Poll: What's your favorite Coen brothers film?

Fargo then Blood Simple and then Millers
Peace-
Norm

 

Your name is Lebowski, Lebowski. Your wife's name is Bunny ...

You happy now, you crazy @&#%?

(sadly, I could go on all night)

 

I've got that Barton Fink feeling......

It was a toss-up between BF and Fargo, for me, with O Brother a close follow-up.

Barton Fink deserves a vote if only fo rthe performance of John Tuturro. But I do love the movie - ridiculous and totally surreal.

 

good Halloween choice. I'd hate to meet John Goodman carrying a shotgun in a hallway filled with flames at night ...

 

Lebowski may be the most overrated movie of all time. There, I said it. It has a great deal of eyecatching comic visuals, and idiosyncratic characters, but to me, it was more sizzle than steak.

Raising Arizona, on the other hand, had all the sizzle and Chop House-quality steak. It also broke new film making ground. A shout-out for Tex Cobb, too.

Next: Fargo, Miller's Crossing.

The Cohen brothers rule, and Lebowski is actually a good movie, no doubt about it, but all of this slobbering is as over the top as the movie is.

 

To me, Fargo is a perfect movie--acting, writing, cinematography, not a single step out of place.

I'll have to give Lebowski another shot. I've only seen it once, when it opened, and it didn't do much for me, but given the high praise it receives, maybe I missed something.

The Man Who Wasn't There had the most gorgeous B&W cinematography of any "modern" movie (since the advent of color, anyway). But the story left me cold--there was no "there" in The Man Who Wasn't There.

P.S. I'm in love with Frances McDormand.

 

When I was in the Navy I saw their flick "Behind the Green Door"! That was an interesting experience.................ooops! Wrong Brothers

:-jon

 

well, let me be the first to shout blasphemy in a crowded theater. nobody #@&^s with the Jesus!

 

I'm with ya Jimbo. have you seen Wonder Boys? she's great in that, too.

 

mdp - I agree. Lebowski is a bit of a mess of a movie, it seems to me. Some nice ideas and some good laughs, but it doesn't gel... It's like they were trying too hard or something.

 

Excellent observation and right on the money IMO. The whole movie does a brilliant job of thinking about gender--the slang word "twist" that everyone (except Tom IIRC) uses for "woman" shows how disruptive the female (and by extension, love) is in this world.

What a great movie. I teach it once a year, typically, and I've never come close to getting tired of it.

The only Coen Bros. movies I haven't enjoyed are TMWWT and HP. They both seem forced to me. Any words of wisdom on how to warm up to them? Or am I merely a man chasing his hat?

 

While considering my vote, I noticed that the Coen Brothers really haven't done anything that exceeds their first three films, all of which I consider essential viewing (BLOOD SIMPLE, RAISING ARIZONA, MILLER'S CROSSING). I voted for MILLER'S CROSSING as their best.

But HUDSUCKER PROXY and THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE are genuine duds. BARTON FINK and BIG LEBOWSKI are, in my opinion, pieces of their other films pulled apart and re-stitched to less satisfying effect: great individual scenes, but not great movies. FARGO and O BROTHER are Coen-lite, slowed down to mainstream speed. Haven't seen INTOLERABLE CRUELTY yet.

I was disappointed to read that their adaptation of TO THE WHITE SEA, based on the novel by James Dickey (of DELIVERANCE fame), couldn't get the final funding it needed. The novel details a downed American WW2 pilot's attempt to escape Japan, and the script was said to be largely devoid of dialogue, and would have been their first attempt at a genuine action film ("action" as opposed to things like KILL BILL or THE MATRIX, which I consider videogames with human stand-ins). The film was to star Brad Pitt and feature period sets; thus, the cost.

 

My favorite line from that movie among many great ones is"

"Son, you've got a panty on your head."

 

Shut the F*** up, Donny!

 

I had to go with Fargo, I was given a copy at a VSDA show I attended before it was released on Video, that same year it became the surpise hit and Academy Awards were a plenty.

The Big Labowski, is still a Huge favorite of mine as well.

 

This was a tough vote for me. The Coens are the most talented writer/directors in the biz and Lebowski, Fink and O Brother are among my favorite films of all time. I had to give the nod to Barton Fink because of the power of the visuals and the symbolism (everything from the pedestrian image of "stepping into another man's shoes" to walls and ears discharging the same stuff to biblical allusions regarding Nebuchadnezzar). What I love about the Coens at their best is that their films can be enjoyed on so many different levels.

 

Gotta go wit the Big L

 

Millers Crossing for me. Though I love them all.

 

Raising Arizona - I don't know if I've ever laughed louder in a movie theater (well...maybe Spinal Tap).

 

I guess I'll have to go with FARGO. The whole movie is good to watch and being a Minnesotan I really got a kick out of the, over the top, accent everyone had. I will admit that it is not too far from the truth though. Ooohhh yaaaah, suure youbetchya.