The Coen Brothers' America

M. Keith Booker

For more than three decades, Joel and Ethan Coen have produced some of the most unique and thought-provoking works in modern cinema. In broad comedies such as Raising Arizona, violent thrillers like No Country for Old Men, and black comedies such as Fargo, the filmmakers have offered brilliant takes on a variety of film genres. One of the most distinctive features of their movies is their skewed view of America itself.

In The Coen Brothers’ America, M. Keith Booker discusses feature films produced by the pair since their 1984 debut Blood Simple. The author focuses on how the Coen brothers’ films engage with American cultural history and are embedded in specific geographical settings. From New York to Los Angeles, from Texas to Minnesota, the Coens capture the essence of real locations from unusual angles, which often make the films appear as if they are taking place in an alternate reality. In addition, many of the brothers’ films are steeped in America’s cultural past, from the deep south of the 1930s in O Brother, Where Art Thou to the Greenwich Village of the 1960s in Inside Llewyn Davis. The Coens make particularly effective use of films from Hollywood’s Golden Age, producing their own updated versions of such genres as film noir (The Man Who Wasn’t There), the Western (True Grit), and screwball comedy (The Hudsucker Proxy)—not to mention their idiosyncratic depictions of Hollywood itself in Barton Fink and Hail Caesar!

This book also explores how the Coens draw upon cultural phenomena outside of film, including literature, music, and television. Approaching each film within the framework of Ethan and Joel’s overall vision. The Coen Brothers’ America provides an entertaining look at the pair’s work that will appeal to scholars and fans alike.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 232 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9½

978-1-5381-2086-6 • Hardback • May 2019 • $45.00 • (£35.00)

978-1-5381-2087-3 • eBook • May 2019 • $42.50 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Performing Arts / Individual Director, Performing Arts / Film / General, Performing Arts / Film / History & Criticism

The Coen Brothers' America

Hardback

eBook

Summary

For more than three decades, Joel and Ethan Coen have produced some of the most unique and thought-provoking works in modern cinema. In broad comedies such as Raising Arizona, violent thrillers like No Country for Old Men, and black comedies such as Fargo, the filmmakers have offered brilliant takes on a variety of film genres. One of the most distinctive features of their movies is their skewed view of America itself.

In The Coen Brothers’ America, M. Keith Booker discusses feature films produced by the pair since their 1984 debut Blood Simple. The author focuses on how the Coen brothers’ films engage with American cultural history and are embedded in specific geographical settings. From New York to Los Angeles, from Texas to Minnesota, the Coens capture the essence of real locations from unusual angles, which often make the films appear as if they are taking place in an alternate reality. In addition, many of the brothers’ films are steeped in America’s cultural past, from the deep south of the 1930s in O Brother, Where Art Thou to the Greenwich Village of the 1960s in Inside Llewyn Davis. The Coens make particularly effective use of films from Hollywood’s Golden Age, producing their own updated versions of such genres as film noir (The Man Who Wasn’t There), the Western (True Grit), and screwball comedy (The Hudsucker Proxy)—not to mention their idiosyncratic depictions of Hollywood itself in Barton Fink and Hail Caesar!

This book also explores how the Coens draw upon cultural phenomena outside of film, including literature, music, and television. Approaching each film within the framework of Ethan and Joel’s overall vision. The Coen Brothers’ America provides an entertaining look at the pair’s work that will appeal to scholars and fans alike.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 232 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9½

978-1-5381-2086-6 • Hardback • May 2019 • $45.00 • (£35.00)

978-1-5381-2087-3 • eBook • May 2019 • $42.50 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Performing Arts / Individual Director, Performing Arts / Film / General, Performing Arts / Film / History & Criticism

Author

M. Keith Booker is professor of English at the University of Arkansas. He is the author or editor of over fifty books including The Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels (2010), Mad Men: A Cultural History (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), Tony Soprano’s America: Gangsters, Guns, and Money (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), and Star Trek: A Cultural History (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).

Reviews

Arguing that the Coens’ work exists in a kind of alternate reality America, Booker compares each of the movies to the genre it is meant to subvert and contrasts characters and story lines with elements of the filmmakers’ personal and creative history. The author deftly makes his case; the book is engaging, though undeniably academic. VERDICT A worthy addition to larger libraries and of use to film students everywhere.
— Library Journal

Booker takes a thorough look at the oeuvre of filmmaker brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. Booker’s thesis is that their films all take place in a kind of “alternate reality” informed by the Coens’ deep engagement with film history and genre. Devoting each chapter to a different genre, including film noir (Blood Simple and The Man Who Wasn’t There) and black comedy (Fargo and A Serious Man), Booker takes a painstaking approach, giving detailed plot synopses of each film and carefully analyzing its relationship both to Hollywood classics and other Coen titles. Booker is at his best using his considerable expertise in film history to trace these complex relationships: for instance, the subtle ways Barton Fink’s protagonist is and is not like playwright and screenwriter Clifford Odets. In fact, the more attention one pays to these films’ finer points, the more one is drawn into a web of connections and references. . . . [A] solid contribution to the study of the Coens’ acclaimed work.
— Publishers Weekly

Booker knows the films intimately, and he argues convincingly that the Coen brothers’ films, taken as a group, constitute a dark but affectionate view of contemporary US society. Graced with numerous stills and written in a direct and accessible style, this is the best available one-stop guide to the Coens’ work.
— Choice Reviews

The Coen Brothers' America

M. Keith Booker

The Coen Brothers' America

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