The Coen Brothers 4th Quarter Writing Assignment

The Big Lebowski, A film by Joel and Ethan Coen much like the other one's we watched this semester, is a film showing the directors in their finest form. The movie is very different from their other movies in their repertoire, which in turn can be said about all of their movies. Even with it's differences, you can see the elements of their other films through it. The movie has the mystery aspect of searching for someone, in this case who ends up to be a 15 year old "brat", ala Fargo, and the quirky, offbeat humor and imagery of Raising Arizona. The film, unlike most of their others though, is really about nothing in a sense. But, as Roger Ebert puts it in his review, "The Big Lebowski'' rushes in all directions and never ends up anywhere. That isn't the film's flaw, but its style." http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19980306/REVIEWS/803060301/1023
Throughout the movie a few aspects of film can be seen that reverberate through The Coen's other movies. One of these aspects is the dream sequence/retelling of them.

A multitude of times throughout the film the Dude either gets knocked out/drugged/ other incapacitating effect and slips into a dream world. This is not unlike the dreams that happen in Raising Arizona in that they have a very ethereal quality to them and, in this movie, are just plain ridiculous. In this video clip it is apparent the extent they go through in putting in the dream sequences, where in reality they really have nothing to do with the plot besides in a way summing up pieces of the events that happened so far.


This dream sequence in the Coen Brother films can be seen as previously mentioned in Raising Arizona and to a lesser and more serious degree in the end of No Country For Old Men with Ed Tom telling his wife about a dream that he had. This shows that dreams have a significant place in Coen Brother movies and are a common thread between all of their work.

Another reoccurring element that finds its place in their work is a hunt for someone or something. In Raising Arizona the main villain, Leonard Smalls, is after the baby that Nicholas Cage stole. In Fargo, Marge Gunderson is hot on the trail of a murder occurring bizarrely in her area. In No Country For Old Men Anton Chigurh chases Llewellyn Moss across the state of Texas in order to find money that he stole. This can be seen in The Big Lebowski yet again with the disappearance of Mr. Lebowski's wife Bunny, which later turns into a hunt for the person who stole the money Lebowski was given to find her out of his car. The difference in this movie unlike the other movies is that the supposed crook who stole his money is a 15 Year old "brat" named Larry (at least they assume it to be". Unlike the other villains who are chasing or being chased, Larry is a very dull looking boy, as shown here


The Coen brother's use this element of pursuit in all of the films that we watched but mix it up a bit in the process; sometimes showing us both points of view of the people in question (No Country for Old Men) and sometimes only showing us one side of the chase (The Big Lebowski). Which ever way they show it, it is important to note the importance of this element of pursuit that link together all their films.

One last element of the Coen Brothers that can be seen throughout their movies is the fact that they use very imaginative and unique camera angles. This is most apparent in the first dream sequence in The Big Lebowski where they mount a camera inside of a bowling ball sending it down the lane so we actually kinda get the feel of what its like to be a bowling ball. They do interesting shots, though perhaps not as original, in their other movies such as Raising with the chase scene in the super market where they have the camera at a lower angle as though it were a dog, or in the other chase scene in No Country For Old Men where the whole time in shifts between close up shots and long shots giving the claustrophobic hopelessness of Llywellyn's character with the range that Anton Chigurh has with his rifle. These elements really make the film's all that more interesting to watch and lets the viewer give respect to the technical prowess that has to go into these shots.

Overall the Coen Brother's have many elements that tie their films together even though they are so drastically different from one another. It is through this ability that they have gained so much acclaim and are considered some of the best film makers of this generation.

Mira Nair

Mira Nair, like Robert Altman who we viewed before her, was a less than familiar face on the list of directors we were to watch this year. I had heard her name and knew of but had never seen the movie Monsoon Wedding. I think that her films were a nice touch to the agenda, being of foreign heritage and of the opposite sex of all the other directors that we viewed.

One of the main aspects of Mira Nair's films that I found to be interesting was the way that she mixed her traditional Indian heritage with the contemporary, increasingly globalized world. This is especially apparent in her film The Namesake (2007). The main conflict in this movie revolves around Kal Penn's character and how he must go between his Indian heritage, which is deep and very traditional, and his lifestyle he must keep up in the United States to be considered "normal and accepted by other members of society.

This is also readily apparent in Monsoon Wedding, albeit to a less extent, with events such as the bride having to choose between her life in India or her new life in America as well as inter family conflict like the molester uncle which are atypical contemporary issues.

I think that through these scenes and themes throughout her movies Mira is perhaps adding, as all good directors do, a little piece of herself into her movie. Reflected here are perhaps hardships that she has had to go through and she thinks it best to move those feelings on to the big screen, and rightfully so.

The Coen Brothers: Joel and Ethan

On the flip side of the coin as Robert Altman, a director who as said earlier I was not at all familiar with, I was very familiar with the Coen Brother's entering into this unit. Now I would not say I'm anywhere near a scholar on their films, or even well educated on them at all, but I had seen the majority of their collection including all three films that we watched in class, only missing out on a few of their first few which I should probably watch one of these days.

What strikes me above really anything else about the Coen Brother's is their capability to so easily move between genres of film to make any topic look like they've been making films relating to it for years. On one hand you have your directors like Michael Mann and Tim Burton who, while good, for the most part make movies with similar themes, both narrative and visual throughout them. On the other hand you have the Coen Brother's, who are able to effortlessly move from a Quirky Arizona family to a dry humor filled Minnesota cold, all the way to a Very serious game of Cat and Mouse played out in Texas. There movies in no way shape or form "tie in" to eachother and are each there own separate stories.

Although they don't tie into each other story wise, many of the cinematic elements can be traced throughout all of their movies. Things such as Long shots of nature/wilderness, minimal music, having characters that talk very little who have exaggerated character traits, and hidden cuts. All of these make the Coen Brother's particularly interesting, considering that they are able to do this so readily between all very different movies.

Robert Altman

I must admit that before this year, Robert Altman was the only director on the list of directors work we'd be viewing that I hadn't been exposed to before. Sure, I was familiar with some of his movies I later found out that he had done such as Popeye and M.A.S.H, but it was refreshing going into a director almost completely blind with no knowledge of who he was or what he did stylistically.

One of the aspects of Altman's work that I really enjoyed and found unique to the director was the fact that in all of his films we saw, particularly The Long Goodbye and Nashville, the characters dialog seemed to collide together. As one person was finishing up talking, the next would start early almost interrupting them, giving a really, gritty, real life feel to his films.


I think this fits perfectly into the slogan that Mr. Klobuchar gave him to fit the unit; "Controlled Chaos", because the characters seem to be almost ad libing their own lines as though it is a real life conversation but are all infact presumably carefully instructed on what to say and do. This is perhaps a play on Hollywood, as Altman often enjoys doing, where as most movies are very structured and to form, his is still the same way but with the illusion to the audience that it is infact not.