tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post8869633617067926415..comments2024-03-19T07:48:54.021-06:00Comments on Gus Van Horn: Friday FourGus Van Hornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-58628793508162343792016-08-19T07:35:12.664-06:002016-08-19T07:35:12.664-06:00Snedcat,
Nice encapsulation of the variety of the...Snedcat,<br /><br />Nice encapsulation of the variety of the work of the Coen brothers. Their two favorites of mine, <i>The Big Lebowski</i> and <i>Burn After Reading</i>, came as recommendations from one of my brothers and my mother, respectively.<br /><br />GusGus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-53404854044481019402016-08-19T05:10:54.304-06:002016-08-19T05:10:54.304-06:00Yo, Gus, you write: "I was a young man in th...Yo, Gus, you write: "I was a young man in the 1990's, so I'll indulge myself a little, here."<br /><br />As I've commented before to your agreement, those of us who were young men in the 90s do seem to be the natural audience for <i>The Big Lebowski</i>. I've been a fan of the Coen Brothers ever since my father introduced me to <i>Blood Simple</i> the week it was released on VHS (he worked in a video store in the evenings for the opportunity to explore movies and get paid for it), but their films are so varied that the audience for one might not be the audience for another of them at all. <i>The Big Lebowski</i> is not just my favorite of their comedies but one of my favorite comedies ever, while their much more popular <i>Raising Arizona</i> never did much appeal to me, nor did <i>Barton Fink</i> (though I did like it okay). (I was amazed to find I liked <i>Burn After Reading</i> almost as much as <i>The Big Lebowski</i> because it didn't seem like my cup of tea at all, but I think it was Brad Pitt playing the perfect model of a himbo airhead that iced the cake.) For that matter, I wasn't that taken with <i>Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?</i>, but I liked it better than <i>Raising Arizona</i>.<br /><br />Same with their serious movies. <i>Miller's Crossing</i> is a perfect film tribute to Dashiell Hammett and one of the finest noir films I've seen, and <i>The Man Who Wasn't There</i> is a perfect film tribute to Jim Thompson's brand of noir, whereas <i>Fargo</i> just fell flat and short for me--but I haven't seen it in years and might be much more impressed now. Maybe it's because <i>Blood Simple</i> savors of Texas while <i>Fargo</i> is saturated with "Minnesota nice" that I reacted so much more naturally to the first...or maybe it was the shock of the new at the time. --Oddly, I also really loved <i>A Serious Man</i>, despite the fact it's a combination of <i>very</i> Jewish humor and Minnesota nice that most people didn't seem to relate to at all. (I haven't seen <i>No Country for Old Men</i>, <i>True Grit</i>, or <i>Hail, Caeser!</i> yet, though I'm eager to correct those lapses.) So yeah, all of their movies are thoroughly distinctive and thoroughly different, and usually of very high quality. This is a very good thing.Snedcatnoreply@blogger.com