1998 in Review: "A Simple Plan"
As the end of our little 1998 project draws near, I notice one genre that has been mostly absent: the crime film. There was a great resurgence in crime films in the ‘90s, largely brought on by Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers, whose pulpy masterworks earned their spots in the canon and inspired a slew of half-baked imitations. But Tarantino didn’t make a film in 1998, and The Big Lebowski, the Coens’ contribution to our project, feels more like a stoner comedy than a crime movie. The only true crime film we’ve covered has been Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight, but even that is remembered more for its movie star romance than its criminal element.
We do have A Simple Plan from director Sam Raimi. He’s no one’s idea of a crime director. Raimi is known more for his horror films (Evil Dead 2, Drag Me To Hell) and his stellar superhero work (the original Spider-Man trilogy). The less said about his baseball movie (For Love of the Game), the better. But he also is a good friend and collaborator of the Coens; in fact, he worked on their debut film Blood Simple and their 1994 comedy The Hudsucker Proxy. The filmmakers share a cartoonish sensibility that never sacrifices visual storytelling. It’s easy to see how his association with them might have helped get A Simple Plan made. Much like 1996’s Fargo, the Coens’ breakout hit, A Simple Plan is a crime thriller set in rural Minnesota in the dead of winter. There are blankets of white snow, all ready to be stained with blood.
ncG1vNJzZmimn5a1qLXTrZylpF6owqO%2F05qapGaTpLpwvI5qcHJwXZ67br7Er6Cer12WerS1zKmjnmWgoa6v