Watching the three films that we did, it is understandable that the Coen Brothers have come to hold the reputation that they have among critics and audiences. They have a strong, technical control of cinematography and editing that serves them well in creating memorable films. The stories in their films still take center stage; comparing Raising Arizona and No Country for Old Men, some important similarities and differences come out.
The big thing that the two films share is the general plot concept of individuals taking what isn't theirs and getting caught up in the chaos that results. Raising Arizona is a screwball comedy about parents with fertility issues stealing a quintuplet, and No Country is a desolate thriller about drug money and a number of people getting killed. So, there's clearly some difference between the two. One of these differences is in the tone that each film's conflict takes on. In Raising Arizona, there is a class conflict aspect; the troubled, childless new family in a trailer vs. the wealthy furniature salesman with 5 new babies. No Country turns out as more of a bleak portrait, in which once things go wrong, everybody is taken down. As multiple people remark at the scene of the failed drug deal, "they even shot the dog."
The two films can also be compared by their bad-guy characters. Raising Arizona is more comedic, of course, with Leonard Smalls, the 'biker of the apocalypse' who blows up rabbits with grenades. He's an absurd character, but as such he's the perfect fit for the film; he's not an antagonistic bad guy as much as a mythical embodiment of disaster. This ties him in somewhat with Anton Chigurh, who in No Country is an almost indescribable killer with a disturbingly off-kilter manner. He embodies the whole 'fate' idea of the film when he tosses a coin to chose if someone lives or dies. Both characters are well suited to their films and make up an important part of the whole for each.
4 comments:
I can certainly see the similarities between Leonard and Chigurgh, but I'm not really sure how much of that is the Coens' doing. After all, the screenplay hardly strays from the book No Country is based upon. It's mostly (well, completely really) Cormac McCarthy's writing that establishes Chigurgh as the way he is...
ps you have a panty on your head
I kind of agree with rick. Though i did enjoy entertaining the idea of comparing the two i dont know how intentional it is. Though the cruelty towards animals element was striking to me. Leonard and the bunny and Anton and the bird. When Anton shot at the bird it seemed to serve as a direct reference to Leonard. It seemed out of character and superfluous to include it. Though im not sure if it was in the book and would like to find that out.
I didn't understand how it fit with his sense of cosmic responsibility.
the killers in the Cohens movies are always using violence and solving problems wrong. I was wondering if you saw the same thing that I did? YOu talked about the villains from Raising Arizona and to NCFOM. Did you notice that Fargo, a lot of little characters were just as ruthless and coldhearted?
Post a Comment