Barton Fink (1991) : You were wrong all along
A rare classic from the Coen brothers otherwise known for their western genre of films
Everyone knows Coen brothers for their heart-wrenching psychopathic thrillers like Fargo, True Grit and No Country for Old Men or commentaries like Hail, Caesar!, not to mention their biggest cult hit The Big Lebowski, but there is one particular movie which leaves me perplexed every single time I watch it — Barton Fink.
Unlike their go-to genre of films, the Coen brothers decided to make a mysterious dark comedy, and they did it in flamboyant style with seemingly effortless technique. Set in pre-World War II 1940s, Barton Fink is a satire on our self-obsessed thought process, more aptly in the case of writers. Barton Fink( John Turturro) is a pious New York playwright who has dedicated his life to theatre writing plays about the “Common Man”. His work gets picked up critics and he subsequently finds himself writing a B-grade wrestling movie for a big-shot Hollywood producer. As confused and unknown he is to the cinema world, he finds himself in a writer’s block and starts to get distracted by bizarre things. He tries to find help and motivation from the likes of his hotel room neighbour Charlie Meadows(John Goodman) and Will Mayhew(John Mahoney), another writer whom Fink idealizes. Barton’s adventures in Hollywood follow a series of funny misfortunate events, as the panic keeps rising when he is unable to come out of the writer’s block.
The whole theme of the movie is built into Barton Fink himself, evident from the title. He is a plodding, introspective, unsure intellectual whose lack of insight is matched only by his lack of talent. He befriends Will Mayhew (played by John Mahoney) who is a drunken novelist, and calls Hollywood “the great salt lick”. His entrance scene is him kneeling thighs down on a handkerchief inside a toilet stall. In as gentlemanly a way as possible, he is vomiting. Barton also finds a companion in Mayhew’s personal secretary Audrey(Judy Davis) who later on becomes an important turning point in the narrative.
More than anyone else, Barton’s most important acquaintance in the story is Charlie Meadows, his next-door neighbour at the hotel. He is a big, gregarious insurance man who tells Barton,“You might say that I sell peace of mind”. The mysterious Charlie who never lets Barton into his room is too good to be true, but Barton never realises that. All he sees is a sweaty potbellied man, the suspenders and the desperation to please. He is the ‘common man’ — someone in whom Barton can confide. “I could tell you some stories” Charlie keeps saying from time-to-time, but never does Barton heed. The same thing comes back to him in the end when Charlie reminds Barton that he never thought beyond his naive understanding of people. Barton also says that Charlie is lucky to have a simple working stiff but his own job relies on his mind.“There is no roadmap for it” he says. This is what the story essentially demonstrates to us. It’s that territory which is so fraught with danger that can lead a socially conscious mind like Barton’s to the crucible for a succession of such lurid and extravagant events. Basically, a prestigious writer sells himself out for a Hollywood pay check, and finds that torturing himself to produce high art in a world of crass commerce is a formula for madness. I love how the film is a self-commentary.
Barton Fink provides us a lot of contextual imagery that never really gives a definitive answer to why it is there. It’s not possible for me to express how much detail and deeper meaning it showcases. There’s always a million things happening, even when there’s is not a lot of action or intrigue. They’re always giving you clues, jokes, and narrative, even in the most slow paced seemingly mundane moments. Nothing is done wastefully or without purpose. Even at a very dull point in the narration when the character is staring at the painting on the wall or his ceiling or when he’s trying to keep his wallpaper from peeling, they’re giving you information about the character. Some films play down to their audience and spell everything out, and some films treat their audiences with intelligence, and expect you to pay attention, like any good literature or theatre. Coen brothers are really great at this.
What I also love about the movie is that inspite of all the tension and mystery building, there is still a lot of comedy in the movie. It might not the slapstick kind of comedy, but the silliness of the characters and the situations they end up in definitely produces chuckles all along. There are a lot of interpretations one can derive out the movie. For me, it was all about the writer’s block. The unease, the anxiety and the uncertainty of what is going to happen next, all eventually making a person lose control. That is really what a writer’s block is.
Another common interpretation can be how Barton Fink is really an anti-hero. He’s all talk about the common man and making a difference, yet when we meet him he’s in a tux at a fancy theater and then a luxurious restaurant. He chooses a hotel in Hollywood to be more “salt of the earth”, but one of the first things he does is complain about his neighbour and then lie when confronted about it. In the end, when Fink is at the climax of his troubles, he turns to Audrey instead of the common man next door, the man who has offered over and over to help Fink whenever he’s in trouble. Actually, Fink offers nothing to anyone than entire movie. He only ever asks and takes. He has brief moments of tenderness for those around him, but they are always less prominent than his concern for himself. Is this because he’s actually a bad person or because he’s sold his soul to something he doesn’t believe in and is now being tormented and losing a grip on himself, that’s for us to decide.
Performances in the movie were all noteworthy , with a special mention to John Goodman for portraying a character with very drastic tonal shifts with such ease. The Coen brothers share credit for their screenplay, which was then produced by Ethan and directed by Joel. He has a deliberate visual style in this movie complemented with the mastery of Roger Deakins. The sunlight shots through the hotel room windows are flawless. Coen brothers do justice to the Hollywood of the late 1930s and early 1940s showing it as a world of art deco, long hotel corridors and bottomless swimming pools. What really works for this movie is how natural and seamless the transitions are. The Coen brothers adapt the taking so well as the film transitions from a drama to a comedy and finally ending up as a thriller.
As bizarre as the film builds up, it ends on a very classic note: the flaming hallway sequence. John Goodman totally nails this scene. It’s such surreal moments that insure “Barton Fink” is more than just an indulgent bit of spoofy self-commentary on the show business. It ends on a very undecisive note without giving answers to an abundant amount of questions, leaving them for the audiences to figure out. Movies like these set the standard for not just only the other movies, but also for the audiences to make them go beyond the usual ‘what is happening in the movie’ and think about ‘why is this happening’. The film went on to receive the Palme d’Or in the 1992 Cannes film festival along with best actor for John Turturro and best director for Joel Coen.
