The Coen Brothers’ “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?”, loosely based on Homer’s classic adventure The Odyssey, is a film amusingly filled with themes of symbolism similar to those found in Homer’s epic, while still maintaining a sense of originality and style that they have become so renowned for. An exciting and entertaining blend of high adventure, humour, and heartfelt emotion, at first glance, the film barely resembles Homer’s poem: only certain elements are obvious, such as the main character’s name
Written by Ethan and Joel Coen and released on DVD by Touchstone Pictures and Universal Pictures in 2001, O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? is supposed to be the first professional film in history to be digitally enhanced, in its entirety. The movie is a loose adaptation of the epic poem The Odyssey in which three escaped convicts; Everett Ulysses McGill (George Clooney,) and his two partners Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) and Pete (John Turturro) experience the adventures of “Ulysses” (Homer) in varying ways
achievement to lighting and photography in a film, it’s because nothing in the film stands out, it all works as a piece.” (Roger Deakins, cinematographer of True Grit) In the 2010 adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel, True Grit, the directors, Ethan and Joel Coen, and Roger Deakins display the beauty of cinematography within the movie. And although the film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, it did not win any! It most certainly deserves to win based on the film’s use of editing, camera movement and framing
The Big Lebowski Raises a Glass to Classic Film Noir On the surface, The Big Lebowski might look like a simple stoner comedy, but with closer inspection the film possess sharp undertones of film noir. The Coen Brothers were inspired by film noir when making their movie, The Big Lebowski. Their main inspiration came from Raymond Chandler’s, The Big Sleep, with mix-match patches of other classic film noirs. The Big Lebowski is a playful, modernized, and loose form of noir film. With that said, The
Jordan Truitt & Andrew Cosh Mr. Everett Film Studies 11 May 2016 Fargo (directed by Joel & Ethan Coen) Social/Historical Context 1. The film, Fargo (1996). directed by Joel & Ethan Coen is a reality based crime drama that is composed around a true story. The events portrayed occurred in Minnesota during the year, 1987 and surround a kidnapping and violent murder of a man who conducted a murder on his own wife. The survivors and parties involved requested name changes prior to the orchestration
advent of philosophical thinking: is existence and every action a preordained phenomenon, or does one’s actions make a difference on the outcome of his or her life? According to Cormac McCarthy’s book No Country for Old Men, and the 2007 Joel and Ethan Coen Bothers’ film translation, life, or at least the end of it, is based solely on fate, and Anton Chigurh plays that role. In both text and film, Chigurh becomes the embodiment of fate, armed with a semi-auto Remington, whose sole purpose is not only
No Country for Old Men is a non-typical western film which was directed by Co-en brothers. The cultural background was set in the 1980s America, “where people in that society were confused, selfish, indifferent and loss of faith”(C Hauke, 12). What the film showed was just a society full of such features. The country was an indifferent world and had no back-up to anyone. The Coen Brothers used black humor, one of the most famous schools in modern American literature, to reflect the dark sides of
of middle class misfortunes and simpleton fodder. These seemingly extraneous components of the film are actually extremely crucial to the atmosphere the Coen brothers created. Despite having such a lack of regard for human life, the film still is extremely relatable to the common man and blue collar USA. This is exactly what Joel and Ethan Coen were aiming for with this film. They were trying to create as relatable and real of an atmosphere as possible. This persistence to creating a believable
A truly unique film, Hail Caesar, directed by the Coen Brothers, captures its audiences attention with its witty references and beautiful cinematography. The cast is packed with some of Hollywood 's biggest names with lead roles played by the talented Scarlett Johansson, Jonah Hill, Ralph Fiennes, and many more. All of this put together forces the movie to become just as entertaining as promised in trailers and advertising. The movie revolves around Eddie Mannix, head of a production company, who
David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen, known informally as the Coen Brothers, are American film directors, screenwriters, producers, and editors. They have directed over 15 films together that are often characterized as being "genre-bending", having covered many genres, including comedy, crime, the Western, horror, thriller, gangster, drama, romance, adventure and features of neo-noir. Their films include Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where
than once. Joel and Ethan Coen, and Quentin Tarantino are all writers and directors that execute the theme of character driven films almost to perfection. The films O Brother, Where Art Thou, written and directed by the Coen Brothers, and Pulp Fiction, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, exemplify this. The Coen Brothers are notorious for directing films that are more character driven as opposed to films that are conflict driven. The Big Lebowski, Fargo, and O, Brother Where Art Thou, are just
Schatz’s “Film Genres and the Genre Film.” Being directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, the modern western depicts the contested environment of the Arkansas in the 1800’s. The western accurately portrays society as still a largely segregated version of the United States, as blacks are still slaves, and Native Americans are treated as second rate citizens. The genre of order is both upheld and interrogated by the Coen brothers, as their film has an unconventional hero, but the conflict, setting, and resolution
will analyze is the Production/Editing of the film No Country for Old Men. This film which came out in 2007 was based on the novel written by Cormac MaCarthy of the same name. The movie was written/adapted, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen (a.k.a. the Coen brothers). The film is often referred to as a neo-western thriller due to its degree of genre mixing as it tells the story of an ordinary man whom by chance stumbles on a fortune that is not his, and the ensuing cat-and-mouse drama as the paths
vengeance of a dangerous hitman, Chigurh, who was sent to retrieve the money for his employers. Bell throughout the story shares his viewpoint, but within the movie, those who pay attention to his thoughtful observations appear unaffected. The Coen brothers, who directed the film, acknowledge that the novel’s title is a representation of the sheriff’s perspective, but in contrast with the novel, the focus of the movie’s approach involves an emphasis on multiple characters’ viewpoint and actions.
meet his doom; the superhero will defeat the evil villain. Simply, in some circumstances, this is not entirely true. Good does not always prevail over evil. This is exceptionally true in the movie No Country for Old Men by the Coen brothers. The dominant theme in the Coen brother’s movie is evil. The movie No Country for Old Men is based on a book by Cormac McCarthy. According to Lan Buckwalter, “McCarthy's bloody and beautiful novel comes to life under the Coen's able touch” (1/1). The movie No
the stereotypes. But the Coen Brothers’ cult-classic film, The Big Lebowsk (1998), with its hero “The Dude,” contradicts these notions of masculinity. The Coen brothers offer several familiar stereotypes of masculinity (the Vietnam vet, the successful capitalist, an oversexed bowler, some aggressive German nihilists), yet it is these characters that throughout the film are shown to be absurd, insecure, and even impotent. It is these stereotype men that the Coen brothers criticize. “Sometimes there’s
“No Country for Old Men” No Country for Old Men is an Academy Award winning film directed, edited, and written by Joel and Ethan Coen and is based on the Cormac McCarthy novel No Country for Old Men. The film characters include a Vietnam vet, who is now a blue collar welder, a violent contract killer, and a confident but weary sheriff. The film takes place in West Texas in 1980 and is centered around the chaos of questionable decision making and killing without a purpose or at the very least, killing
Charles Portis’s famous novel True grit published in 1968 was the basis of both the 1969 and the 2010 movie. The 2010 movie by the Coen Brothers covers a lot of stuff from the book, but I think they made the character Mattie a lot different then the book. In the book Mattie was a 14 teen year old girl who wasn't afraid of anything, and was not afraid to take revenge on her fathers killer Tom Chaney. Some of events in the movie made her look tough but the actor was too nice and cute to play Mattie
Grit is the main action of someone achieving their goal and there were many examples of grit in the Coen brothers’ film production True Grit. Achieving a difficult task is something everyone has to deal with some point in their lives. Grit plays a vital part in achieving those enterprises. True Grit had many instances of tenacity in the film. The onlooker of the film caught on these actions quickly when they are amazed with the determination of Mattie Ross, LaBeouf, and Rooster Cogburn searching
In the film, The Big Lebowski, Joel and Ethan Coen use their resources to add to the film aesthetically. The Coen brothers are known for their art with films like Fargo and True Grit. The Big Lebowski is no different. Although the genres may differ, the amount of details in each of these films is well thought out and placed carefully. With “the Dude” as the protagonist, the story takes wild turns that are enhanced by the camera and the script. Techniques using the camera add an additional layer