Description
Book SynopsisThe films of Ethan and Joel Coen have been embraced by mainstream audiences, but also have been subject to intense scrutiny by critics and cinema scholars. Movies such as Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, and Raising Arizona represent the filmmakers' postmodern tendencies, a subject many academics have written about at length. But is it enough to reduce their features as expressions of postmodernism or are there other ways of viewing their worknot only their individual films but their entire output as a collective whole? In Constructing the Coens: From Blood Simple to Inside Llewyn Davis, Allen H. Redmon looks beyond the postmodern sensibilities of every film written and directed by the Coens to find an unexpected range of recurring ideas expressed in and about contemporary film. In this volume, Redmon tackles all of the films in the Coen brothers' canon by examiningamong other topicsnarrative coherence in The Man Who Wasn't There, intertextuality in No Country for Old Men, and sexuali
Trade ReviewRedmon has written the definitive critical study of the films of Ethan and Joel Coen, the writer-director team behind Fargo, Raising Arizona, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? Previous critics have portrayed the Coen Brothers as hipsters who make apocalyptic, misanthropic films about American culture made palatable by healthy doses of humor, a nostalgic period setting, and affectionate homages to genre films of the past—especially film noir, the western, and the musical. Redmon, however, demonstrates that, while the brothers may be snarky—and may employ postmodern storytelling techniques—their work is soulful and concerned with truth and ethics…. Redmon explains that the Coen Brothers’ films demand that the audience participate actively in making meanings of the films. The films help viewers become better readers of cinema and of life, and offer us all clues as to how to find truth and emotional authenticity in the grotesque carnival of broken dreams and solipsistic concerns of an America fractured by the culture wars. As Redmon observes, while the Coens enjoy laughing at human folly, they have an ethical worldview, celebrating virtue, condemning evil, and asking us to accept the mystery of the human comedy. Say whatever you want about the Coen Brothers: these men are not nihilists and their films have an ethos. * Religious Studies Review *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 “It’s a Problem of…Perception”: Identifying the Coens’ Constructivist Sensibility Chapter 2 “You Don’t Want to be Tried and Found Wantin’”: Triggering the Ongoing Adaptation of the The Ladykillers Chapter 3 “I Will Destroy Him”: Negotiating the Image in Barton Fink and Raising Arizona Chapter 4 That Gag’s Got Whiskers on it”: Achieving Narrative Coherence in The Hudsucker Proxy and The Man Who Wasn’t There Chapter 5 “The Coin Don’t Have No Say”: Examining Intertextuality in The Hudsucker Proxy, Intolerable Cruelty, and No Country for Old Men Chapter 6 “A Lotta Ins, a Lotta Outs”: Interweaving Genres in The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou? Chapter 7 “Appearances Can Be Deceptive”: Investigating Sexuality in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Intolerable Cruelty, and Burn After Reading Chapter 8 “I Haven’t Done Anything Funny”: Scrutinizing Gender in the Coens’ Arrangements of a Bunch of Men around One Woman Chapter 9 “Accept the Mystery”: Resisting Final Construction and A Serious Man Conclusion Bibliography Index About the Author
