for me the best is The Big Lebowski, I’d prefere, most the fun movies that the drama, but I like too much Miller’ crossing
Sully-The scene in which we are shown the hula hoop being a marketplace disaster to being a success is my favorite scene in all the Coen brothers films. I think Hudsucker is underrated although it’s not my favorite. That would probably be The Big Lebowski-a film I have probably watched more than any other over the years outside of a couple itchcocks.
Sully-The scene in which we are shown the hula hoop being a marketplace disaster to being a success is my favorite scene in all the Coen brothers films. I think Hudsucker is underrated although it’s not my favorite. That would probably be The Big Lebowski-a film I have probably watched more than any other over the years outside of a couple itchcocks.
can’t say I’m really a fan of the Coen’s but I fukken loved O Brother, Where Art Thou?
O Bro is actually one of my least favorite of their films. Conversely, I think The Big Lebowski is amazing, if not iconic (which is hardly arguable at this point—I mean, John Goodman has his own action figure for chrissakes).
Aside from Hudsucker and Fargo (which is receiving surprisingly little love here), I also loved Barton Fink, a film which tends to slip too far under the radar given its brilliance, and Burn After Reading, a film that went severely underrated most likely because it came right on the heels of best picture winner No Country For Old Men (another good movie, but far from their best).
No Country for Old Men
The Big Leboswki
Fargo
Barton Fink
Hudsucker Proxy
in my opinion of personal favorites..
Blood Simple
Miller’s Crossing
The Big Lebowski
No Country for Old Men
Fargo
uh….the man who wasn’t there, anyone?
RAISING ARIZONA. Their best film, the only one I willingly watch anymore. Downhill ever since. Two of the most overrated “auteurs” in history.
Fargo, hands down!
Raising Arizona.
No Country For Old Men is less proprietary, style-wise, than every stylish film they’ve ever made. But there’s something about that austere adaptation that proves how much greater they are than the rest. (Haven’t seen Che, but I’m made to wonder, for instance, whether Soderbergh will ever make a film as spot-on perfect in every way as No Country…)
No Country for Old Men
Fargo
Barton Fink
Big Lebowski
etc… etc…
Out of the ones I’ve seen:
1. Fargo
2. Barton Fink
3. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
4. The Man Who Wasn’t There
5. No Country for Old Men
6. Burn After Reading
I plan to watch The Big Lebowski and Raising Arizona soon enough.
Toss up between Fargo, Blood Simple, and No Country for Old Men.
Barton Fink is easily my favorite Coen Bro. work and Miller’s Crossing is probably my second. After that things get a little hazy and hard to place.
In mostly this order:
RAISING ARIZONA
BLOOD SIMPLE
the good parts of HUDSUCKER PROXY, and there are good parts
That’s about it. The rest are pretty well disposable.
Raising Arizona
Fargo and Barton Fink
Although I love all of their movies except Intolerable Cruelty which was decent.
I love Barton Fink because of its intensity and its wit. It is both operatic and a chamber piece. It takes on Hollywood as while as intellectuals—it deals with history, but not for the sake of being historical. And a complex protagonist who is so clueless that it both heartrending and unforgivable. Miller’s Crossing is close to this.
For years, I liked Fargo but felt it to be sort of an omnibus of their best moves—the wit, the sudden violence, the disorienting and innovative images but done in just the right way to make it the breakthrough it was for them. Lately I’ve come to feel I was a bit too hard on that and the film stands on its own. Hudsucker is great—including its pastiche of screwball comedies (And Leigh’s pastiche of Barbara Stanwyck rapidfire delivery, especially).
They have had disappointments lately: Burn after Reading, Intolerable Cruelty, and Ladykillers.
Couldn’t agree with you more, Richard. I’m surprised that anyone could think of Barton Fink, Miller’s Crossing and Fargo as “disposable.” I think all three films feature some of the Coen’s best writing. I also love the incredibly dark humor in them and Barton Fink is arguably their most surreal effort to date.
I actually do NOT like The Hudsucker Proxy and The Big Lebowski. Their quirkiness is overrated. Hudsucker especially…it’s like a bad and unsuccessful update of Frank Capra…and I love Frank Capra!
Give me Miller’s Crossing anyday. It’s my all-time favourite Coen Bros. film and the only one of their films I own on video.
I think of BARTON FINK, MILLER’S CROSSING and FARGO as disposable. Once or twice or three times seen to realize how really useless they are, and then added to the list of Bizarrely Overrated Films.
The Big Lebowski
No Country
O Brother
Fargo
Oh, Miller’s Crossing quite comfortably.
Fargo.
Often, the Coen boys try too hard and when they do, their films annoy. Tarantino suffers a similar malaise, which I think of as “trying too hard to be hip.” It amounts to being a showoff. And that ain’t hip. I wish they would trust the intelligence of their audience.
Fargo toes the line of this tendency to overdo it. All those, “yah; you betchas” are tedious. What starts as an eccentric little tale of losers turns into a tiresome load of silliness.
I favor Miller’s Crossing and No Country for Old Men.
I am surprised no one here has mentioned that crime is central to every Coen Bros. film:
Kidnapping, murder, robbery, extortion, prison breaks, confidence schemes. These storylines are heavily infused with the Hitchcock strategy of placing ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances — typically situations in which the characters are in way over their heads.
It is also amusing to note the Coen Bros. cut a wide swath of misanthropy through every film they make.
We get the impression they are none too impressed with the human race, as each of their pictures has an undercurrent of mockery, of satire, of winking from behind the camera where they are probably saying to themselves, “Let’s see what sorts of dumbasses we can create and run through their paces.”
At the end of the day, despite their wonderful ear for dialog and facility with creating oddball characters, I find all of the Coen Bros. films to be cold and clinical. This is not to say that cold and clinical are bad things, but that the Coen Bros. are a one-trick pony.
Cheers,
Steve
CinemaUprising.Blogspot.com
Steve, I don’t really see the misanthropy in RAISING ARIZONA, for my money still the Coens’ best film. I don’t always find their films to be completely cold and clinical. There are moments of real warmth in ARIZONA and FARGO and even in the massively overrated NO COUNTRY. But I agree with much of what you say. The easy bummer quality of their work and the artsy over-reaching (the spaceships in MAN WHO WASN’T THERE, for example) have left me bored with their films.
@ Roscoe.
Aye, Raising Arizona is one of the best comedies to come out of the 1980s. And I amend my favorites list to include Raising Arizona on the strength of your post.
I especially like the all-over-the-place cinematography of Barry Sonnefeld before he hit the big time with the Addams Family and the Men in Black pictures.
But I do say that every character in Raising Arizona is, to a greater or lesser degree, po’ white trash. Yes, sir, there are certainly endearing moments, such as the tender love H.I. has for Edwina, although most of the humor in the film comes from underscoring their — and everyone else’s — ignorance.
Every single person in the picture, from the owner of Unpainted Arizona, to the Snoats brothers and outlaw biker Leonard Smalls, is either a degenerate, a redneck, hopelessly ignorant, possessed of bad intentions, or some combination of the four. Even Francis McDormand, who is married to Joel Coen as you know, portrays a shrill know-it-all hick who badgers H.I. and Edwina about getting their baby a Dyp-Tet innoculation, which is actually quite funny because it’s hard to believe this obnoxious woman would know jack-all about pediatric care for infants. And I suspect that is the Coens’ point with this humorous sequence.
It is a very funny film, but the humor derives almost entirely from the stupidity and arrogance of all the characters — recurring traits in all the people who populate the Coen boys’ movies.
Respectfully yours,
Steve
CinemaUprising.Blogspot.com
devin2089
The Coen Bros. are my favorite auteurs for many many reasons. They create stunning films that reflect real life while exaggerating small details for satire. Every piece, excusing a few (namely The Ladykillers), is pitch perfect, but I often find myself in arguments as to which film is their best.
I used to think their greatest film was Fargo…that it, until I was introduced to The Hudsucker Proxy. I was concerned at first, because the film is their one and only PG piece (which automatically removes the random graphic depictions of violence, one thing their films are FAMOUS for), but I was pleasantly surprised with how impressive the narrative is! And, even though this Coen Bros. film is more approachable for families, it is still a very sophisticated film AND they don’t skimp out on literary/visual design one bit. It’s a truly amazing picture.
Differing thoughts?