Barton Fink

Rating:
Summary: Did "Barton Fink" really happen?
Review: Barton Fink is one of the most fascinating films I've seen in a long time. The amazing thing about this movie is that having seen it, one immediately wants to talk to someone about what it really was about. Most of the characters are not what they seem -- they all have a normal and a very dark side, which gets revealed as the movie goes along.

A possible interpretation of this movie is that the entire movie from the opening scene to the end is nothing but a dream that exists in the head of the protagonist -- Barton Fink. There are so many sets and scenes in the film that have a creepy, surreal and dream-image quality. The movie is as plausible as nothing but a horrible nightmare from which the author, Barton Fink, must gratefully awaken at the end, rather than being a sequence of "real" events. Virtually all of the acting is first-rate.

I think this lesser-known movie is a great achievement, on a par with Fargo or even with O Brother Where Art Thou, in its own right. A must see whether you are a Coen Brothers fan or not.

Rating:
Summary: A thinking person's movie
Review: The other reviews describe the plot of this film, but seem to miss the point. Barton Fink is a self-proclaimed writer of and for the common man, and yet everyone in this movie, from the studio boss to Chet the hotel clerk, is presented as a stereotype. These characters are not real, but a part of Barton's stereotype of the common man. Charlie (Jonathon Goodman) is the one character who is not a stereotype and Barton refuses to listen to him. The writer's block that Barton displays through most of the movie is not surprising because he does not know the common man, and thus cannot write about him.

The pace of the movie changes drastically when Barton invites Audrey to his room to help him with his writer's block. Audrey tells Barton that writing for the pictures is just a formula. At this point, the Coen brothers adopt the formula of Hollywood movies and people start losing their heads. That is, there is plenty of what the common man wants to see-murder, suspense, action.

The theme of this movie is that the common man does not want to see movies about the "struggles and triumphs of the common man" as Barton seems to believe. Action is what makes money. Take a look at a list of the highest grossing movies and you will see that Barton is wrong-stories about the common man do not do well. My hunch is that the Coen brothers fashioned this movie as a criticism of the viewing tastes of the common man. In this way, the movie is wonderfully ironic and a joy to watch. The last scene of a woman at the beach reinforces both Barton's and our stereotypes of Southern California. This was not done as a joke, but as a social commentary.

For added amusement, pay attention to all the references to the head, both verbally and with objects, in the second half of the movie. As the action picks up, the heads come off. It seems like a pretty clear metaphor for the lack of thinking that goes on at the movies. This movie requires the viewer to think. The other reviews of this movie suggest that the Coen brothers are correct--the viewing public either does not want to think or is simply incapable.


Rating:
Summary: Hollywood Babylon meets Faustian Pact
Review: This was released at the peak of the Coen Brothers creativity and followed their almost endless string of classics with Blood Simple, Raising Arizona and Miller's Crossing, before culminating with the sublime genius of the Hudscucker Proxy and the later, Big Lebowski. Unlike the films that came before, with perhaps the exception of their debut work, Blood Simple, Barton Fink uses elements of comedy not as an integral factor within the story, but instead, as a subversive device in order to create a piece of work that is darker and more grotesque than anything they would ever attempt again. As far as I'm concerned, it's the greatest horror film of the 90's hands down... drawing on notions of mental-anguish, loneliness, isolation, paranoia, defeat and despair, though layering these themes in tandem with the usual Coen idiosyncrasies, which creates a film that is, as a result, even more disturbing.

This film sees the Coen brothers plunging headfirst into the kind of territory made-famous by films such as Repulsion, Rosemary's Baby and Eraserhead... don't believe me; take a look at the use of sub-text. The use of the Holocaust as a recurring visual motif, or the Nazi ideology at play within the later parts of the film are straight out of Polanski's psycho-sexual thrillers of the 1960's (of which his later film the Tennant could also be listed), whilst the walls that excrete a seed-like puss, coupled with the orgasmic moans from the other rooms (not to mention John Turturro's Jack Nance hair-do) are all ripped from the films of David Lynch... This creates a brooding and foreboding atmosphere that few films can equate, with the Coen's continually leading us down a maze of dark alleyways and throwing us narrative curve balls at will... so, just when we think we've got the whole thing sussed, it shifts, and we, much like the eponymous hero, are left bemused and bewildered.

The performances from all involved, particularly Turturro as Fink and John Goodman as the seemingly amiable Charlie Meadows, are spot on, even finding a degree of pathos in the Coen's deceptive dialog; whilst the supporting players, Judy Davis, John Mahoney, Jon Polito, Michael Learner, Tony Shalhoub and Steve Buscemi, though essentially archetypes, are all on fine form. Meanwhile, the whole look of the film, from the seedy design of the Hotel Earl with it's endless corridor, smoky foyer, hundreds of rooms (though we never see a guest) and billowing fires that rip through the building as if it were the bowels of hell, create a nice contrast to the plush, white art-deco of the Hollywood exec offices, the writer's bungalow or the opulence of the mogul's mansion. The photography too, from soon to become long-time Coen collaborator Roger Deakins, brings out the whites and blacks, with only musty browns, deep reds and shimmering gold allowed to breach the carefully constructed pallet of the film, all coming-together to create possibly the most beautiful American film of the last decade... (alongside Soderbergh's King of the Hill, that is).

Barton Fink is one of the all-time great Coen Brother's mater-works and an easy contender for that 'Greatest Film Ever Made' tag... It's one of those rare works of contemporary cinema that is ably to be both funny and frightening, surreal yet believable, approachable though fiercely intelligent, whilst also acting as a strong reminder of what American Independent cinema used to be. It's the kind of film in which you'd find screaming fat men showing us the life of the mind, corpses in bed, laconic, foul-mouthed policemen, drunken-writers, big-men in tights, and, one of the greatest 'what's in the box' enigma's this side of Seven & Pulp Fiction... Added to that, we also have that gorgeous ending with Barton wandering the beach in the hot Californian sun... the mysterious box... the bathing beauty... that final kiss-off and, of course... that seagull plunging lifelessly into the water as the credits begin to roll. This is, quite simply, cinema at it's finest!!

Rating:
Summary: Early Coen Brothers -A Great Dark Horse Film from 1991
Review: For a long time I had this film on my "must see" list. If your local video stores are anything like mine, you'll be lucky to find this title on VHS, and you probably won't find it on DVD (which is why I call it "Lackluster" Video.)

So I finally just bought the DVD without even seeing it first. Like other Coen brothers films, Barton Fink gets better with each repeated viewing. The viewer "gets" something new each time that was easily missed before.

To me, John Turturro is probably the second best dramatic actor in Hollywood right now - only Kevin Spacey ranks higher in my book. He can move effortlessly from a Latino (the Big Lebowski, Mr. Deeds) to a Jewish man (Barton Fink, Miller's Crossing) and his dark, penetrating eyes are about as expressive as they come.

Watching his relationship with John Goodman's character evolve from total discomfort to total dependence is amazing to behold. Throw in Steve Buschemi as Chet!, the bellhop / shoeshine boy who always writes his name with an exclamation point, some really whacky Hollywood producers, a hard drinking novelist (played by John Mahoney, aka Frasier's dad) and his sexy sultry southern secretary, and you've got all the ingredients for a classic Coen Brothers trip through yet another Twilight Zone.

I only give it 4 stars because the pacing feels uneven in certain places - it just lacks the tight coherence of Fargo or Miller's Crossing. The film has a lot of weird, close-up shots, of a mosquito biting someone, wallpaper coming unglued and paper being typed upon. Though I must say the ending is absolutely brilliant. The more I talk about it, the more I want to watch it again !

PS - was 1991 a great year for movies or what ? Besides Barton Fink, 1991 gave us Silence of the Lambs (winner of a zillion Oscars), the Fisher King (one of my all-time favorites and a highly underrated film), sci-fi heavyweights Terminator 2 and Star Trek VI, chick flick megahits Thelma and Louise, Prince of Tides and Fried Green Tomatoes, and of course Disney's epic Beauty and the Beast.