Arrow Video
Blu-ray Release: November 19th, 2024
Video: 1.85:1/2160p/Color
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Run Time: 121:23
Director: Sam Raimi
Hank (Bill Paxton) lives a quiet life in rural Minnesota with his wife, Sarah (Bridget Fonda). They don't have much -- he works in a feed store, she works in a library -- but they're happy together, and expecting their first child. One day, while spending time with his layabout brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton) and his even worse friend, Lou (Brent Briscoe), the three accidentally stumble upon an airplane hidden under the snow in the middle of the forest. Inside, they discover $4.4 million in cash. After some arguing, they agree that Hank will hold onto the money until the plane is discovered in the springtime, and if the cash isn't mentioned, they'll split it and go their separate ways. However, the allure of the dough quickly proves to be too much, and all three men start to unravel.
Upon its release back in 1998, the common comparison for Sam Raimi's A Simple Plan was Joel and Ethan Coen's Academy Award-winning Fargo. The connection makes sense: Raimi and the Coens had history, with Joel working on Raimi's debut feature The Evil Dead as an assistant editor, and Raimi helping the brothers with a fake trailer to raise the money for their own debut feature, Blood Simple. They reunited on the wayward Crimewave, Raimi's sophomore feature, and then collaborated again on the underrated Coen masterpiece The Hudsucker Proxy. Hell, Raimi's old buddy Bruce Campbell even has a "cameo" in Fargo via his appearance in an obscure soap, glimpsed on TV in the cabin where Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare's kidnappers-for-hire hide out.
Revisiting A Simple Plan for the first time in many years, via Arrow's new 4K UHD (the first HD disc release for the movie in the United States), it strikes me that while the milieu is similar (snowy Minnesotan farmland) and both involve a bag full of money, the most interesting way in which Plan relates to Fargo is the way Plan inverts the tension of the Coens' movie. While I assume it's just a coincidence -- I doubt Raimi set out to find his own Fargo -- the traditional ticking clock would involve a man, presumably Hank, denying his own complicity and struggling to keep that facade alive as his guilt becomes more apparent, much like the Coens' Jerry Lundegaard. While there's a little of that, the real ticking clock of Plan is Jacob, a man who becomes increasingly desperate to acknowledge and atone for the wrong he's done, especially as that wrong starts to chip away at everything in his life he cares about.
Throughout the film, there are plenty of subversions. In addition to agreeing that Hank should be the one to hold onto the money, they also agree not to tell anyone else about their find, a promise that all three of them break immediately: Lou convinces Jacob, in an ill-advised move, to tell local cop Carl Jenkins (Chelcie Ross) that they heard a plane while they were in the woods, while Hank goes home and immediately shows the money to Sarah. Once again, there is an expectation, perhaps, that Lou and Jacob, as men struggling for employment and with little ambition beyond drinking beer and telling dirty jokes, will be the ones to cause problems, but in reality, the prospect of the money corrupts Sarah quicker than any of them, and her attempts to think ahead in order to ensure that they can keep the cash quickly contribute to the plan spiraling out of control. The men wonder if anyone will come looking for the money; when an FBI agent (Gary Cole) appears, it quickly becomes clear that the threat he represents is different than it seems.
Still, the heart of the film is Jacob, who is incredibly sad, almost as sad as the aforementioned Jerry Lundegaard (one of cinema's greatest and most agonizing losers), but in a completely different way. Again, we are accustomed to people who find bags of money acting rashly in the name of greed and paying the price, and yet when Jacob reveals what he wants to do with the money (and more importantly, the tragic cost involved that Hank was unaware of), it makes Jacob more sympathetic, and that sympathy only deepens as the movie continues and it becomes clear that Jacob barely even conceptualizes the money itself -- it's just means to a hypothetical end. The film even recontextualizes Lou: although he's unpleasant and miserable, the money seems like it would solve the kinds of problems that Hank, with his education and money, has never had to worry about. It's true that Lou might, if given his share, waste a large part of the money, but his immediate need for it is more than just stock selfishness. Through each new revelation, Raimi and screenwriter Scott B. Smith (who adapted his own novel, which was originally devised a screenplay) ratchet up the movie's neo-noir tension, with our sympathy and understanding of each character evolving as they make their way toward a brutal but inevitable conclusion. It's true that Fargo is a better movie, and A Simple Plan is more effective as a character piece than a morality tale (some of the characters' actions can feel driven more by the story as opposed to totally organic), but the film is a worthy counterpart, offering a different approach to pressure and desperation that dips into the same well of painful, desperate human nature.
Video
As previously mentioned, A Simple Plan is one of those titles that never made the jump from DVD to Blu-ray in the United States before now (although there were Japanese and German releases). Thankfully, this new 4K transfer should leave fans of the movie feeling that it was worth the wait. Although the Paramount logo looked a little more orange than I was expecting, I saw no wayward color reproduction in the feature itself, with its crisp white snow and beautifully-rendered skin tones. Aside from a handful of wider shots that are softer than expected, fine detail is absolutely exceptional, especially in medium and close-up shots, which capture every wrinkle and hair on the cast's heads. Grain is very fine and often close to invisible, but there is no sense that the picture has been scrubbed; it always looks richly filmic. A reference-quality video presentation.
Audio
The film's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track sounds excellent as well. A Simple Plan is not the most aurally exciting movie, with little going on most of the time aside from very sporadic gunshots, dialogue, music, and the occasional bit of crow action, but it all sounds very nice. A 2.0 track is also included; comparisons between the two show that the 5.1 does a better job of capturing the Minnesotan ambience -- the surround track feels more expansive and open, widening the environment. English captions for the deaf and hard of hearing are also included.
Extras
Not only is this the first American HD disc release of A Simple Plan, it's also the first one with anything in the way of bonus features. Arrow has given this a nice spread of extras, although it's worth noting in advance that none of the "headline" players provide any new interviews or participation: no Raimi, no Scott B. Smith (both the author of the book and the screenwriter), no Thornton, no Fonda, and of course, Bill Paxton is sadly no longer with us. Instead, Raimi and his three leads are present in the form of archival interviews.
Audio commentary by film critics Glenn Kenny and Farran Smith Nehme - The two critics take a casual approach, making their way through a discussion that consists of a mixture of memory and observation and some prepared notes (listen for the shuffling of paper), discussing the careers of the key players in front of and behind the camera. Can't help but also note that Kenny seems to step on Nehme's train of thought a couple of times, although she seems to take it in stride.
Audio commentary by production designer Patrizia von Brandenstein, with filmmaker Justin Beahm - Beahm serves as the pleasant host for this trip down memory lane with von Brandenstein, who shares her memory of working in the snowy milieu of A Simple Plan, as well as her recollections of the cast and crew. Naturally, she has more to say about the aspect of the film she was responsible for than other stories about the production, and there are pauses during the track, but it's decently informative -- there's great stories about birds that steal sandwiches, shooting in studios built for Prince, Raimi's working methods (including touching on her experience with him on The Quick and the Dead) as well as von Brandenstein's thoughts on the film's themes and the characters. Note that von Brandenstein sounds like she's also recorded via some sort of digital call or remotely, and there is a bit of hiss/crackle/distortion to her voice.
"Of Ice and Men" Interview with cinematographer Alar Kivilo (8:18) - The Canadian cinematographer recalls escaping the chilly climate of Canada only to end up working on A Simple Plan in an especially cold Minnesota. He touches on his first meeting with Sam, his impression of some location photos provided to him (which ties into the film's neo-noir tone), working in the snow (resets are challenging) and cold (keep two different sets of lenses around for the different temperatures!), action sequences (flashbulbs!), an especially neat transition, and his overall impressions of the finished picture.
"Standing Her Ground" Interview with actor Becky Ann Baker (6:23) - The enthusiastic character actor (who many will recognize from "Freaks and Geeks") cheerfully remembers being hired for the John Boorman version of the film and then learning sometime later that the film was back on and that Raimi was directing. She has very warm memories of Raimi (both when he was unhappy with a take and being receptive to ideas, as well as his sense of humor) as well as the late Brent Briscoe and Bill Paxton, and of course, her character's memorable final scene in the film.
"Dead of Winter" Interview with actor Chelcie Ross (10:45) - The veteran character actor, who viewers will no doubt remember from any number of movies (including Raimi's own The Gift and Drag Me to Hell), speaks of his process developing a backstory for the character and his impressions of him, wearing a uniform, his love for Sam Raimi and Raimi's respect for the entire cast and crew, shooting in winter, an embarrassing first day, Bill Paxton's resilience to the cold, his familiarity with Thornton, Briscoe, and Gary Cole, the snow logistics of his own character's last scene in the film, and his thoughts on the finished movie.
Archival Interviews with Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Bridget Fonda, Sam Raimi and producer Jim Jacks (3:47, 3:59, 2:22, 6:02, 1:05) - Although these vintage clips are short and done for an electronic press kit (meaning every participant has to recap the plot), there's some decent discussion here. My only complaint is that there's no "Play All" option -- you have to click through each subject one by one.
Behind-the-Scenes Footage (6:47) - Candid footage from the set.
Original Theatrical Trailer (2:23)
As of this writing, this disc is only available as a Limited Edition package, albeit one of Arrow's smaller styles. Retail editions will come with a slipcover featuring the new artwork by Matt Griffin, a fold-out movie poster that appears to have the theatrical art on one side, and possibly Griffin's art on the reverse, and a booklet inside the case with new writing by critic Bilge Ebiri, and an excerpt from John Kenneth Muir's book The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi. (No packaging was included with Genre Grinder's review copy.)
Conclusion
Fans of Sam Raimi's neo-noir A Simple Plan have been waiting years for the film to get an upgrade from DVD. While it's disappointing that the major players are either no longer with us or did not choose to contribute new extras to this edition, this is nonetheless a great disc, buoyed by a reference-quality presentation of the film, which retains its power to hit the viewer in the gut as it twists and turns through its brutal and bloody story. Highly recommended.
The images on this page are taken from the German Blu-ray (Arrow did not send a review copy of their Blu-ray edition) and sized for the page, and do not represent the disc being reviewed.
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