GetzFrances McDormandDan HedayaM. Emmet Walsh

Nobody writes like these guys, and that was pretty clear from the get-go. WhileBlood Simple’s script has the earmarks of a classic noir — the title nods to detective novelist extraordinaire Dashiell Hammet’sRed Harvest— the Coens screw with the form, tossing in their own brand of verbal playfulness, like the now-classic Coen-ism of different characters repeating phrases. Take the opening exchange between Getz and McDormand, with Getz repeating he “ain’t no marriage counselor.” It’s echoed later, during an icy moment when Hedaya asks Getz, “What are you, a f–kin’ marriage counselor?” The Coens would go on to use the move a bunch in their follow-up,Raising Arizona(“He’s a little outlaw”),Fargo(“Twin Cities”), and perhaps, most famously,The Big Lebowski, another PI movie of sorts (“This aggression will not stand”). Their inclinations to have fun with verbal ticks and regional American accents and, in the case of M. Emmet Walsh, embarrassing bursts of? laughter, is on display inBlood Simple, too, as is a now-familiar way for them to open a film: with a grizzled narrator speaking quasi-philosophically. That’s just how they would later kick offNo Country for Old Men(also over shots of barren Texas landscapes),The Big Lebowski, andThe Man Who Wasn’t There.

Frances McDormand, who went on to marry Joel Coen, made her onscreen debut inBlood Simpleand has since left an indelible mark on the Coen universe in —?deep breath —Raising Arizona,Miller’s Crossing,Barton Fink,The Hudsucker Proxy,Fargo(for which she earned a Best Actress Oscar),The Man Who Wasn’t There,Burn After Reading, andHail, Caesar!. In an interview about her first role, McDormand explains that her pal Holly Hunter was offered the part, but turned it down to act on Broadway. (As The Atlantic’s Christopher Orr points out in his deep dive into the Coens’ filmography, Hunter, who would go on to co-star in?Raising Arizona, doessort of?appear in the film, though it’s via an answering machine message.) M. Emmet Walsh, too, returns in said sophomore effort as a cackling co-worker.Blood Simplealso marks the first in a long line of collaborations — 16 to date — with the composer Carter Burwell, as well as cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, who acted as DP onRaising ArizonaandMiller’s Crossingbefore becoming a sought-after director in his own right withGet ShortyandMen in Black. Both, like the Coens, were in their 20s during the filming ofBlood Simple. Fun fact: Editor Roderick Jaynes — anom de plumefor the Coens — also makes his debut here. Way to go, Roderick.

Not unlike Wes Anderson or Paul Thomas Anderson’s debuts a decade later (Bottle RocketandHard Eight, respectively),Blood Simple?features some Coen brothers hallmarks, though it’s hardly the film you’d single out to explain them to the uninitiated. (Interestingly, all three — sorry, four — filmmakers’ followups put them on the?pop culture map?with intoxicating aesthetics that aspiring directors would ape.) Yet those traces are there — the facial shadows, the shaky-cam that runs throughoutRaising Arizona, the driving shot on a desolate road that’s in a bunch of their features, the emanating light (from under doors, in particular) used to such thrilling effect inNo Country for Old Men. Beyond the visuals, there’s a nifty homage toBlood SimpleinFargo?— both have characters moving a body on the side of the road while a car fast approaches at night — and narratively, no one inBlood Simplehas any idea what the other is up to, a misunderstanding they’d explore often in the years to come, most heavily inBurn After Reading.

On paper, there’s nothing funny about jamming someone in a wood chipper (Fargo), shooting them?when they’ve got a dopey smile plastered on their face (Burn After Reading), or biting off their ear (The Big Lebowski). Of course there’s not. But when it suits their vision, the Coens have an uncanny knack for rendering hyper-violent moments into something absurd, even oddly humorous. At the end ofBlood Simple?— spoiler alert — McDormand stabs through Walsh’s hand, leaving it impaled on a windowsill and him trapped in an adjacent room, firing shots blindly through drywall, hoping to strike McDormand. It’s tense, but Walsh’s struggle — up until now, he’s been very much in charge — in this insane, almost slasher movie-like situation is more than a bit amusing. When his fate is set — it’s not good —Blood Simplefades to black, hitting us with the film’s soundtrack mantra, the upbeat soul classic? “It’s the Same Old Song” by the Four Tops, a delicious juxtaposition.

The Coens spent a year trying to secure the $1.5-mil they needed to makeBlood Simple, showing potential investors a homemade trailer to pique financial interests. While on set in Austin, apparently not everyone was convinced this peculiar, low-budget project by?two young first-timers was aboveboard: M. Emmet Walsh says he wouldn’t take their $700 check, presumably fearing it’d bounce, and demanded cash instead. While the Coens’ stock has skyrocketed in the decades since (they are now among the few who can work with anyone they want and make virtually any movie they want), the peculiarity that critics loved aboutBlood Simplehasn’t waned. To this day, there’s an outsider, even defiant originality that runs throughout their films, and we’d be completely shocked if that ever changes.

?was released on January 18, 1995.Blood Simple

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