The Coen Brothers Final Blog Post

Jim Emerson believes Miller's Crossing (Coen 1990) to be the greatest movie of the 90s, and after reading his review I've been persuaded to change my initial opinions of the film. Miller's Crossing represents some of the Coen Brothers' finest works through its views into the minds of powerful characters, its deliberately abrupt violence, and its intentionally stylized representation of a region.

In Miller's Crossing the viewer gets the opportunity to peek into the minds of the evil. Through Tommie's character in Miller's Crossing the viewer wants him to do the right thing but watches as he slowly and painfully turns bad. Through this first picture you can see how the Coen brothers have helped Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne) to look the part of a hard-boiled gangster. They created a film noir type lighting and mis-en-scene by having the gun the most focused part of the frame and having only half of Tom's face lit up. This shows that he's really thinking about the gun and how this moment changes who he is. Throughout the film the lighting gets more and more low-key showing Tom's turn to the darker side with the final showdown scene almost in complete darkness. At first we want to just agree that Tom is the protagonist, and that his moves are the right ones, but by the middle-end of the film we find ourselves seriously doubting our opinions. This kind of theme also shows up in Fargo and No Country for Old Men with the "good guys gone villains". In Fargo we don't know when to stop (or even start) trusting Jerry and his elaborate scheme, and in No Country for Old Men the Llewelyn Moss character we assume is just trying to get some dough but he takes it a bit too far putting his whole family in danger.

The deliberately abrupt violence in Miller's Crossing seems to be a common thread through the Coen brothers' works. A famous scene in Miller's Crossing shows the violence the Coen brothers were going for. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcDAPjRvjAE <---- Watch that, unless you have a weak stomach or big heart. For those of you who can't handle it, the scene has Oh Danny Boy playing quite loudly the whole time, and shows two gangsters break in to try to kill one of the main characters, and ends in crazy violent machine gunning and explosions. Instead of making the scene just crazy intense they decided to put Oh Danny Boy playing through it which brings in an element of sadness and awe at the horrendous lives of these characters. In other scenes the silence before someone gets beat up makes the tension build, as seen quite a bit in No Country for Old Men. Just when you think they won't show something, they do.

The 1930s are portrayed as just a little dreamlike as always in this Coen brothers film. The scenes at Miller's crossing with the gorgeous forest and beautiful trees are stark contrasts to the violence happening in the city. The Coen brothers use this technique in No Country for Old Men and Fargo as well. In No Country for Old Men you can see the expansive beauty of the desert and the way it sharply contrasts to the sudden violence that seems to happen around every corner. In Fargo you also see the wonderfully deserted Minnesota landscape in January immediately contrasted with the violence coming from the main plot. It almost seems as if the Coen brothers use these contrasts to bring you more into the movie world and out of the documentary feeling. When watching the films you know that after 90-120 minutes you won't be looking around your house for bad guys, because the directors have made it very clear that the film is meant to stay a film and not jump into reality. The beautiful landscapes paint pictures of hope, where after you realize you're watching a Coen brothers film you should realize there is none.

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In conclusion, although I may have nodded off the Coen brothers as being very unnecessarily violent and intense, I think they deserve some credit for making some damn good movies.

Robert Altman

Robert Altman really knows how to make his audience uncomfortable enough to make them not want to watch, but just that intrigued to keep watching. Throughout The Long Goodbye and The Player, the camera is constantly moving. At the party in The Long Goodbye the camera sort of tracks along the outskirts of everyones' conversations and does little zoom-ins on faces of people who are talking. You get this eerie sort of feeling like you're totally being a creeper walking around in someone else's house. In The Player the same camera movements are used in some of the meetings Griffin has at restaurants. Those camera movements help the audience either turn the movie off, or feed the flames of them really wanting to participate in the film.
Altman also uses his script- or lack there of, to help the audience go the one of two ways. All the characters talk normally; overlapping, not listening, cutting people off, and mumbling. There aren't really any super scripted perfectly acted out conversations, which adds to the affect of the constant moving cameras. I personally really liked this because it made me feel like I was just watching some events take place, instead of watching a show being put on for me. His style is very refreshing.

Toshiro Mifune probably doesn't know what a blog is.

Dear Mr. Kurosawa,

Once upon a time I enjoyed watching movies. They were a nice escape from the everyday life; a rather wonderful way to spend 90 minutes. After viewing three of your films, however, I have rethought my attitude towards movies. Not all movies are the same. Apparently not all movies are captivating and entertaining either. I find your movies to be a little disheartening. You once said, "Human beings share the same common problems. A film can only be understood if it depicts these properly." While that may have some truth to it, I don't really see myself having the exact same problems as some of your characters. No, I don't have a crazy father with a stone face. No, I don't find myself on an endless hunt for my pistol. And No, I don't own a samurai sword. But by saying that, I'm trying to relate myself to all the main characters and their literal dilemmas. Which brings on a dilemma of its own: I'm trying to relate myself to the hero; humans are full of themselves. You must have wanted the viewer to see that, through your earlier films with heroes you must have slowly come to realize that the heroes just aren't worth it anymore. If you wanted viewers to feel down and sort of bad/guilty about themselves after watching your more recent films, you succeeded. I think all movie goers probably need their popcorn to be spilled. (metaphorically speaking. Please don't ever actually spill my popcorn) So thanks for not letting me have too much fun watching a movie. And thank you for having me re-think my goals in life. And thanks for convincing me to take the exclamation off my name.

Your anti-hero,

Whitney.

Hitchcock

Between all three movies- The 39 Steps, Rear Window, and Vertigo- there was a scene in which no dialogue was said and yet the screaming with narration. Hitchcock used the editing in these scenes to bring out a dramatic story without using sound.
In the 39 Steps the "prayer scene" shows the story of how the 'wronged man' is trying to explain to the crofter's wife what is going on. There are a series of shots of the faces of the man, the wife, and the crofter in which we see the fear in the woman's face, the desperation in the man's, and the confusion in the crofter's. This helps to carry along the theme of the wronged man being completely blamed for everything.
In Rear Window the opening scene narrates the whole character of Jeff without saying a word. The camera moves through his apartment showing his broken leg, cast sarcastically signed, the heat of the day, the broken camera, and all his famous photographs (one of a possible extreme car accident). These shots all help the audience learn who Jeff is and how he got to be where he is without having to explain anything through dialogue.
In Vertigo, the whole "chase scene"/"stalker scene" shows who "Madeline" thinks she is. He followers her around the whole city, watching her every move, without ever saying anything.
Hitchcock could have simply had someone in the movie explain all of these things and just straight up tell the audience what was happening, but his use of editing really distinguishes the scenes and helps to bring the audience into the movie without just telling us what's happening. It gives us a chance to feel like we're detectives or part of the movie figuring out what's happening, instead of just lazy observers.

I'll Be Back

On imbd.com a user from dublin makes a very interesting statement - "For the gift of `Aliens' and `The Terminator' I am willing to forgive Cameron's `Titanic'." Clearly this man, or obsessive sci-fi Schwarzenegger fan, was a little mistaken about Titanic- but even so, he makes a point: these movies are distinctly different. What kind of director goes from writing a screenplay based off a nightmare and directing it as a crazy sci-fi back-to-the-future killing maniac, to creating one of-if not thee- most visually poetic historical epics of all time? James Cameron. What a stud.

There are, however, a few similarities in the Titanic and the Terminator. First of all, the titles both begin with the consanent "T". Second, they both have a passionate love affair between two people who have known each other less than a week- and then shortly afterwards, the male dies. Third, they involve a time period other than the present day. And finally, they both instigated a somewhat cult following legacy after the films were released.

James Cameron was able to carry through - however different the stories were - a directing style of elegance. The long clean shots were complemented by just enough close ups and basic back and forth dialogue shots. He kept his creativity with a few out-of-the-ordinary shot angles, but nothing too fancy or ridiculous.

So really, I'll admit it, it kept my attention, and I liked it. I am just one person to support that you can be a James Cameron fan and love him not only for Titanic but also for The Terminator.

[James Cameron] jump, I jump

James Cameron truley outdid himself. The epic movie TITANIC, the most expensive movie made at the time, shows how dedicated and non-willing to sacrifice quality Cameron is. The movie took a long time, over 200 million dollars, and much collaboration to get it done. This article explains some of the efforts Cameron put into the film.

One of the main challenges he faced was how to make a [almost] real-life Titanic ship, film it, controllably, and sink it. Since there wasn't a studio big enough to do all the filming in, Cameron had to actually have a 9/10 scale model of the Titanic built. Trying to limit the time it would take to make it, he only filmed from one side, having the other side raw- pipes/scaffolding and all. This shows that he was a very creative director, trying to make all ends meet and still have the final product be amazing. The facts that he hired Titanic historians to overview the interior of the model ship, actually took 12 dangerous dives to the actual Titanic shipwreck site, and spent so much time and money making it look acurate historically show the dedication he has as a filmmaker and how articulate he is in his ideals.

I also believe that Cameron stepped out of his box on this film. In the past, he had made mostly sci-fi thriller type of movies. Titanic seems to be drastically different, with a passionate love story at the heart of the movie. It shows that Cameron is able to produce an enormously sleek, beautiful film after all of his alien-type movies. I'm very curious to see if any of his techniques from Titanic will carry over into some of his other films!

Do The Right Thing?

In the film Do The Right Thing, the use of color was very effective. The whole film takes place in two of the hottest days of the year, which is shown very vividly through the brilliance of the overall colors of the film. The buildings are all red/orange and everyones' clothing is (are?) boldly red or neon blues. I think that the colors in the film really help the audience to relate to how hot it is, and how crazy tense everyone starts getting because of the heat. The colorful backgrounds seem to make everything happy looking, but could also be interpreted as just plain loud- which happens to affect how people act.