10 Most Essential Coen Brothers Films

Back to basics—this neo noir from way back in 1984 was the Coen Brothers’ first big screen effort, and already many of the trademarks which will go on to make their work iconic are present in this (appropriately enough) simple but brutally effective small town thriller.

A phenomenal success with critics upon release, this chilling thrill-ride began as a trailer that the pair shot which featured a shadowy figure digging a grave for an unseen captor in his car boot, and the icy noir grew from this iconic image which adorns the film’s famous poster. Borrowing its title from a line by hard boiled author Dashiel Hammett, the film does justice to the author’s sparse, taut thrillers with its story of infidelity, distrust, and eventual bloody murder.

A clear influence on everything from Danny Boyle’s explosive debut Shallow Graves a decade later to more recent stripped back noir efforts such as 2014’s Cold In July and Blue Ruin, this vicious thrill ride plants itself in the mind of viewers and never leaves.