Review of Blood Simple

Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Hudsucker Proxy, you've probably seen one or more of the Coen brothers' movies.

But this is their first big one. And the one that's most useful to us as gamers.

The plot is a very straightforward noir thriller. It opens in a tavern, with a dwarf in chainmail sitting in the corner...oh sorry, that's the D&D movie.
Slimy bar owner Dan Hedaya hires slimier private dick M. Emmet Walsh to follow Mrs. Slimy Bar Owner (a pre-Joel Coen Frances McDormand), and learns that she's slept with mostly clean cut hired hand John Getz. Then hires Slimy Private Dick to kill them.
That's it. You want more, go see the movie.

What makes it important to gamers? The execution. The director knows how to keep clues in the frame. You can see the characters failing and passing perception rolls and saving throws. You see them do stupid things, and you see them do things because they don't have enough information, unlike you, the audience. This what a good game should look like.

It's been theatrically rereleased in a director's cut that's shorter than the original 97 minutes. Available on VHS if not in a theatre near you.