The Coen Bros Debut Early 'Blood Simple' Trailer Starring Bruce Campbell
Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1984 debut Blood Simple is — at least according to one Yahoo Movies writer — their crowning achievement. A pitch-perfect neo-noir starring Dan Hedaya and Frances McDormand, it charts the disastrous consequences of one man’s plot to have his wife murdered. Now, on the eve of its re-release, the directing siblings are showing off the demo reel that helped them get their movie made in the first place. Watch it above.
Blood Simple will return to theaters this Friday in New York and San Francisco (and on July 29 in L.A.) courtesy of Janus Films and the Criterion Collection, the latter of which has produced a new 4K restoration of the genre classic for its forthcoming Blu-ray release this September. In celebration of this encore engagement, Janus is giving fans a sneak peek at the “investor trailer” the Coens created in order to drum up financial support for their very first movie. And as the clip above indicates, they did so with the help of none other than Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell, who here plays the Dan Hedaya part, and who came to be involved thanks to the Coens’ friendship with Evil Dead (and future Spider-Man) director Sam Raimi.
As Vanity Fair reports, Joel discusses the origins for this trailer in a new interview included on the Criterion Collection disc, stating:
“Sam taught us that if you call on the phone and ask people to invest in a movie they’ll tell you to go hell. But if you tell them ‘I have a piece of film to show you,’ then some of the would let you come into their living room and set up your little projector and show it to them.”
While it’s not currently listed as one of the disc’s supplementary features, this investor trailer does suitably set up not only the film’s basic narrative premise — which we described as “a blistering saga of Texas deception, vengeance, greed, and amorality” — but also its grim atmosphere and black humor. You can check out the Coens’ inaugural tease for Blood Simple above, and catch it in theaters beginning this Friday, ahead of its Sept. 20 Criterion Blu-ray premiere.
Watch a scene from the actual movie below:
