Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

I Watched Every Coen Brothers Movie - Here's what I learned.
Slate ^ | 08/10/2011 | David Haglund

Posted on 08/11/2011 10:50:44 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd

When I was 9 or 10, I watched Raising Arizona on VHS and thought it was one of the weirdest and funniest things I had ever seen. A frequently jailed stickup artist with surprisingly florid diction (Nicolas Cage) and his barren police officer wife (Holly Hunter) kidnap a loudmouth furniture magnate's quintuplet and run into trouble with two escaped convicts and the Lone Biker of the Apocalypse. I didn't get it, really, but I didn't care: It was hilarious and strange, with amusingly quotable dialogue ("I'll be taking these Huggies and, uh, whatever cash ya got") and hummable music (the "Ode to Joy" on a banjo, yodeling) throughout. During my high-school years, I caught up with the rest of the Coens' output and considered myself a fan; their best movie to that point, Fargo, came out just before I graduated and was the first I saw in a theater. I still remember a somewhat pretentious friend explaining before our behavioral science class that Fargo's opening, with a car driving into "nothing" (an utterly blank expanse of North Dakota snow), was a "standard absurdist trope" or something along those lines.

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Music/Entertainment; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: coenbrothers; fargo; raisingarizona
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-79 next last
To: Responsibility2nd

Just a minor correction; they did not REmake True Grit.


41 posted on 08/11/2011 11:49:46 AM PDT by ican'tbelieveit
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bubba Ho-Tep; Old Teufel Hunden

Thanks. I was reading some of the comments at the link. And they said the same thing.

“Most overrated Coens brother film: No Country for Old Men. The last 15 minutes destroyed the film.”

Reply...

“If you hated the ending of “No Country”, I assume it’s because of how anti-climactic it seems, but they were just following the book on that one. Novels aren’t constrained by Hollywood expectations like big shootouts and car chases, and I’m glad the Coens stayed true to the source material and offered a quiet and introspective ending. I had chills when it went to black after Tommy Lee Jones’ last line.”

And...

“That said, I haven’t liked much of their work. I loathed “No Country for Old Men.” I can’t fault them entirely, though, because it was based on a book.”

Me: This being the case... Since when do Hollywood movies ever follow the book? If the Coens failed to script an ending, then it was just laziness.


42 posted on 08/11/2011 11:50:27 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (The views and opinions expressed in this post are true and correct. Deal with it)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: andy58-in-nh

True Grit...the scene near the end with the horse giving out....wow. I thought it was about how tough life was back then, out where they were. You had to make it on your own....grit. It really hit me hard.


43 posted on 08/11/2011 11:51:46 AM PDT by Huck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

The wickedest thing they did was put the message “This movie was based on true events” at the beginning of Fargo. It wasn’t. They know it.

The blurring of fact and fiction is evidence of a growing insanity in this culture.


44 posted on 08/11/2011 11:52:32 AM PDT by DManA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Old Teufel Hunden

No Country For Old Men, and True Grit, were filmed near where I grew up. They make me homesick...

But, No Country... reminds of that transition, where good old country boys were being overtaken by the new reality of the world. Very sad movie, indeed. A loss of innocence in our country’s history, or another one, as there have been a few.


45 posted on 08/11/2011 11:53:25 AM PDT by ican'tbelieveit
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd
But after a dozen or so flicks with the hillbilly dialogue schtick, it gets tiresome.

A Serious Man was a big step away from all that -- back to their own actual roots. They ought to go further in that direction -- urban, more or less contemporary, semi-comedic, what they actually know -- but they've also been moving in the direction of big budget studio features.

46 posted on 08/11/2011 11:54:37 AM PDT by x
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Old Teufel Hunden

See # 42. Now I do understand the ending to “No Country...”. I don’t like it, but I understand it.

And I agree with you about the ending to the Coen’s True Grit. Much better than the original. Especially the wild horse ride, the loss of Mattie’s arm and how that changed the rest of her life, and the stronger emphasis on Rooster’s death.

But. I still disliked the hillbilly dialogue. As I said way upthread: The Coens got hooked into the hillbilly dialogue themes in most of their movies. It worked in Raiding Arizona and O Brother. It failed with True Grit.


47 posted on 08/11/2011 11:57:03 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (The views and opinions expressed in this post are true and correct. Deal with it)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

The wickedest thing they did was put the message “This movie was based on true events” at the beginning of Fargo. It wasn’t. They know it.

The blurring of fact and fiction is evidence of a growing insanity in this culture.


48 posted on 08/11/2011 11:59:05 AM PDT by DManA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ican'tbelieveit

Then what did they do to it? What do you call it?


49 posted on 08/11/2011 11:59:05 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (The views and opinions expressed in this post are true and correct. Deal with it)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

What struck me about True Grit was how similar it was to the original (except for the ending).

Some of the actors even looked like the actors in the original. The guy who played Ned Pepper looked just like Robert Duvall to me.


50 posted on 08/11/2011 12:03:26 PM PDT by DManA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: Huck

Barton Fink remains my absolute favorite


51 posted on 08/11/2011 12:04:58 PM PDT by whatexit
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

True Grit...Not impressed.


52 posted on 08/11/2011 12:05:08 PM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie (zerogottago)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

One of my favorite exchanges from Raising Arizona:

Ear-Bending Cellmate: ...and when there was no meat, we ate fowl and when there was no fowl, we ate crawdad and when there was no crawdad to be found, we ate sand.
H.I.: You ate what?
Ear-Bending Cellmate: We ate sand.
[pause]
H.I.: You ate SAND?
Ear-Bending Cellmate: That’s right!


I saw it in the theater as a kid, and it’s still one of my favorite films to this day. I like most of the Coen brothers’ other films, but especially The Big Lebowski, Hudsucker Proxy, and the Ladykillers (which I thought was seriously under-appreciated).


53 posted on 08/11/2011 12:06:02 PM PDT by Boogieman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: whatexit

54 posted on 08/11/2011 12:10:54 PM PDT by catman67
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: Leroy S. Mort

“You’re Mr. Lebowski. I’m the Dude, so that’s what you call me. Or maybe His Dudeness, or Duder, or El Duderino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.”


55 posted on 08/11/2011 12:13:23 PM PDT by Pelham (OAA+bama, steering America's economy into the iceberg since 2008.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: catman67

Forgot to add this. Great role for Albert Finney!!!

56 posted on 08/11/2011 12:15:58 PM PDT by catman67
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: Huck

Barton Fink is one of my favorite movies. A stunning piece of filmmaking, IMHO.


57 posted on 08/11/2011 12:29:56 PM PDT by fhayek
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: DManA
Just because they claim it's based on a true story doesn't mean you have to take them at their word. Not really sure how a framing device is "evidence of a growing insanity," I must confess.


As for Miller's Crossing, this scene is absolute poetry in motion.
58 posted on 08/11/2011 12:33:31 PM PDT by OnlyTurkeysHaveLeftWings
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: Huck

That rug really brought the room together...


59 posted on 08/11/2011 12:34:00 PM PDT by Dead Corpse (For those who fight for it, life has a flavor the sheltered will never know.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: whatexit; fhayek

Barton Fink is great. I was reading some interesting essays on that film the other day. The Coen’s never spoon feed you. They leave you with stuff to wonder about. Miller’s Crossing is like that, too.


60 posted on 08/11/2011 12:44:17 PM PDT by Huck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-79 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson