Analyzing the Coen Brothers

This blog is a comparison between Fargo and The Big Lebowski. Both movies were written and directed by the Coen brothers. 

Fargo. 

This movie has a creepy murder mystery vibe to it. It is unique in that it does not have your typical "A personality" hero cop/detective/rebel who pieces together a puzzle to figure out the murder. Instead you have a pregnant police chief who you think unlikely to fit the role. There is no suspenseful moment in which all the pieces come together to solve the puzzle. It happens all very subtle and quick. The movie is a recipe of erie backdrops and scenarios which sort of send chills down your spine. The movie ends with questions unanswered, which I think is a sort of original way to complete the project. 

Big Lebowski.

This movie is a comedy/drama. It has some very funny moments in it, but is clearly presented on a serious note. The delemma in this movie is a man who is on a mission to fix something that was not right. His life was invaded by a circumstance that had nothing to do with him, yet was thrown at him because he shared the same last name as the subject at hand. The scenarios are comedic and cleverly put together, and the characters mesh with good chemistry. The ending of the movie leaves you with no resolve, but it has a feel good twist to it.

Lebowski differs from Fargo in that it has a different plot and cinematic formula, yet both are similar in that they give you dynamic aspects of the storyline and have unpredictable scene sequences. I believe this is the genius of the Coen brothers. They know how to take 2 or more movie formulas and mix them together in a dynamic way which contradicts "hollywood" politics that say how a movie should come together. Neither movie really made any sense, but that is what makes them great. They are unpredictable and original.

50 Dates With the Hudsucker Proxy

A couple weeks ago we watched The Hudsucker Proxy. This movie was starring Tim Robbins and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The premise of this movie was: a naive guy from a small town goes to a large city, looks for a purpose; success... Is befriended by a fast-talking city girl who pretends she is something she is not, recons information on the guy at his expense. Later things come to a head and she reveals who she is after developing an endearing sense of likeness for the guy. The guy then falls into a downward spiral in which his character suffers, and through encouragement the girl brings him back to his feet, in which there is an enlightenment on part of the guy, and he reconciles with the girl. The end of the movie can go a number of ways, depending on the individual plot and story line.

In Hudsucker Robbin's character Norville comes to New York in hopes of a promising job. He manages to land in the middle of the company stock scam, orchestrated by the board of directors over fear of losing stock options following the untimely suicide of their founder and owner. Harry is propositioned by the chairmen of Hudsucker Corporation to accept the job as acting president of their company, which he accepts. Shortly after taking the job he meets Leigh's character Amy, who is a reporter for the local paper yet claims to be the company's publicist. They develop a professional relationship while Amy collects information on Norville at his expense. Sometime into the movie Norville invents a loop-like toy that is meant to be swung around the hip in a "hula" motion. This toy is then marketed and soon catches on and becomes an instant success with kids everywhere. Through this success Hudsucker's stock shoots up and Amy takes advantage of Norville's naivete as she smears his name all over the city in her articles. It doesn't last very long tho, before she starts to see some good in Norville. When she tries to actually get through to him, things start to spiral out of control as he looses focus of his integrity and lets his success define who he is. The pinnacle of this story is when Norville abruptly looses his position as president, and shortly after decides he wants to end his life. He takes a jump off of the penthouse suite of the Hudsucker building and has an out of body experience with the founder of Hudsucker. His life is spared and he reclaims the company name, reinstating a new board of directors and brings the company's reputation back on track. Norville and Amy reconcile and the movie ends as Moses (Bill Cobbs) narrates the epilogue.

50 First Dates, starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, is kinda like Hudsucker in that the basic premise is the same. In Dates we have a guy who meets a sweet girl at a diner in Hawaii.  Lucy (Barrymore) has a fascination with waffles and when Henry (Sandler) walks in for breakfast he sees her at the table playing with her food. This is the initial meet, but then things get interesting. Harry returns to the diner the next day to say hello to his new-found friend, but when he warms up to her she freaks out as if she has never met him. The waitress has to pull Harry aside and explain to him that she suffers from a form of amnesia that has been with her for years. She simply forgets everything that happened that day the moment she falls asleep. So as if like a sort of groundhog day effect, Lucy is living the same day every day. Harry realizes the profound implications this poses, and backs off. After some time he decides to try and feel Lucy out, to see where it might lead. He meets her family, learns more about their coping methods to her condition, and works with them to try and "coax" her out of her amnesia. So instead of the fast-talking city girl, we have a local islander who is instead a man, taking on the task of manipulating this naive girl into liking him. The movie as a whole is not an exact formula of the same pattern that Hudsucker looks to follow, yet it shares some of the same aspects. Later in Dates there are some hi jinks that ensue and the scam is uncovered; Lucy finds out about her condition and her family's attempt to keep it from her. So we have the revelation of the scam, which broadens Lucy's idea of what each day is going to bring her. But after a little time to collect her thoughts, she realizes that she wants to be with Harry and so in a dynamic sort of way, she accepts her condition and walks into a relationship with him. Going forward, Harry and Lucky get married, and they spend the rest of their days waking up every morning, Lucy unaware of the life she's lived up to that point, which goes on as far as we know because that is how the movie ends.

Hanks for Asking

Our first assignment in Drama was to put together a collage of an actor and present through pictures, certain acting patterns and traits the actor brings to each of their movies. I chose Tom Hanks as my subject actor. I showcased 20 pictures or so from different movies, each with a distinct yet familiar expression on Hanks' face. I wanted to illustrate to the class that Hanks conveys a different point in each of his scenes through a very nonchelant, solemn expression on his face. Hanks' acting patterns are those of comedy, romance, distinguished success, leadership and hero. We find in the movie Big (1998) that he brings an element of comedy to his portfolio. We see the same in The Burbs (1989), A League of Their Own (1992) and Forrest Gump (1994), as well as others.

In 1986, Hanks starred in the movie Nothing In Common, where he played a young man struggling to repair a relationship with his father. It didn't connect very well in the box office; however it was this movie that opened his mind to more serious roles. "It changed my desires about working in movies; it focused on people's relationships" -Hanks. In 1993 Hanks tried out a more serious, down to earth role in the movie Philidephia and went for a romatic role with the movie Sleepless in Seattle in the same year. Both movies were a box office success and put Hanks on Hollywood's A-List as one of the "leading men" in films. In 1998 Hanks teamed up with producer/director Steven Spielberg to do Saving Private Ryan, a remake of the landing at Omaha Beach during World War II. That was more of a hero/leadership role for Hanks; one in which he played superbly, a performance which helped skyrocket him into the status of one of "hollywood's most trusted celebrities" (Forbes Magazine, 2006).

In the movie The Green Mile (1999), an adaptation of Stephen King's bestseller, Hanks plays a darker role of a more nalstolgic prison warden who has to execute a man he knows to be innocent. This showed yet another side of Hanks' dynamic acting ability, and in 2000 he won a Golden Globe for his work in the movie Castaway, a portrayal of a FedEx system analyst who is stranded on an island after his plane wrecks in the sea. Hanks has also shown his animated side as a voice-over in movies such as Toy Story (1996), The Polar Express (2004) and The Simpson Movie (2007).

As a whole, I think it's fair to say that Tom Hanks is an incredibly dynamic actor, whos acting ability has evolved immensly over the last 20 years, yet has kept an undoubtably consistant style, whether it be a romantic leading man, to a platoon leader in war-stricken Germany, to a voice-over of a toy cowboy named Woody. Hanks is one of the greatest actors of our generation, easily topping the list of the most "elite" actors in Hollywood's history.


-Isaac