Over the past few months and overall in the past year I feel I've been watching way too many current releases and I have neglected older films mainly because of my love of my widescreen TV and high definition technology. So I'm forcing myself to watch two of my favorite writer and directors going - Joel and Ethan Coen - entire directorial filmography. I've seen and own 5 of their 12 films and one is set to be released in theaters this weekend.

 

So I made this thread to post my thoughts and review each of the films after I watch them in chronological order. I was hoping after I watch them others could chime in with their thoughts/feelings/review of the film if they want (Please spoiler text if you choose to discuss plot details).

 

Coen Brothers Filmography

• Blood Simple (11/6) Completed
  
• Raising Arizona (11/8)
  
• Miller's Crossing
  
• Barton Fink
  
• The Hudsucker Proxy
  
• Fargo
  
• The Big Lebowski
  
• O Brother, Where Art Thou?
  
• The Man Who Wasn't There
  
• Intolerable Cruelty
  
• The Ladykillers
  
• No Country For Old Men
  

I plan on watching Blood Simple tonight and posting my views on it tomorrow. :thumbup

Over the past few months and overall in the past year I feel I've been watching way too many current releases and I have neglected older films mainly because of my love of my widescreen TV and high definition technology. So I'm forcing myself to watch two of my favorite writer and directors going - Joel and Ethan Coen - entire directorial filmography. I've seen and own 5 of their 12 films and one is set to be released in theaters this weekend.

 

So I made this thread to post my thoughts and review each of the films after I watch them in chronological order. I was hoping after I watch them others could chime in with their thoughts/feelings/review of the film if they want (Please spoiler text if you choose to discuss plot details).

 

Coen Brothers Filmography

• Blood Simple (11/6)
  
• Raising Arizona
  
• Miller's Crossing
  
• Barton Fink
  
• The Hudsucker Proxy
  
• Fargo
  
• The Big Lebowski
  
• O Brother, Where Art Thou?
  
• The Man Who Wasn't There
  
• Intolerable Cruelty
  
• The Ladykillers
  
• No Country For Old Men
  

I plan on watching Blood Simple tonight and posting my views on it tomorrow. :thumbup

Wow. You and me have this incredible timing sometimes. It's pretty scary. For the past two weeks I've been watching their whole library of films to prepare for my presentation (which I just came from today).

 

Blood Simple is my absolute favorite. It's the most effective neo-noir I've seen to date and one of my favorite movies of all time. I saw it a second time right afterwards. Frances McDormand was strangly attractive in the movie as well.

 

From previous posts I believe the ones you've seen are:

Raising Arizona

Barton Fink

Fargo

The Big Lebowski

Miller's Crossing?

 

I really like Hudsucker although many people do not care for it. Their studio films (Brother, Cruelty, Ladykillers) are of lesser quality I think. O Brother being the best of that bunch.

 

After seeing their all their films again, I have more of an appreciation for Lebowski and Fargo, which I previously didn't think as highly of before.

 

If you want more information I can give it to you. I just did a 20 minute presentation on them. :lol I also read NCFOM, and my thoughts are on the Book Thread,

I haven't seen Miller's Crossing but I have seen O Brother, Where Art Thou? (albeit a while ago). The Big Lebowski is probably my favorite comedy ever and in my personal top 10-15 films ever easily.

 

Once I post my thoughts on Blood Simple I want you to lay your thoughts on me big time. Goes for anyone else that has seen it too.

Awesome personal project Fox. I'm always on this big kick over the summer to pick a director whose films I should've seen and watch as much of their filmography as I can before moving on to another director. The Coen Brothers are personal favorites of mine and I did the same thing as you're doing about 2 years ago.

 

If you haven't seen Miller's Crossing. You're in for a treat. Also, I agree with Endline on Blood Simple. It's a great neo-noir and one of their best films to date.

Blood Simple never held up on subsequent viewings for me.

What's your favorite Coen film, penguino?

Here's a great montage I found on youtube:

Blood Simple

 

Original Release: January 18, 1985

Directed By: Joel Coen

Produced By: Ethan Coen

Written By: Joel & Ethan Coen

 

Starring: John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, M. Emmet Walsh

 

 

Joel and Ethan Coen’s first foray in to filmmaking comes in the form of the hard to specify but well crafted and engaging film, Blood Simple. The 1985 low-budget film centers around the miscommunication, misunderstanding, and mistrust of four different yet equally lost individuals.

 

The film lives up to the blood in its title as much as it does the simple. The simplistic narration of the film isn’t a knock on its quality but praise to a film that has good to great direction and storytelling. The plot is straightforward with a semi-clear conclusion while at the same time being incredibly appealing, frightening and at times incredibly realistic and natural.

 

Blood Simple’s uncomplicated story involves bar owner Julian (Dan Hedaya) becoming suspicious of his wife’s (Frances McDormand) infidelity with his employee Ray (John Getz). We know the drill, worried and well off husband hires private detective (M. Emmet Walsh) to watch the suspected couple, catch them in the act, and then move his rage and anger on from there. While Blood Simple could go an easy route and capture the bubbling rage of the husband at his wife and lover and how he uses that rage, the Coen Brothers take a different, yet still simple, approach.

 

While the brothers follow a plotline and story similar to the hypothetical I describe above, the Coens make you think throughout their 95 minute debut. Moviegoers are almost desensitized to violence and blood at the cinema. The Coens recognize this so well and give you the ‘creative’ violence which has become a staple of their work to come but also showcase a side of that blood and death that is refreshingly original and unique.

 

The average person will be able to relate to nearly all four of the characters the Coens have created. While none of them are emotionally deep or different they are incredibly real and realistic in how their deceit and paranoia catches up to them and eventually leads to all four’s downfall. Death isn’t just an act of necessity and revenge in Blood Simple or as portrayed in usual cinema, its an incredibly difficult task to pull off for the average mentally stable human being. The audience will absolutely feel how hard it is to come face to face with this terrible deed. Its ugly, its tough, and damn tough to come to grips with.

 

The budget restraints are evident throughout Blood Simple but my hat is off to the Coen brothers for making a movie that showcased some outstanding scene transitions and some beautiful shots that can stay with one after the film concludes. They also created a scenery and feel to the film that makes it scary and as bleak as the character’s futures. The brother’s first collaboration with Carter Burwell isn’t his most complete or fantastic work but the film’s main theme is incredibly effective and haunting. Directors with budgets 100x’s that of Blood Simple have harder times showcasing and getting across the mood of a film as well as the Coens do here.

 

While many seem to classify this work as neo-noir, taking the elements of the crime dramas of the 1940s and 50s and updating it to the current time period, but I feel as though it can’t and shouldn’t be so easily classified as such. Blood Simple is every bit thriller as it is mystery with part romance and even horror thrown in to create a melting pot of ideas, themes and motifs that will go on to become mainstays in the rest of their work.

 

Blood Simple doesn’t break any new ground and it doesn’t try to outsmart the audience at any point of its duration but it does a fantastic job of putting the viewer in the same rough spots as its characters and giving them the same misinformation and misunderstanding that would end up being their Achilles’ heel. For Blood Simple however, the story’s fatal weakness is actually its biggest strength.

 

8.5/10

Great job on the review. Glad you enjoyed it.

FWIW, that 2nd screen was such an amazing shot to me I had to screenshot it. The empty, lonely feeling Ray was having at that moment during that drive was just exemplified by those birds and the musical score.

 

Such an awesome moment.

I have always been a big fan of ther work since I first saw Blood Simple. From a pure dialogue standpoint Raising Arizona has always been my favorite so I'll be interested in your review. I can't wait to see NoCountry For Old Men since Cormac McCarthy is my favorite author.

FWIW, that 2nd screen was such an amazing shot to me I had to screenshot it. The empty, lonely feeling Ray was having at that moment during that drive was just exemplified by those birds and the musical score.

 

Such an awesome moment.

Kinda reminds me of N by NW

I have always been a big fan of ther work since I first saw Blood Simple. From a pure dialogue standpoint Raising Arizona has always been my favorite so I'll be interested in your review. I can't wait to see NoCountry For Old Men since Cormac McCarthy is my favorite author.

I'm going to have to write it as unbiased as I can since:

 

A) I've seen it 20-25 times already (Seriously, I'm surprised I didn't melt the DVD's coating off in college)

B) Nic Cage is my favorite film actor currently working right now.

 

I'm glad to see people are interested in this though, keeps me motivated. :thumbup

A) I've seen it 20-25 times already (Seriously, I'm surprised I didn't melt the DVD's coating off in college)

B) Nic Cage is my favorite film actor currently working right now.

 

 

I went through two VHS tapes before I got it on DVD.

 

I like Nic Cage too. I wonder why he hasn't worked with the Coen Brothers again.

I've seen all of these except for Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty. And the new one.

 

My top 4 would probably go:

1. Fargo

2. Lebowski

3. Raising Arizona

4. Hudsucker Proxy

 

The only one I don't like is O Brother. Still, I think I appreciate Coen movies more than I legitimately love them. They always kind of keep me at a distance. I think the Coens themselves keep a bit of distance from their own characters, which is one of the reasons I hated O Brother. I just felt like the movie hated the main characters and was making fun of people like them. I mean, they're definitely mocking all their characters in all their movies, but sometimes they also sympathize with them...and when that's the case, I tend to like the movie.

I mean, they're definitely mocking all their characters in all their movies, but sometimes they also sympathize with them...and when that's the case, I tend to like the movie.

 

Right on. Oh Brother had the potential to be a good film but the caricatures were too negative - difficult to sympathize with , as you said.

I like Lebowski and all, but wouldn't put it ahead of Fargo or Raising Arizona. As films, I think those are the Coen's best two. Fargo is just a work of pure genius, and Raising Arizona is, well, fun as hell to watch.

Their characterizations and scripts are only a small contributing factor to appreciating their films. There is an immense amount of visual craft injected into virtually everything they put out.

 

Still I think they are a tad bit overrated. I would rank some of their contemporaries of the 1980s-1980s (such as Stone and Lynch) as superior filmmakers.

 

Well, this is certainly true. Even though I hated O Brother, it was still nice to look at when I wasn't sleeping.

I had completely forgotten that the Coen brothers did Ladykillers.

 

 

Makes sense though now that I recall the film.