The Coen Brothers Get "Serious" with a Comic (and Spiritual) Masterpiece
Earlier this week, I had a bad day. Epically bad.
I ran out of cash.
I lost my credit card.
I missed my flight.
And then, standing outside the United Airlines terminal at O'Hare, I dropped my cell phone, and as if in slow motion, watched in horror as it bounced and dropped over the barrier and onto the roof of the baggage claim area 10 feet below into an inch-deep layer of pigeon guano and dead cigarettes.
First I cried, and then I laughed as several chivalrous gentlemen from TSA, the Chicago Police Department and the city's Department of Engineering came to my rescue, eventually retrieving my (mercifully) still-working phone.
In those tense moments at the airport, beset by one minor calamity after another, I began to feel a bit like that poor fellow Job from Hebrew scripture (minus the nasty case of boils). Job lost all his money, his wife, his children and his health, but he refused to curse God. He was a good man, a serious man.
My having-a-bad-day woes reminded me of Larry Gopnik, the protagonist of the spiritually powerful (and powerfully funny) new film A Serious Man, that I saw last weekend at the Toronto Film Festival.
"A Serious Man" is the 14th film from the brotherly writing/directing/producing team of Joel and Ethan Coen. Set in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park, Minn., in 1967, the dark comedy follows the trials and tribulations of Gopnik (played by newcomer Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor and all-around decent fellow whose life falls apart in the course of a few weeks before and after his son's bar mitzvah.
The Coens, the Oscar-winning duo who brought you No Country for Old Men, Fargo, Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski, among others, are natives of St. Louis Park and were reared in an academic Jewish community much like that of A Serious Man. In fact, the Coens' parents were both university professors, and 1967 would have been the year Joel had his bar mitzvah.
Gopnik's suburban serenity begins to unravel when his wife announces she's leaving him for Sy Abelman (Fred Melamed), a bloviating, faux-pious fellow professor. A litany of seemingly minor, but life-altering calumny leads Gopnik (who sees himself as a modern-day Job) to question the existence of God and the meaning of life -- and of suffering.
He turns to three rabbis for answers to his questions, all of which are, the filmmakers seem to be saying, essentially, unanswerable.
Since their directorial debut in 1984 with the neo-noir thriller Blood Simple, the Coens have created some of the most enigmatic and enduring films of my generation. The average moviegoer may not realize the duo who gave us whimsical comedies such as "The Hudsucker Proxy," "The Ladykillers" and "Burn After Reading," are the same guys who made the bleakly post-modern "The Man Who Wasn't There" and the gangland period piece "Miller's Crossing."
The cinematic styles, periods and themes of their films are so varied, some critics have wondered whether there is an overarching vision to the Coens' work. I would argue that it is the spirituality -- the theological notions, the existential questions, and the religious ideas -- of their films that, to paraphrase one of the oft-quoted lines from "Lebowski," really ties the room together.
Beginning with Blood Simple, the story of a man who has serious doubts about his wife's fidelity and what happens when he attempts to uncover the "truth," the Coens have boldly engaged serious existential questions with darkly intelligent humor.
Each Coen brothers' films is marked by theological, philosophical and mythological touchstones that enrich even the slapstickiest moments. Each film probes confounding ethical and spiritual quandaries, giving us a tour of nuanced moral universes that may be individual (in the case of Barton Fink), geographic (as in Fargo), or historic (such as the Depression Era of O Brother, Where Art Thou?)
When I told people I was writing a book examining the spiritual messages -- the gospel, if you will -- of the Coen Brothers' films, most thought I was joking. Those who didn't figured it would be a really short book.
But for those true fans (and Coen brothers' fans tend to be passionately so), the project struck a resonant spiritual chord. Whether you've seen only a couple or every single one of their films enough times to quote them by heart, you know Joel and Ethan Coen make movies like no one else in cinema. The Coens' quirky and sometimes confounding films are rich with meaning -- much of it hidden just beneath the surface -- gems of spiritual insight waiting to be excavated.
Biblical truths run rampant throughout the Coens' 25-year cinematic oeuvre. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the sons. The love of money is the root of all evil. Love conquers all -- even death.
And that's just in Fargo alone.
The Coens have created moral universes in which some of life's essential questions are asked -- if not always answered. These queries run the gamut from the meaning of life and enlightenment, to the fundamental nature of grace, truth and love. There is seemingly no question the brothers are afraid to tackle, either with a wink and a smile or brutal honesty (and sometimes both).
There is a moral order to the worlds the Coens create. Whether it's a farcical crime caper or an American Gothic tale of betrayal, there always are consequences to the characters' actions, for better or for worse.
Bad guys are punished and the decent are rewarded for their innate goodness, though beware the viewer who assumes it will be easy to discern which is which.
Sins come to light; lies and deception are revealed. Occasionally, the hand of God intervenes to restore order from chaos.
A Serious Man, which hits theaters nationwide Oct. 2, encapsulates all of the spiritual themes the Coens have examined in their past films and introduces audiences to one of the more intriguing (if little-known) theological notions from Judaism -- that of the Lamed Vavnik, the 36 righteous souls in every generation upon whom the fate of the rest of the world rests.
The film continues the Coens' work as secular theologians whose body of work one astute critic described as "the most sneakily moralistic in recent American cinema."
Cathleen Falsani is the religion columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and author of the new book THE DUDE ABIDES: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE COEN BROTHERS.
Follow Cathleen Falsani on Twitter: www.twitter.com/godgrrl
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I just watched "Burn After Reading" on cable and it was terrific. Very funny, very sad and with it's theme of ambition totally out of control, very American.
The only Coen Bros. movie I disliked was Barton Fink. And it seemed to have everything. John Turturro- how can anyone not like John Turturro? Or John Goodman for that matter. Yet Barton Fink had no redeeming qualities that I could see.
To each their own. I admit I hated it the first time I saw it, but I saw it again years later and I was much more impressed. It's the type of movie that can be described as easy to admire, tough to love.
can't get my head wrapped around that one but still trying.
The Coens are two of my favorite filmakers of all time. Their movies are just a joy to watch.
They have been so entertaining through the years but dang; Burn Before Reading will be shown in film classes for some time to come as an example of how even master filmmakers can create a trainwreck of a movie once in a while. Hope this new one makes up for it as I am a huge fan!
I don't know of this "Burn Before Reading" of which you speak, but "Burn AFTER Reading" makes perfect sense when you realize that every character has a completely different worldview that is incompatible with everyone else's
The basic premise in "Burn After Reading" of self-deceit and arrogance is an old one yet given such a new spin by the filmakers. Clooney gets involved with a woman who's not what he thinks she is, Malkovich has delusions of grandeur about what he could have been and what he thinks he'll become, Brad Pitt is deluded by his own naive stupidity and pays dearly for it, Francis McDormand deluded by wealth and America's emphasis on a woman's body image as seen through surgeries, McDormands boss, probably a former preist thrown out of the preisthood becaus of alcoholism, risks his life because he's deluded himslef into thinking he one day would have McDormand's love and the CIA holds the trump card because they're deluding everyone and couldn't care less if they do. Just a fine film all around.
The Coen Brothers are my heroes !!!!
When The Big Lebowski was first on TV I told all of my friends "You've just gotta see this. Maybe it's just my twisted sense of humor, maybe you'll hate it, but you've just gotta see this movie !!!"
Everyone of them later told me it was one of the funniest things they'd ever seen.
It helps if you know your Homer, and some Greek History to really appreciate "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
A new Coen Brothers film? You bet I'll see it! I've seen every one of their films with the exception of "No Country..." (I read the book first and it was so bloody that I skipped the film!) I was delighted with "Burn After Reading" because Brad Pitt played such a goofball! The Coens just have a knack of making great films that aren't always box office crazy but still worth seeing! "Blood Simple" was one of those!
Hey, here's a good story. A country becomes enamored with the lies of a washed up B-movie actor and corruption rules the land for forty years. The new president gives people false hopes as he turns out to be owned by the very same war industry that the previous war criminal president adhered to.
There isn't a happy ending, either.
The End.
So.
You are mad at everyone?
Needs more detail...maybe a Presidential resignation followed by a Presidential pardon. Rampant inflation that forces the electorate to look for a hero to save them. Enter the washed up B-movie actor...morning in America. Cue the music...
Hey, wait a minute! I think I've seen this movie!
I'd go see this just to see their take on St. Lous Park in 1967! I lived on the Hopkins,
St. Louis Park border from 87 unil 2003, and while some of the worst and best
of Mpls. has encroached on this small patch of land, there's no denying that
is the center of Jewish'ness for the entire State of Minnesota! My wife worked at an
Jewish only retirement home there and an afternoon spent there is a
living history of the last 100+ years of the world!
lb
This film looks great.
These brilliant Minnesotans have a knack for making movies I can watch over and over. I still crack up watching 'Raising Arizona' even though I've seen it several times.
Raising Arizona was my first Coen film experience, and made me a fan for life. A hilarious film.
I saw Raising Arizona on VHS, and everything else since then (except for Hudsucker, which I just skipped until it was on video) on the big screen at least once. I am ashamed to say that I've not seen all of Blood Simple. They're one of the few directors that I will see whatever they make regardless of the reviews.
I'm a huge Coen Bros fan, especially Fargo, but I can't for the life of me think of a part when "Love conquers all -- even death". Thoughts?
Walter: There isn't a literal connection...
The Dude: Walter, face it, there isn't any connection.
P.S. Fargo really deserved Best Picture that year...and Roderick Jaynes deserved Best Editing for No Country for Old Men!
Hmm.... I dunno, O Brother has an ending in which love conquers all, and you could argue (I suppose) that the brotherly love of Walter and the Dude conquers (sort of) in BIg Lebowski.
But whether or not the Coens are religious themselves (part of the brilliance of their movies is that you know so little about them personally from their movies) there is often a, let's just say quasi religious sense in at least *some* of their movies. At least the Book of Job.
i'm pretty sure that love conquered all at the end of raising arizona, if h.i.'s premonitions came true.
Agree totally with Fargo deserving the Oscar that year. No Country was also masterful, but I still think Fargo is better. My wish is that Hitchcock could have lived to see these films. I think he would've loved them and they seem a natural extension of where his work was headed.
i agree about fargo. in fact, i personally feel that raising arizona and big lebowski were also better than no country.
I might just be the only person on the planet who liked Hudsucker Proxy.
I didn't mind it. The only Coen movie that I've seen and genuinely disliked was Intolerable Cruelty, but even that had Bruce Campbell in it.
It took me a long time to watch Intolerable Cruelty because everyone seems to hate it but I finally did recently and I thought it was very funny. Cool plot twists, Cloony was great as a sleazy lawyer and even Katherine-Zeta was good for a change.
No, there are at least two of us!
Loved Hudsucker. =) The only Coen bros. movie I didn't care for much was No Country. Something about it never really grabbed me.
No way, Hudsucker is a great Capra-esque movie! All my friends like it...and they live on this planet as far as I know...
As for the Ladykillers...
Ladykillers is the only one I haven't seen and have no desire to see. To begin with remaking a movie when the original starred Alec Guiness and Peter Sellers sounds like a bad idea. But remaking it with Tom Hanks playing the Alec Guiness role is a terrible idea. Hanks peaked in Splash or maybe Bosom Buddies.
And if a frog had wings, it wouldn't bump its @ss a hoppin'
- Tom
Anyone else think the final scene of Inglourious Basterds resembled the forest scenes of Miller's Crossing?
Not only the location and lighting, but also the betrayal in the woods? Maybe I'm reaching here...but I'm positive QT is a Coen Bros fan.
As far as I'm concerned, those 3 are the only directors of our time that deserve to go down in film history.
these movies are killer. sometimes they are visually mesmerizing, the wit flows like wine, and the violence is pretty much where it should be.
The Coens really have the best track record of any directors out there - even their misses (Hudsucker Proxy, Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers) are interesting (well, maybe not Intolerable Cruelty).
I'm looking forward to the movie, which sounds like it bears some resemblance to the short stories in Ethan's Gates Of Eden (an underrated gem, btw), and I'm definitely looking forward to your book!
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