The Coen brothers hand crafted neo noir is now considered a classic in the sub-genre. At the time of it's making, the film's future was far from clear. After personally raising around $750,000 from many, many small "investors" (some of which they got by going door to door with the trailer that featured Bruce Campbell in the role of "Marty"), the film's production started. Upon completion, the film was shown to every major studio in Hollywood and they all passed on it. The Coen's then managed to get the film into the New York Film Festival and it was then accepted into the Toronto Film Festival, and like that Danny Boyle flick years later, it was picked it for distribution from the festival. The rest, as has been said so many times before, is history.
This was also the first major film for cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, and the beginning of a relationship that would last a decade with the Coen's. Carter Burwell their film composer started on this project with them as well; he is still with them.
The plot is relatively simple, as all good neo noirs are; a jealous husband with a rather twisted mind hires a pretty unsavory private detective to first track down his cheating wife, and then pays him to kill them. The detective then shows the husband a doctored photograph of the couple supposedly dead from gun shot wounds in bed together--only problem is that they are very much alive. Things get weird from there on.
Specs:
Runtime: 99 min.
Release Date: 18 Jan. 1985 (theater distribution date)
Language: English
Color
Original Sound Mix: Ultra Stereo
Filming Location: Texas
Best Tagline: Dead in the heart of Texas
Trivia:
The director's cut released in 2000 is actually 3 minutes shorter than the original 1984 film.
It was Sam Raimi's idea for the Coen's to go door to door seeking investments with the "trailer" they had put together with actor Bruce Campbell.
The Coen brothers are known for writing roles for specific actors, and despite that they had never produced on major picture before, that didn't stop them for writing the part of the creepy private detective especially for M. Emmet Walsh
As a joke actor Jim Piddock provided the voice of a fictional film historian "Kenneth Loring" in the audio commentary track of the DVD, it was scripted for him by the Coen's
The title of the movie comes, appropriately enough, from a Dassell Hammett novel "Red Harvest."
In another spoof, actor George Ives portrays "Mortimer Young," the supposed head of "Forever Young Films" a fake film restoration company in the theatrical re-release in 2000.
The most famous piece of trivia from this film is that Holly Hunter was to play the role of Abby (she auditioned for it), but had to turn it down because a chance to star in a play in NYC came along, so she encouraged her roommate that the time, Frances McDormand, to audition for it. She got the part, starred in the film and then married Joel Coen.
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