If the Coen Brothers’ films have passed you by unnoticed, then I’m envious of the evenings you have in store for you. You could spend the next couple of months watching a Coen Brothers film every Saturday night and, if you pick the right timing and viewing sequence, you could start off with “extremely good” and, as the weeks pass, you could watch a better and better one each time until you arrive at “out and out masterpiece” and such superlatives. Just to contextualise what it is that I’m recommending to you, imagine a film in which even the lowliest, non-speaking role has been cast to perfection so that you’re wondering about the story behind the most seemingly-irrelevant of characters. The main players are gentle but biting caricatures whose idiosyncrasies and simultaneous normalness seem an unlikely blend until, after just a few minutes, you find yourself liking each and every player, even the ones occupying the most despicable roles.
Faces and physical quirks play a huge part in the overall imagery and intrigue of the films and the winning characters are usually naïve and yet as sharp as daggers in equal measure. The dialogue is rich, even in scenes which seem out of place and there appears to be an insistence that each and every line is delivered with the precision timing of the best stand-up comedian and with the mannerisms and background detail that only someone who loves the fact that they’re playing the character in question could possibly insert. Music is subtle, relevant and crucial.
The stories are intricate and yet very straightforward and seem to revolve around the “Seven Deadly Sins” of Dante’s Divine Comedy. One or more of Greed, Envy, Sloth, Lust, Gluttony, Wrath and Pride are never too far away from the emotions, actions and reactions of the darker characters and the “good guys” sometimes seem to embody the innocents, untouched by these negatives and vices, possibly implying the antithesis of the “Seven Holy Virtues” but always appearing to be unaware of the depth of value in their own good standards.
If you’re lucky enough never to have seen a Coen Bros film, then I suggest a course of treatment…. to be taken with an open mind. Start with one of the best, just to make sure you get hooked. “Fargo” would be a very good introduction. God, I wish I’d never seen it and had bought it at random from a flea market as “something to watch” tonight. I’d love to be able to hear the introductory music to Fargo tonight without knowing anything about what was to follow. I remember when I was in exactly that situation and I was already deep into the atmosphere of the film before the opening credits stopped. The heroine is outrageously-loveable and the impossible situation into which they thrust her (heavily-pregnant and ridiculously under-resourced small-town police chief, faced with an unprecedented string of local killings) is sheer perfection. She responds to the situation with “everything” and yet the way she polices the film is like nothing any other filmmakers have ever given us. The villains of the piece, the sap, the police officers, the witnesses and, true to form, everyone else in the film, are outstanding. Never have two hideous, psychopathic villains been so enchanting to follow!
After Fargo, maybe The Big Lebowski, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Blood Simple, Barton Fink, Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing and many others and then, benefit from some of the by-products of the Coen Brothers’ mastery. On the one hand, actors whose faces you know well but whose names elude you will keep on popping up, time and time again, reinforcing the idea that bloody good actors keep on wanting to appear in the creations of bloody good filmmakers. John Turturro, Steve Buscemi, John Goodman and such like keep on keeping on in Coen Brothers’ films and, each time, you get the head start of remembering how brilliant they were in the last one and you soon bond with the new character. On the other hand, you get the chance to see whether or not people we’re “supposed to recognise” as being A-list superstars are really up to the job.
Holly Hunter and Jeff Bridges were always names known well enough to me but I never saw either of them as being a truly excellent actor until I saw them do it the Coen way. Tom Hanks comes in for a lot of unwarranted stick and many people consider George Clooney to be eye-candy and little else.
For your last two Saturday evenings with the Coens, watch Tom Hanks in The Ladykillers and then watch George Clooney in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”.
If you ever doubted the skill of these actors before, you won’t afterwards.
