The Coen Brothers

by Ronald Bergan

Despite having their movies financed and distributed by major studios, Joel and Ethan Coen have manged to remain true independents, determinedly rejecting commercial clichés and never giving up their own fiercely idiosyncratic vision. Their genre-bending movies, alternating between spoof and seriousness, such as Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and the Oscar award-winning Fargo, reveal a distinctive stamp-a flamboyant visual style, richly conceived characters, crisp dialogue and brilliant casting.

Genres: Film, Biography, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Ronald Bergan is a regular contributor to The Guardian and the author of several critically acclaimed books on film, including biographies of directors Francis Ford Coppola, Jean Renoir, Sergei Eisenstein, and the Coen brothers.

Reviews

[Dominick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is disappointing, for several reasons. First, since the Coens have a quirky, offbeat style and sense of humour, Bergan seems to think he needs to invoke that sensibility in his own writing. He is not particularly successful. Second, the book doesn't read as if it has been carefully considered and constructed so much as it reads as if it were jotted down as ideas occurred to Bergan. While there is a general chronology, Bergan often goes off down tangents related to whatever point he has just raised. There are also many quotations, mainly form the Coens but from other sources as well (e.g. influences such as Raymond Chandler) that often don't relate in any obvious way to the context in which they are placed. At times, Bergan seems to lose track of what he's doing--e.g. for most of the book, he plays along with the fiction that Roderick Jaynes is a real person before finally acknowledging his constructedness (as anyone interested enough in the Coens to read this book would probably already know), only to revert a bit later to the conceit of his reality. The book is also not really fish or fowl; it claims to be a biography of the brothers, but is insufficiently detailed to qualify as biography in any meaningful sense, being more interested generally in talking about the films. However, it also isn't really either a detailed accounting or in-depth analysis of the Coens' film work. In short, this book is fairly flat and superficial.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very uninspiring. Production factoids are all very well, but there's no insight into their work here. And it's badly written. I bought this secondhand on a whim then realised I'd read it some years ago. Still waiting on a more interesting Coens book. Something about American vernaculars? Someone write that one please, and make it good.

[Garrett Cash · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've seen a lot of people complaining about this book and I can kind of see why, but really if you're as big a fan of the Coen Brothers as I am this book will be really revealing and insightful into the lives and work of these two enigmatic auteurs. The new and updated version examines every one of their films all the way up until Inside Llewyn Davis. While I don't agree with Bergan on all of his assessments, he makes many perceptive comments about the Coen's style, influences, themes, etc. It's a gold mine for me as a young filmmaker in thinking more deeply about my favorite contemporary artists. If you're a casual Coen Brothers fan, reading this through would probably be a bit much for you. Even I was starting to get a little tired of it at the end. If you're a fan or want to study them, I would strongly recommend it. I also think it's good as a reference for providing commentary on their works. I doubt that the Coens, who have resisted having a book written about them, will ever get a book much better than this one before they're old or gone maybe. So enjoy this one until something perhaps a little more definitive comes along!

[Harvey Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating look into how two brothers who know and understand each other approach movie making. Much differently that the “ normal” Hollywood process. The brothers write the scrip, produce, and direct their movies. They also tend to use many of the same actors and actresses from movie to movie, and mostly the same crew, camera person, and editors. The result is a movie that turns out as they intended it.

The history of the Coen brothers is also reviewed, from them being kids to who they are today. Joel Coen is married to the very talented actress Frances McDormand!

I personally found the book a fascinating read, and found out about some of their movies I wasn’t familiar with. I plan to see them soon!

[Matthew Tessnear · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite all the negative reviews on this book, I find it to contain many interesting tidbits about the Coens’ careers. I wouldn’t expect anyone who isn’t already fascinated by them and their movies to read it anyways, so why would anyone complain about the necessary plot descriptions throughout that serve to help facilitate the additional insights on their work and careers?! I believe the amount of plot description within is appropriate, and the character discussion is insightful. The one negative I do present is that the book is too much a commentary at times on the Coens’ choices and not enough an opportunity to hear them speak themselves about things. My struggle with biographies—which I love—is often that I wish they were autobiographies so that I could glean the most inside intelligence on the subject I possibly could. That is also the case here. Nevertheless, I have all their movies in my collection, I have watched all the featurettes alongside the movies and have read other works about the Coens, and I still learned many new things about the brothers.

[Matt Lohr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ronald Bergan's "The Coen Brothers" is mostly a book for Coen completists. It's snappily written and moves pretty fast, but there's not a tremendously overwhelming lot in here that will be particularly revelatory to people who already know the material well. Plus, this is one of those perverse volumes that, to a large extent, seems written by someone who doesn't seem to like the work of the artist they're writing about all that much. I can understand if you're trying to come to terms with your feels about the artist in question, but I don't get the sense that's what Bergan is doing here. It just feels like throwing shade.

Still, if you want a quick one-volume overview of the Coens' oeuvre, this is a good place to go.

[Anthony Ambruso · Rating 3 out of 5]

A real fan

I love the Coen brothers. I thought this book would be great. I found it mostly uninteresting, a little repetitive, and bit overblown by intellectual gyrations trying to relate Coen movies to other movies. The author really Wiesenthal stretches to demonstrate the latter. I skimmed a good part of it.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

The biographer threads together some interesting motifs and themes in the Coens' work as well as connections between the Coens' influences and their films, but the writing is amateurish and the analysis weak.

[Christian Hamaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recalled enjoying the first edition of this book, published in 2000. When encountering the second edition, with a different cover, at a used bookstore earlier this week, I convinced myself it wasn't related the book I'd read earlier (our smartphones had been left in the car; my memory is ... not so good). $9.50 later, I owned the second edition of a book that, I discovered upon our return home, I'd already read years earlier. Heartening was the realization, after a quick eyeballing of the respective editions' Table of Contents, of just how much new content had been added to this second edition.

So tonight I knocked out that new material. I was reminded that the writing style here isn't great - drawing, it seems, from press notes too often. An injection of Bergan's opinion of each Coen Brothers film is best when it's negative - the guy has a very dim view of "Intolerable Cruelty" and (less surprisingly) "The Ladykillers" - but the sketches of each film feel thin. I'm now wondering why my impression of the 2000 edition had been so high for so many years.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I read more of them, I have concluded that with books about movies, what I think I'm ultimately looking for is an actual interview with the subjects about each one. The chapters of Lynch on Lynch that I've read, either out of the book or via Criterion booklet reprints, is my gold standard for what one of these books would be like. Luckily, as far as a movie book that isn't like that goes, this is mostly agreeable. Bergan's approach is sort of disorganized at times, and he can get a little self-indulgent, but the book is still reasonably enlightening as far as what the brothers are like and how they approached each project. That said, it is sort of hilarious to me how much contempt this guy has for some movies, like The Evil Dead. In fact, he even gets sniffy about several of the Coens' own movies, like The Hudsucker Proxy, The Man Who Wasn't There, and Burn After Reading. If the Coens themselves read this, I'd like to think they were also amused by this.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been rewatching Coens in order and was excited to find this in my local store. I did not like his style. Started skipping ahead, didn't find anything really interesting or insightful. I've come across many of the quotes shown here before.

[Adam]

Some fun anecdotes and keen observations about the Coens’ filmography for their fans. Also some embarrassing factual errors.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a fan of the Coen Brothers' films. Ever since I saw "Barton Fink" twenty+ years ago (how time flies!). 'Fargo' was fantastic, and 'The Big Lebowski' is, perhaps slightly inappropriately, a firm family favourite. There are of course many other great ones too. Their canon is one of the most significant of contemporary filmmakers. So, even though this book - published in 2000 - only really covers the first half of their careers, when I saw it on a bargain shelf for £1 a while back, I couldn't resist picking it up.

Ronald Bergan does a solid job here of reviewing their varied filmography, and objectively conveys the process of the brothers' art in the making. He covers the films one by one, more or less chronologically, and with each spends some time exploring the influences and inspirations for the making of each, the writing, the casting process, and the production; as well as the crucially important music scores, the overall design and 'feel' of the film, the publicity campaigns, and coverage of the critical and commercial receptions. There is enough about their private lives to be of interest - as far as it relates to their film making, though it stops short of prying and doesn't descend into gossip as some other books on Hollywood players can do.

Reading through their impressive roster of work: 'Blood Simple', 'Raising Arizona', 'Miller's Crossing', 'Barton Fink', 'The Hudsucker Proxy', 'Fargo', 'The Big Lebowski', and 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' (the book finishes in 2000 as this last film is all but ready for general release) is an enjoyable process. One becomes increasingly aware of the Coen's subconscious (or sometimes perfectly conscious) desire to take an idea - typically inspired by a previous Hollywood representation - and re-mould it in their own inimitable and slightly off-beat comedic way. A good example of this is Preston Sturges' 1941 Hollywood Satire 'Sullivan's Travels' - one of their favourite films - of which significant motifs or key scenes are recreated in their 2000 film "based upon the Odyssey" 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'

It was also fascinating getting the lowdown on which authors and books, as well as the film makers, were the big influences on the brothers, though they probably won't come as too much of a surprise to any reasonably well-read fan of their work: James M Cain, Dashiell Hammet, Raymond Chandler, William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Clifford Odets, F.Scott Fitzgerald, etc.

Then again, on occasion the literary inspiration has been overstated in parts of the media:

{Joel Coen on 'Barton Fink' :- }

"It surprises me that some critics have mentioned Kafka, because I haven't read him since I was at university where I devoured works like 'Metamorphosis'. Some people have evoked 'The Castle' and 'The Penal Colony' which I've never read." Ethan concurred. "As some journalists have suggested that we were influenced by 'The Castle', I'm keen to read it."

As a fan of 'The Dude', it was particularly fun to read Jeff Bridges' explanation of just why he has such a weird smile on his face, as he glides upside down through the dancing girls' legs in the Busby Berkeley styled bowling alley dream sequence...

I'd love it if there is a new edition of this book at some point, to include some of the excellent films they have made in the years since 2000: 'The Man Who Wasn't There', 'No Country For Old Men', 'Burn After Reading', and 'A Serious Man' among them.

As the old cowboy fella at the end of The Big Lebowski' put it:

"Whelp, that about does her, wraps her all up... I guess that's the way the whole durned human comedy keeps perpetuatin' itself, down through the generations, westward the wagons, across the sands a time - aw, look at me, I'm ramblin' again. Wal, uh hope you folks enjoyed yourselves... Catch you further on down the trail..."

[Alexa · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The Coens approach each film as a new stylistic challenge accord to the nature of the setting, the period and the play, yet there are always certain stylistic deices that crop up in a Coen movie such as wide-angle lenses, complicated tracking shots, creative sound, color and art direction. Each film can be represented by one potent image: a hat, a typewriter, skyscraper, snow, a bowling alley, leg irons.

Joel Coen: "I don't think there's a thread, at least a conscious thread, anyway, between the different stories we're telling. Sometimes when people point out to us things that are common to the different movies, it's almost like, 'Oh yeah, I guess that's the case' as opposted to 'right, that's how it was designed.'"

Ethan Coen: "It's what you call style in retrospect only. at the point of actually making the movie, its just about making individual choices. You make specific choices that you think are appropriate or compelling or interesting for that particular scene. Then, at the end of the day, you put it all together and somebody looks at it, and if if there's come consistency to it, they say 'Well, that's their style.'"

But as Francois Truffaut wrote: No artist ever accepts the critic's role on a profound level. In his early period he avoids thinking about it, probably because criticism is more useful to and also more tolerant of beginners. With time, artist and critic settle into their respective roles; maybe they grow to know each other, and soon they consider each other, if not exactly adversaries, in some simplistic image - cat and dog. Once an artist is recognized as such, he stubbornly refuse to admit that criticism has a role to play...The artist in a sense, creates himself...and then places himself on display. It is a fabulous privilege, but only provided he accepts the opposite side of the coin: the risk involved in being studies, analyzed, notated, judged, criticized, disagreed with."

[Tom Stamper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ronald Bergan offers and insightful look into how the Coen Brothers make their films from a practical point of view. It's not much on the philosophy or the three layers deep symbolism that some might desire from such quirky filmmakers, but if you are interested in the actual film making process you will find that the way they work is as unique as the characters and stories they write.

The book is about how they raised the money for Blood Simple or how they waited a decade to get enough money to make Hudsucker. It's not about what hats mean in Miller's Crossing. It does a good job of showing how their recognition for their earlier films brought them stars like Paul Newman, Jeff Bridges, and George Clooney.

They tend to write movies with specific actors in mind and if they cannot get that actor they put the script away and write a new movie. For instance, they waited over a year to shoot Lebowski because Bridges and Goodman were committed to other projects.

You get a lot of origin stuff like how their films are influenced by noir fiction. James M Cain's Postman Always Rings Twice influences Blood Simple. Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest and Glass Key are the inspirations for Miller's Crossing. Clifford Odetes inspired Barton Fink. A friend of theirs inspired The Dude. They met a barber that influenced The Man Who wasn't There. Folk Singer Dave Van Ronk Inspired Inside Llewyn Davis. Knowing such things helps the budding screenwriter understand how you go about getting ideas and how you make them your own. The Coen's just have a knack for taking something known and making it their own.

The book ends with a filmography with credits and plot synopsis of each of their films. A reader might want to read that section first for any of the films they haven't seen in order to better understand the story in the main section.

[Arnulfo Velasco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro bastante correcto e informativo, pero que tiene, por momentos, el defecto de que su autor se cree humorista. Y sus chistes son notablemente malos. Aparte de ello, es más un periodista que un investigador, y más un investigador que un analista. Es decir que el libro está construido, sobre todo, a partir de entrevistas, con el agregado de la consulta de algunos pocos textos, y muy poco análisis crítico de las películas. Pero, a pesar de todo ello, es una lectura conveniente para quien se interese en conocer mejor la obra de los hermanos Coen, que, después de todo, son unos de los muy pocos creadores cinematográficos que tienen un cierto nivel de calidad dentro del impresionante desierto fílmico de los Estados Unidos, casi exclusivamente habitado por cintas de superhéroes, remakes, continuaciones y otras alimañas por el estilo.

[Dufus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ronald Bergan's examination of the Coen Brothers is more critical fan appreciation of their collective filmography than it is a biography. While this second edition offers an updated analysis of the Coen's films since 2005, Bergan does seem to be tooting his own horn in cleverness when broaching the issue of the brothers selling out with Intolerable Cruelty and The Lady Killers. Nevertheless, Bergan's book should be a treat for those who love the quirky and idiosyncratic films of Joel and Ethan Coen.

[Federico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thankfully, this is not a classic bio. True to the Coens' simplicity and directness, it follows their films, describing each, giving plenty of context and background, and following each production's career, both critically and commercially . I found this book lively, fun, and honest about the Coens and their films. I haven't seen all of them but the segments relating to the films I'd missed did not make me feel like an outsider looking in. We follow the Coens themselves mostly through quotes they made when working on each film, which is a nice way to follow their evolution.

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

More a filmography than a biography. I can't really blame Ronald Bergman for the lack of depth, because the Coen brothers are notoriously not forthcoming in their interviews. While interviews scrabble to find meaning in their movies, the Coen Brothers believe that a hat rolling down the road is simply a hat rolling down the road.

[Lord Humungus · Rating 3 out of 5]

V interesting look into the lives of the Coen Brothers, their films and their inspirations, etc. Good stuff.

[Prasun Sindhuliya · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best book about filmmaking.