10 Things You Didn't Know About Blood Simple
2. The Director’s Cut Was Actually Shorter Than The Original Version
Very unusual for such an exercise, when the brothers released a director’s cut in 2001 (17 years after its release), it ended up actually shorter than the theatrical version.
The brothers cut out 3 minutes of footage, and this included shortening some shots, removing shorts altogether, and just overall, having a tighter grasp of the editing. They also replaced the film’s signature song, The Four Tops’ “It’s the Same Old Song” with Neil Diamond’s “I’m a Believer”.
The Coens did this because they are not actually fans of the finished project. They called it rather “crude” and “pretty damn bad”, and believed a re-approach to its editing would improve it massively.