The Coen magic began with BLOOD SIMPLE (1984), a tough and witty film noir starring John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya and, in an indelible portrayal of a seedy Texan private eye, M. Emmet Walsh. From the early shots of a rain-spattered windshield through a stomach-tighteningly tense (and artfully composed) finale, BLOOD SIMPLE created an atmosphere of suspense and mutual suspicion to rival any film of its kind. It was followed, in a bravura display of technical and artistic versatility, by RAISING ARIZONA (1987), a zany dysfunctional family comedy about a childless couple (Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter) who decide to kidnap a quintuplet. Superb performances, dazzling camera pyrotechnics and some brilliantly conceived scenes -- John Goodman literally bursting up out of the earth during a rainstorm -- helped create a world as far removed from that of BLOOD SIMPLE as one could imagine.
Loosely based on Dashiel Hammett's THE GLASS KEY (1935), MILLER'S CROSSING (1990) starred Albert Finney as a mob boss and Gabriel Byrne as the advisor from whom he becomes estranged during a period of intergang conflict. Though it was largely well-received, some critics felt the film suffered from an excess of style -- that the brothers were too concerned with showing off their familiarity with earlier, landmark gangster films to successfully forge their own contribution to the genre. Others hailed it as a genre classic. In any event, the film solidified the team's reputation as leading stylists in the American cinema.
BARTON FINK (1991) garnered the Palme d'Or at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival and the directing prize for Joel. This jet-black comedy told the story of a leftist NY playwright (apparently modeled on Clifford Odets) who hits it big on Broadway, moves out to Hollywood, and suffers writer's block while attempting to craft a screenplay for a Wallace Beery wrestling vehicle. Fink (John Turturro) starts to go a bit mad in his creepy hotel room, where his neighbor is an amiable traveling salesman (John Goodman) who may be a serial killer. With its striking depiction of mental decay, BARTON FINK echoed the concerns and tone of THE TENANT (1976), Roman Polanski's darkly comic psychological horror film. Unfortunately, the Coens also ventured into thematic pretension as the film touched upon issues of anti-Semitism, leftist hypocrisy, and the banality of evil. While devilishly clever, BARTON FINK -- written during a period of writer's block on MILLER'S CROSSING -- lacked an organizing intelligence as it raised more questions than it answered. Some critics condemned the film as thoughtlessly anti-intellectual and even anti-Jewish.
Though BARTON FINK grossed less than $6 million, hotshot producer (and Coen brothers fan) Joel Silver raised approximately $31 million for THE HUDSUCKER PROXY (1994). This lavish tribute to the classic Hollywood screwball comedies of the 30s and 40s lovingly recreated a period NYC skyline with sets, costumes and patter to match. The Coens's reputation snared several big names for the high stakes comedy, including Paul Newman, Tim Robbins and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
The Coen brothers released their most successful film to date in 1996. FARGO received critical acclaim and seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. In the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert predicted: "Frances McDormand should have a lock on an Academy Award nomination with this performance, which is true in every individual moment, and yet slyly, quietly, over the top in its cumulative effect. (And) ...although I have no doubt that events something like this really did take place in Minnesota in 1987, they have elevated reality into a human comedy - into the kind of movie that makes us hug ourselves with the way it pulls off one improbable scene after another. Films like FARGO are why I love the movies." McDormand did indeed receive her nomination, and went on to win the Best Actress Oscar for her performance. The film also won for its screenplay.
THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) starred Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore with several of the Coens' developing "rep company:" John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and John Turturro, among others. Considered by the Coes to be a 90s version of a Raymond Chandler detective novel, this film of mistaken identity (Jeff Bridges and David Huddleston are two different Jeffrey Lebowskis) was knocked by most critics, especially in the light of the brothers' hugely successful previous film. Kenneth Turan wrote in the Los Angeles Times: "Though the Coens, working as usual with master cinematographer Roger Deakins, are impressive visual stylists and clever writers, this film feels completely haphazard, thrown together without much concern for organizing intelligence."
O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (2000) was loosely based on Homer's "Odyssey'" (hence the "Adapted Screenplay" desidnation). The Coens also paid undeclared homage to Preston Sturges' 1941 comedy, SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS. The movie deals with the grotesque adventures of Everett Ulysses McGill (George Clooney) and his companions Delmar (Tim Blake) and Pete (John Turturro again) as they escape from a chain gang in 1930s Mississipi and go off on a "quest." Strong supporting performances were put in by John Goodman, Charles Durning and Holly Hunter. The film's soundtrack drew the most praise. Kevin Jackson in Signt and Sound (UK): "Above all, it's a compendium of American musical styles of the period, from blues and gospel to bluegrass and back again, comparable in spirit and sheer enjoyment value to Harry Smith's celebrated anthology of American folk music of the 20s and 30s, re-issued on CDs a couple of years ago to ecstatic reviews and brisk sales. (Did the Coens join the rest of us in snapping it up?) Simply, O BROTHER, WHERE ARE THOU? has one of the richest and most satisfying soundtracks I've heard in years: hats off to T-Bone Burnett, who arranged and produced it, as well as recruiting a lot of the performers." The soundtrack won the Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media in 2002.
In 2001, the Coens released THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE, shot in black-and-white by Roger Deakins, about a laconic, chain-smoking barber (Billy Bob Thornton) who blackmails his wife's boss and lover for money to invest in dry cleaning. But, guess what? His plan goes terribly wrong. Frances MacDormand plays the wife, and Michael Badalucco (George "Baby Face" Nelson in O BROTHER...), James Gandolfini and Tony Shalhoub offer strong supporting performances. Peter Bradshaw wrote in The Guardian: "What a stunning, mesmeric movie this is. I can only hope that on Oscar night the Academy are not so cauterised with dumbness and cliche that they cannot recognise its originality and playful brilliance. Noir is the catch-all term given to movies like this - yet the Coens achieve their greatest, most disturbing moments in fierce sunlight, in the outdoors and in the dazzling white light of the final sequence. So I propose a new genre for this film - noir-blanc , a seriocomic masterpiece which transforms the quotidian ordinariness of waking lives. It is the best American film of the year." Alas, on Oscar night the Academy was not so forthcoming. Roger Deakins was nominated for his cinematography (the film's sole nomination), but Andrew Lesnie took home the statuette for THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING.
That covers the Coen films as of this writing (March, 2003). They are scheduled to release INTOLERABLE CRUELTY in 2003, which stars George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Geoffrey Rush and Billy Bob Thornton in a story where a revenge-seeking gold digger marries a womanizing Beverly Hills lawyer with the intention of making a killing in the divorce. What do you bet someting goes "terribly wrong"?
The brothers are developing THE LADYKILLERS for 2004. Tom Hanks is said to be in talks for the leading role.
Ethan Coen wrote the stories or screenplays for some non-brothers films as well: THE NAKED MAN (1998), A FEVER IN THE BLOOD (2002) and BAD SANTA (2003). He is married to actress Tricia Cooke.
Nominated for Best Picture of the Year 1996: FARGO - Producer at Working Title
Best Achievement in Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen) 1996: FARGO (w. Joel Coen)
Nominated for Achievement in Film Editing 1996: FARGO (as Roderick Jaynes) (w. Joel Coen)
Nominated for Achievement in Writing (Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published) 2000: O BROTHER, WHERE ARE THOU? (w. Joel Coen)
Best Picture of the Year 2007: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN - Producer (w. Scott Rudin & Joel Coen)
Best Achievement in Directing 2007: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (w. Joel Coen)
Best Achievement in Writing: Adapted Screenplay 2007: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (w. Joel Coen)
Nominated for Achievement in Film Editing 2007: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (as Roderick Jaynes) (w. Joel Coen)
8 nominations, 4 Awards