Blood Simple

The world is full o' complainers. An' the fact is, nothin' comes with a guarantee. Now I don't care if you're the pope of Rome, President of the United States or Man of the Year; somethin' can all go wrong. Now go on ahead, y'know, complain, tell your problems to your neighbor, ask for help, 'n watch him fly. Now, in Russia, they got it mapped out so that everyone pulls for everyone else... that's the theory, anyway. But what I know about is Texas, an' down here... you're on your own.

When I watch Blood Simple (1984), I always think of a later Coen Brothers thriller, No Country For Old Men (2007), and not just because the two are set in Texas.

I catch myself wanting to put the two films on a timeline to show how the Coen Brothers' world view has changed over the years, and there are plenty of comparisons and contrasts to be made in support of that, but I see the two films differently.

If Blood Simple is how the Coens saw a country of men and women in moral decline in 1984, then is No Country For Old Men a reflection of where we are some two decades later? Maybe.

But No Country For Old Men is set in 1980. The more violent, more suspenseful, more frightening of the two films...is actually set earlier. Men and women were capable of worse than what the Coens depict in Blood Simple, which sort of feels like "No Country Lite."

I'm not saying Blood Simple is a bad film by any measure — but No Country is a more vivid depiction of our moral decay.

The Coens remind us again and again: This is the world, and this is what people are capable of doing, and though we try to convince ourselves otherwise, we are on our own.