"Well it sure ain't Ozzie and Harriet"
June 27, 2008 10:23 PM   Subscribe

No Country For Raising Arizona. Parallels between two Coen Brothers movies. Via.
posted by amyms (30 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
It's like.... it's almost as if... the same people made the two films. Trippy!
posted by goatdog at 10:27 PM on June 27, 2008 [2 favorites]


What I missed from NCFOM were the usual Kubrick references. No more time for a quick in 'n' out, anymore.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:31 PM on June 27, 2008 [1 favorite]


Son, you got a panty on your head

My Fi-ance left me!

I loove to drive

Ya ate sand?
posted by longsleeves at 10:37 PM on June 27, 2008


The motel room where (Character Name) dies is room 114, so that's a small reference to Kubrick.
posted by zarah at 10:37 PM on June 27, 2008


I must admit that when I saw NCFOM, I did have the faint hope hope that the clerk in the gas station would tell Javier Bardem "not unless round is funny."
posted by scody at 10:38 PM on June 27, 2008 [3 favorites]


(hope hope means I hoped it twice, of course.)
posted by scody at 10:38 PM on June 27, 2008


That's a Freudian hope, scody. It wasn't really faint, you were seriously hope hoping!
posted by zarah at 10:40 PM on June 27, 2008


One thing I've always loved about Coen Brothers films is how they always have some object, some physical thing that they keep coming back to, as a visual riff. These things become almost like characters, they become players in the drama (or comedy, as the case may be). In No Country, of course, it was that crazy air-pumping cannister, blowing out locks and holes into heads. In Miller's Crossing it was Tom's fedora, in O, Brother it was the can of hair pomade, and the list goes on... The camera lingers on these things, they play a big part in setting the tone of a Coen Brothers movie, in giving it a particular identity. I find that really interesting.

BTW, just came across this Copen Brothers site, looks to be of interest:
You know, for kids.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:51 PM on June 27, 2008 [1 favorite]


Raising Arizona is one of the funniest movies ever made. It is also on hulu now, for those who are interested.
posted by phunniemee at 11:01 PM on June 27, 2008


Copen Brothers site

OK. Are ya sure?

Sorry, but I live for the obscure. Sometimes.
posted by longsleeves at 11:02 PM on June 27, 2008


The fish in Blood Simple still stump me. I figured they were some sort of foreshadowing, then spent the rest of the movie trying to figure it out. S'pose I need to watch that one again.
posted by Devils Rancher at 11:03 PM on June 27, 2008


From the comments on that link: "Oh my goodness. Both movies had pictures of guys at desks, driving cars, and working at stores!"
posted by zippy at 11:04 PM on June 27, 2008


OK. Are ya sure?

Well, my blood is type "O".

Get it? type "O"? You know, "typo"?

Aaaaaaah-hahahahahaha!!!!

I just kill myself sometimes!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:15 PM on June 27, 2008


What I missed from NCFOM were the usual Kubrick references. No more time for a quick in 'n' out, anymore.

I suppose There Will Be Blood handled that for both films.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:56 PM on June 27, 2008 [1 favorite]


I was just talking to someone about the similarities between Leonard Smalls and Anton Chigur. They seem like more than men - they are summoned by other's desire for the violent enforcement of their will. They are the living embodiment of the logical conclusion of vengeance and greed.

I don't know if they could convey it in screencaps, but there's a very obvious cross reference between Smalls shooting critters and flowers and Chigur shooting at a bird.

Also, i don't necessarily know that there's a connection, but I'm OK, you're OK, that there's what it is.
posted by louche mustachio at 12:25 AM on June 28, 2008 [1 favorite]


This seems a good time to offer props and respect to the man who's scored virtually all of the Coen's films, the wonderful composer Carter Burwell.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:51 AM on June 28, 2008


The biggest difference is that No Country For Old Men was a good movie, but I'll be watching Raising Arizona over and over again for the rest of my life.
posted by stavrogin at 12:53 AM on June 28, 2008


Is it repetition or style? I'm gonna go with the latter.
posted by wsg at 12:59 AM on June 28, 2008


"He was especially hard on the little things... the helpless and the gentle creatures."

Easily my favorite line in the movie.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 2:10 AM on June 28, 2008 [1 favorite]


Fargo: guy has his wife kidnapped, they chase after a briefcase full of money.
Big Lebowski: wife fakes her own kidnapping, they chase after a briefcase presumed to be full of money.
Lady Killers: briefcase full of money.

If real life was like the movies, briefcases full of money would be common, everyday objects that we'd all stumble across at least once.
posted by AppleSeed at 5:20 AM on June 28, 2008 [4 favorites]


No Country for Old Men: briefcase full of money.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:57 AM on June 28, 2008


Son, you got a panty Prince Valiant on your head.
posted by DaDaDaDave at 7:03 AM on June 28, 2008 [1 favorite]


Metafilter: No Country for Raising the Big Arizona
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:49 AM on June 28, 2008 [1 favorite]


Meh. I have to agree with original commenter who said, "Oh my goodness. Both movies had pictures of guys at desks, driving cars, and working at stores!"
posted by pmurray63 at 8:33 AM on June 28, 2008


Steven Spielberg can take a movie thats about Peter Pan and make it feel exactly like a movie about aliens landing because he trots out his usual themes about men in search of a father figure with a need to believe, and once that theme is out there, he isn't going to do anything with it that won't be hackneyed and obvious. He's just going to throw special effects at it.

The Coen brothers can do a lot of films about a very specific genre - say, strangely obsessed characters who get involved in messed up kidnappings (Arizona, Fargo, Lebowski) - and everything is completely different. Those three films have a shared sensibility but are also light years apart in tone, character, style and plot.

Thats because they are actually, you know, good. Real storytellers can start from the generic and through their magic make it unique to them and fascinating to watch. The goofy comedy of Arizona is very different from the serious serial murdering of No Country, despite the presence of an unbeatable bad-ass in both, and suggesting otherwise is like saying that the Country Bears is just like the Deer Hunter just because both star Christopher Walken.
posted by Kiablokirk at 9:41 AM on June 28, 2008


I would so pay good money to see The Country Deer Hunter Jamboree.
posted by skammer at 9:58 AM on June 28, 2008 [1 favorite]


Yeah, nothing new here. If you've kept up on the Coen Brother's films you would see they constantly reference their own work.
posted by P.o.B. at 11:43 AM on June 28, 2008


Anton Chigurh's soul was a rocky place where compassion's seed could find no purchase...
posted by miss lynnster at 8:35 PM on June 28, 2008 [2 favorites]


Kiablokirk - That would be the guy who also did Duel, Schindler's List and Munich?
posted by Artw at 9:31 PM on June 28, 2008


The Hulu logo on the Raising Arizona caps is sliced or missing in some cases. Does that logo move around? Otherwise this might indicate that the shots have been cropped in an effort to enhance the match of the shot.
posted by rlk at 6:51 AM on June 29, 2008


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