Coen Brothers Study Guide

The films of the Coen Brothers are almost all original stories, however, they are very much informed by the locations and time periods in which they are set. They also draw on a range of influences that include literature, cinema, music, and true stories. These help shape dialogue, character, as well as the look and feel of their films. This guide aims to highlight these cultural influences and references. It should be of particular interest to anyone who wants to dig a little deeper into their favourite Coen films or find more in the same vein.

The following notes are compiled from various sources and wherever possible are taken directly from the mouths of the Coen Brothers themselves. All 18 films are covered and each one comes with a selection of six films that either influenced the film, were influenced by the film, or just make a good pairing.

Blood Simple

Filed Under:

Hardboiled & Hot Blooded

Notes:

In a strange way, the Coen Brothers first film—and ultimately their career to date—is directly influenced by Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead. Joel had assisted on the editing and after seeing the way that Raimi had assembled the production and shot the film independently, believed that he could do the same thing. He knew that a genre film would be the easiest to finance, and after briefly considering a horror film, decided to lean into a love of hard-boiled crime fiction writers like Dashiell Hammet, Raymond Chandler, and James M. Cain.

The title of the film itself comes from Hammet’s 1929 novel Red Harvest with the term “blood simple” describing a deranged fear that sets into a person following an act of violence or commission of a crime.

The Coens borrowed numerous plot points from Cain, in particular from his novels Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice.

By taking the action out of the major cities and into the hot rural plains of Texas, they introduce a mysterious, gothic element that allows the film to at least border on horror, and it could be argued that there are structural and stylistic elements horror. The film was released in 1984, a time in which many horror tropes (especially those of the slasher) were being combined with other genres, such as with The Terminator.

There are also shades of Hitchcock present, drawing plot points and characters directly from Dial M For Murder and Torn Curtain.

Six Film Syllabus:

• Double Indemnity (1944)
• Dial M For Murder (1954)
• Torn Curtain (1966)
• The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
• Blue Velvet (1986)
• Lost Highway (1997)

Raising Arizona

Filed Under:

Cartoon Crime Caper Hits The Road!

Notes:

As would be the case for so many of their films to follow, the film features rich local dialect. The Coen’s immersed themselves in works that are both from and about the place the film is set. They have alo gone as far as to say that the idea of setting a film in Arizona came before the story itself and that they were particularly attracted to the motif of the Saguaro, an endemic, tree-like cactus that grows across the state.

John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men plays a strong role in terms of character creation and its broader themes about the fabled American Dream, however, it’s the work of Preston Sturges, and southerners William Faulkner, and Flannery O’Connor which would go the furthest in terms of informing the story and its regional flavour.

Strong structural connections have been identified with the films Bringing Up Baby (swap the leopard with the child), Bonnie & Clyde, and Fellini’s Roma.

Finally, there is an influence of the manic energy and cartoon style of Looney Tunes, Monty Python, and Mad Magazine, as well as specific references to Mad Max 2 aka The Road Warrior.

Six Film Syllabus:

• Bringing Up Baby (1938)
• Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
• The Road Warrior (1981)
• The Meaning of Life (1983)
• Lost in America (1985)
• Wild At Heart (1990)

Millers Crossing

Filed Under:

Irish Gangsters in The Big Easy

Notes:

This film is bookended by homages, with the opening being a clear reference to the opening of The Godfather and the final scene being a hat tip to the final scenes of both The Third Man and Bertolucci’s The Conformist. The image of a fedora floating throughout a forest is a reference to Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1962 French crime thriller Le Doulos.

Dashiell Hammet’s Red Harvest is revisited, though this time it was mined for more than a just a title, with strong parallels to its tale of mob war as the Prohibition Era comes to a close and The Great Depression begins. Hammet’s 1931 novel The Glass Key was also a source of character and plot detail.

Interestingly this film came out in the same year (1990) as two other notable American gangster films. The best known is of course Goodfellas, but another, State of Grace, also has a strong focus on the Irish mob, though of in a radically different era.

Six Film Syllabus:

• The Glass Key (1942)
• The Third Man (1949)
• The Conformist (1970)
• The Godfather (1972)
• One Upon a Time in America (1984)
• Road to Perdition (2002)

Barton Fink

File Under:

Horror Noir in Hollywood

Notes:

Barton Fink is the first in a series of films based loosely on real-life characters, which I call The Doppelgänger Quintet. In this instance, playwright Clifford Odets provides the character basis for Barton Fink in terms of look and broad biographic outline. William Faulkner is also the basis for character W. P. Mayhew.

The spectre of Roman Polanski looms large over Barton Fink, with the Coens citing Repulsion, Cul-de-Sac, and The Tenant as key influences.

Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is almost certainly an influence in its depiction of a haunted and malevolent hotel that has come to possess the mind of a struggling writer.

And finally, the 1941 Preston Surges film Sullivan’s Travels is often referred to point of inspiration for this film, as well as many others to follow

Six Film Syllabus

• Sunset Boulevard (1950)
• Repulsion (1965)
• The Tenant (1976)
• The Shining (1980)
• Naked Lunch (1991)
• Mulholland Drive (2001)

The Hudsucker Proxy

Filed Under:

Manic Big Apple Biopic

Notes:

This divisive film is one of the Coen Brothers most deeply indebted to its influences which includes the films of Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, and Coen mainstay Preston Sturges. Some specific films it draws from includes Christmas In July, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Meet John Doe, His Girl Friday (especially for the dialogue of Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Amy Archer), The Lady Eve, and Executive Suite.

In its theatrical, stylised depiction of New York City, the Art Deco influence is clear and drawn from the city itself, and this is combined with numerous nods to the Bauhaus aesthetic. Also in the mix are films like Metropolis and Modern Times.

Oddly enough The Hudsucker Proxy is the second film in The Doppelgänger Quintet with the character and story of Norville Barnes being loosely based on the life of inventor and businessman Richard Knerr, who mass-marketed both the hula-hoop (you know, for kids) and the frisbee.

Six Film Syllabus:

• Metropolis (1927)
• Modern Times (1936)
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
• His Girl Friday (1940)
• Playtime (1967)
• Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)

Fargo

Filed Under:

Fabricated True Crime from the Heartland

Notes:

There are relatively few references to point too here, which is actually part of what makes it such a unique viewing experience. It has a deliberately undesigned quality, a banal quality, which both reflects the setting and serves to heighten the acts of violence that occur within. This is in addition to its “ripped from the headlines” premise and the unexpected collision of mannered mid-west characters with bungling yet bloodthirsty criminals. While drawing elements from true crime and police procedurals, there are ultimately no noticeable nods or homages to other works.

That said, it’s entirely possible that the title is a wry play on Chinatown (1974).

In terms of the “truth” of the story, the Coens have long maintained that the story is invented, but they have also told reporters that the film was based on real murders, just not ones committed in Minnesota. Some speculate that the film is based on the story of T. Eugene Thompson who killed his wife in 1963 near the Coens hometown of St. Louis Park. Another suggestion is that the 1986 murder of Helle Crafts in Connecticut by her husband Richard. This bears some deeper resemblance given that her body was disposed of with a wood chipper.

Six Film Syllabus:

• Strangers on a Train (1951)
• On Dangerous Ground (1951)
• Bottle Rocket (1996)
• A Simple Plan (1998)
• Winters Bone (2010)
• Wind River (2017)

The Big Lebowski

Filed Under:

Acid Flashback Confidential

Notes:

This is film number three in The Doppelgänger Quintet given that the character of Jeffrey Lewbowski was based on Jeff Dowd, a film producer, activist, and member of the Seattle Seven (as alluded to in the film) who drinks White Russians and goes by the moniker “The Dude”. The character of Walter Sobchak is also loosely adapted from real-life, with director John Milius providing the inspiration for Sobchak’s physicality and aspects of personality, as is Maude Lebowski, an amalgamation of three artists: Carolee Schneemann, Yoko Ono, and Judy Chicago.

The story is inspired by the writing of Raymond Chandler, who has really become the key figure for a particular kind of L.A. noir. According to Joel: “We wanted to do a Chandler kind of story — how it moves episodically and deals with the characters trying to unravel a mystery, as well as having a hopelessly complex plot that’s ultimately unimportant.” Joel has also cited Robert Altman’s Chandler adaptation The Long Goodbye as a strong influence on the look and feel of the film.

Other visual influences include Busby Berkeley and Salvador Dali in the film’s dream sequences.

Six Film Syllabus:

• The Big Sleep (1946)
• The Long Goodbye (1973)
• Cutter’s Way (1981)
• Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
• Inherent Vice (2014)
• The Nice Guys (2016)

O Brother Where Art Thou?

Filed Under:

Southern-Homeric Prisonbreak Musical

Notes:

As the film itself states in the opening credits, some of the structure and characters are based on Homer’s The Odyssey. In a sense, the film is also influenced by a novel by Howard Waldrop called A Dozen Tough Jobs, which updates the Twelve Labors of Hercules to a Mississippi setting.

Within the film is a plot point loosely based on a fabled story from the life of blues singer Robert Johnson, who was said to have sold his soul to the devil, at a literal crossroads, in exchange for talent and success. O Brother could then potentially be included in The Doppelgänger Quintet, not just for Johnson’s tale but also the character of “Pappy” O’Daniel who was loosely based on two Southern governors from the era.

The influence of Preston Sturges continues and again his film Sullivan’s Travels comes up, which is in fact where the title of the film is drawn from. O Brother, Where Art Thou? Exists as a film within that film, one that the protagonist seeks to direct about the Great Depression.

Bluegrass music is another obvious influence on the film, and producer T-Bone Burnett was at work on the soundtrack before the script was completed, allowing for the music to have an influence over the story. Many of the songs were drawn from the Ralph Peer era of hillbilly recordings.

Six Film Syllabus:

• Grapes of Wrath (1940)
• Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
• Night of the Hunter (1955)
• The Great Escape (1963)
• Cool Hand Luke (1967)
• The Broken Circle Breakdown (2012)

The Man Who Wasn’t There

Filed Under:

Domestic Noir (with UFO)

Notes:

Possibly the only film ever made that was inspired by haircuts. At the very least, it’s a small group. One of the props from The Hudsucker Proxy was a poster that showed popular haircuts from the 1940s. Somehow this stimulated the Coen Brother’s imaginations and they began work on a script called The Barber Project, which evolved into The Man Who Wasn’t There.

This film sees a return to the hardboiled world of James M. Cain, from which they borrowed themes and plot elements from Mildred Pierce and The Postman Always Rings Twice. Double Indemnity is mined again from both story and style, as well as some smaller details, including the name Nirdlinger. The Coens were particularly drawn to Cain’s mixture of crime elements with the quotidian, everyday lives of salespeople and shop owners.

The setting of Santa Rosa connects the film to Hitcock’s similarly themed small-town noir Shadow of a Doubt.

The film’s cinematography has clear and obvious noir stylings, however, it is also very much influenced by 1950s science fiction, which may have included everything from Them! to The Day The Earth Stood Still. Cinematographer Roger Deakins has also spoken of the influence of Kiss Me Deadly, Sunset Boulevard, and The Sweet Smell of Success, which he calls “one of the greatest movies of all time”.

Six Film Syllabus:

• Double Indemnity (1944)
• Detour (1945)
• The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
• Them! (1954)
• Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
• The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Intolerable Cruelty

Filed Under:

Screwball Courtroom Courtship

Notes:

Both a romantic comedy and a modern screwball, the film is notable for its attempts to translate its 30s & 50s genre influences into a present-day setting. This makes it difficult to place many of the film's influences, given that they are so deeply absorbed into the script and less visually (or vocally) present than with many of their other films. Some critics have noted films such as It Happened One Night, The Lady Eve, Christmas In July, and Bringing Up Baby as all having an influence on the dialogue and energy of the film. Preston Sturges also plays a role here, yet again, in terms of dialogue and character naming.

Six Film Syllabus:

• It Happened One Night (1934)
• The Lady Eve (1941)
• Bedazzled (1957)
• Pillow Talk (1959)
• Move Over Darling (1963)
• Out of Sight (1998)

The Ladykillers

Filed Under:

Southern-fried Comedy Caper

Notes:

As with Intolerable Cruelty, the film is a comprehensive and contemporary update of a style of film and also happens to be a direct remake — being the 1955 British film of the same name.

Six Film Syllabus:

• The African Queen (1951)
• The Ladykillers (1955)
• Ocean’s Eleven (1960)
• The Pink Panther (1963)
• How To Steal A Million (1966)
• Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

No Country For Old Men

Filed Under:

Once Upon a Time in the Badlands…

Notes:

Another film that is difficult to pinpoint any specific influences, seemingly part of a pattern that emerges for the Coens throughout the 2000s, where their films become far less referential. This one is really a product of its source material, being the book of the same name by Cormac McCarthy. As one of the leanest Coen Brothers films and the one that perhaps sticks most closely to its source material, there is really little room left for pastiche. The film is broadly informed by the Revisionist Westerns and Neo-noir genres, but those qualities are really embedded in the script rather than being references to any other specific works.

Six Film Syllabus:

• Touch of Evil (1958)
• Charley Varrick (1973)
• Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
• The Killer Inside Me (2010)
• Killer Joe (2011)
• Blue Ruin (2013)

Burn After Reading

Filed Under:

Farcical Modern Espionage

Notes:

Burn After Reading marks an interesting shift from the previous films in that it is a contemporary film that feels retro. It’s like a throwback without any of the obvious trademarks of a throwback. A film out of time. It does appear to be referencing various ’70s conspiracy thrillers such as Three Days of the Condor, The Parallax View, and Marathon Man, but of course with a modern, comedic twist.

Interestingly the music has it’s own cinematic connection, with Carter Burwell’s score is inspired that of 1964’s Seven Days in May.

There are elements of the film, stories, and characters drawn from real-life political scandals, such as the Clinton-Lewinsky affair. The character of Fran, one of the main starting points for the film’s screenplay, was loosely based on Linda Tripp.

Six Film Syllabus:

• Rear Window (1954)
• The Conversation (1974)
• Spies Like Us (1985)
• Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
• The Informant! (2009)

A Serious Man

Filed Under:

Suburban Tragedy (with Dybbuk)

Notes:

One of the Coen’s most unique and personal films, A Serious Man was largely inspired by their childhood and the rambler home neighborhoods they grew up in around St. Louis Park, Minnesota.

The look of the film is also largely inspired by the book Suburban World: The Norling Photographs by Brad Zellar, a collection of photographs of Bloomington—where the film was shot—taken during the 50s and 60s.

Six Film Syllabus:

• Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
• The Ice Storm (1997)
• Happiness (1998)
• Magnolia (1999)
• Ghost World (2001)
• Suburbicon (2017)

True Grit

File Under:

Whiskey-dipped & Gold Hearted Western

Notes:

As with No Country for Old Men this one is clearly a product of its source material, True Grit by Charles Portis, and the Western genre.

Six Film Syllabus:

• Shane (1953)
• True Grit (1969)
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
• The Grissom Gang (1971)
• Rooster Cogburn (1975)
• Django Unchained (2012)

Inside Llewyn Davis

File Under:

Seasonal Affective Musical

Notes:

The fourth entry in The Doppelgänger Quintent, with The character of Llewyn Davis being essentially a composite of 60s Brooklyn musicians Dave Van Ronk and, to a lesser extent, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. A particular source of material mined for “local colour and scenes” was Van Ronk’s memoir, The Mayor of MacDougal Street, itself a fantastic guide to the Greenwich Village scene of the 60s. published in 2005. The title of the film (and the record featured within) is a reference to Van Ronk’s own Inside Dave Van Ronk.

Inside Llewyn Davis is primarily focused on the music scene of this time and place, and so one really needs to engage with some of its musical influences to become better acquainted with the film. The Coen Brothers themselves have broken down these key influences, with some of the major ones listed below:

• Bob Dylan. The natural embodiment of this era, who actually makes an appearance right at the end, singing a very specific version of The Times They Are A-Changin’.
• Micky Woods. Woods’ 1961 song Please Mr Kennedy is adapted in the film.
• Hedy West. The song 500 Miles—sung by Jim and Jean in the film— is West’s song.

Six Film Syllabus:

• Don’t Look Back (1967)
• Downtown ’81 (1981)
• Sweet & Lowdown (1999)
• I’m Not There (2007)
• Howl (2010)
• Kill Your Darlings (2013)

Hail, Caesar!

Filed Under:

(Un)True Hollywood Stories / Revenge of the Blacklisted

Notes:

The fifth and final entry in The Doppelgänger Quintet, with real-life Hollywood fixer Eddie Mannix providing the name, occupation, time period, and basic story outline for this film — although Mannix the man could not be a more different figure than the one portrayed by Josh Brolin.

The film also draws from City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940’s by Otto Friedrich, which is described as a “dazzling story of Hollywood during the decade of its greatest success is a social and cultural history of the movie capital’s golden age. Its cast includes actors, writers, musicians and composers, producers and directors, racketeers and labor leaders, journalists and politicians in the turbulent decade from World War II to Korea”.

Hitchcock hasn’t been mentioned a great deal throughout these guides, however, his influence can be seen and felt throughout the Coens entire filmography. A special mention can be made here to the beach house, which is a direct homage to North by Northwest.

There are also clear and direct homages to the films and real-life characters of Esther Williams, Busby Berkeley, Gene Kelly, Roy Rogers, Carmen Miranda, and rival gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons.

The scandalous, fictitious, film-within-the-film On Wings as Eagles is possibly a small nod to rumors about Quo Vadis star Robert Taylor.

Six Film Syllabus:

• Quo Vadis (1951)
• Singin’ In The Rain (1952)
• Million Dollar Mermaid (1952)
• Matinee (1993)
• The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
• Trumbo (2015)

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Filed Under:

Wild Tales of the Wild West

Notes:

In an interview with the L.A. Times The Coens break the influences of this film themselves, naturally better than anyone else could:

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is the most color-saturated one, which looks like a grand Hollywood western. We were thinking of the films of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, and the “Singing Cowboy” era (B-movies of the 1930s and ’40s)”.

“Near Algodones which stars James Franco and Stephen Root, was more of a High Plains Drifter, a Clint Eastwood western set in a dusty prairie town, monochromatic and wind-swept”.

“All Gold Canyon is really its own thing, based on a Jack London story”.

“The Gal Who Got Rattled was inspired by John Wayne’s The Big Trail inspired us for We had to build those huge wagons from scratch because nothing that big really exists”.

“The Mortal Remains featured a higher-altitude gypsy wagon, theatrical show, something like McCabe & Mrs. Miller, set in a damp, high-altitude Colorado town”.

Six Film Syllabus:

• The Phantom Carriage (1921)
• The Big Trail (1930)
• The Call of the Wild (1931)
• The Old Corral (1936)
• High Plains Drifter (1973)
• McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)