These days the Coen Brothers can make pretty much any movie that they desire, but 32 years ago, people weren’t exactly lining up to be a part of any movie by Joel and Ethan Coen. In order to secure funding for their debut feature, Blood Simple, the sibling filmmakers crafted a trailer for their proposed movie to show to investors. Of course, sound-minded investors got a glimpse of the Coen Brothers’ talents and backed Blood Simple, which sparked a love affair between cinephiles and the filmmaking duo from Minneapolis.
32 years later and Blood Simple is the latest film to undergo an extensive restoration from the good folks over at Janus Films. Before the Texas noir of Blood Simple is unveiled in a deluxe new Blu-ray for the Criterion Collection, this new 4K restoration of Blood Simple will be hitting theaters across the country. In conjunction with the restoration, Janus Films has just made available the trailer that the Coens crafted for investors, and it’s an interesting artifact from some of the most important filmmakers of the modern era.
The investor trailer shows the origins of the film’s most iconic shot: the bullets piercing the walls of a darkened room with the light pouring through. But there are other little tidbits of fascinating aspects to the seldom seen trailer. First of all, Bruce Campbell, Ash himself, makes an appearance as Julian Marty, who would be played by Dan Hedaya in the finished film. Continuing the Evil Dead connections, the camera swoops around in a manner that is very similar to that within Sam Raimi‘s legendary horror film, which Joel Coen was an assistant editor on and would spark a long friendship between Raimi and the Coens.
Blood Simple is one of the most stunning debut features of the past 40 years, and it’s truly great that this sometimes overlooked entry into the Coens canon is going to be restored and revitalized for new viewers to discover the deadly game of duplicity and deception. If you’ve never had a chance to see the dusty noir of Blood Simple and the menacing private eye played by M. Emmett Walsh, be sure to see if the new restoration of Blood Simple is coming to a theater near you.
Dates for the 4K restoration of Blood Simple:
7/1 – New York / IFC Center
Alamo New Mission / San Francisco, CA
7/8 – Music Box Theatre / Chicago, IL
Railroad Sq / Waterville, ME
7/20 – Senator Theatre, BalFmore, MD
7/22 – Pacific Cinematheque, Vancouver, BC
7/29 – NuArt/ Los Angeles, CA
Oklahoma Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK
8/5 – Cleveland Cinematheque, Cleveland, OH
8/12 – SIFF/Uptown, SeaRle WA
