The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers

The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers
Author: Mark T. Conard
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 467
Release: 2008-12-12
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0813138698


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“Written for both fans of the Coen brothers and the philosophically curious, without the technical language . . . educational and entertaining.” —Library Journal Joel and Ethan Coen have made films that redefined the gangster movie, the screwball comedy, the fable, and the film noir, but no matter what genre they’re playing with, they consistently focus on the struggles of complex characters to understand themselves and their places in the strange worlds they inhabit. To borrow a phrase from Barton Fink, all Coen films explore “the life of the mind” and show that the human condition can often be simultaneously comic and tragic, profound and absurd. The essays in this book explore the challenging moral and philosophical terrain of the Coen repertoire. Several address how Coen films often share film noir’s essential philosophical assumptions: power corrupts, evil is real, and human control of fate is an illusion. In Fargo, not even Minnesota’s blankets of snow can hide Jerry Lundegaard’s crimes or brighten his long, dark night of the soul. The tale of love, marriage, betrayal, and divorce in Intolerable Cruelty transcends the plight of the characters to illuminate competing theories of justice. Even in lighter fare, such as Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski, the comedy emerges from characters’ journeys to the brink of an amoral abyss. However, the Coens often knowingly and gleefully subvert conventions and occasionally offer symbolic rebirths and other hopeful outcomes. At the end of The Big Lebowski, for example, the Dude abides, his laziness has become a virtue, and the human comedy is perpetuating itself with the promised arrival of a newborn Lebowski. The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers sheds new light on the work of these cinematic visionaries. From Blood Simple to No Country for Old Men, the Coens’ characters look for answers—though in some cases, their quest for answers leads, at best, only to more questions.

The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers
Language: en
Pages: 467
Authors: Mark T. Conard
Categories: Performing Arts
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008-12-12 - Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

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“Written for both fans of the Coen brothers and the philosophically curious, without the technical language . . . educational and entertaining.” —Library
The Coen Brothers
Language: en
Pages: 254
Authors: Joel Coen
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2006 - Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

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Collected interviews with the quirky and distinctive writer/director team of such films as Raising Arizona, Intolerable Cruelty, and Barton Fink
The Cinema of the Coen Brothers
Language: en
Pages: 432
Authors: Jeffrey Adams
Categories: Performing Arts
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015-07-14 - Publisher: Columbia University Press

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The films of the Coen brothers have become a contemporary cultural phenomenon. Highly acclaimed and commercially successful, over the years their movies have at
The Coen Brothers Encyclopedia
Language: en
Pages: 229
Authors: Lynnea Chapman King
Categories: Performing Arts
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-10-10 - Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

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Joel and Ethan Coen have written and directed some of the most celebrated American films of the last thirty years. The output of their work has embraced a wide
The Coen Brothers' America
Language: en
Pages: 232
Authors: M. Keith Booker
Categories: Performing Arts
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-05-24 - Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

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From Blood Simple and Raising Arizona to Inside Llewyn Davis and Hail, Caesar!, the films of Joel and Ethan Coen represent a sort of alternate reality of Americ