The Writing-Producing-Directing team of Joel and Ethan Coen have had another success with True Grit. It is difficult to think of another team that has produced so many high quality movies. Many of their movies are made from various combinations of of humor, action (often involving murders), and witty dialogue. In honor of their most recent release, Chimesfreedom ranks the top ten Coen Brothers movies so far.
(1) Fargo (1996)
Fargo is the best representative movie of the Coen canon. It is a perfect balance of the three Coen factors of humor, action, and witty dialogue. At the center of the movie is perhaps the biggest heart of any of the Coen films: Frances McDormand as Marge Olmstead Gunderson, the pregnant chief of police in Brainerd, Minnesota. Fargo’s final scene of the couple in bed discussing stamps is one of the most touching scenes filmed by the Coens.
Famous Quote: “You Betcha!”
(2) O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which is loosely based on Homer’s Odyssey, is one of the Coen films that is heavier on the humor and witty dialogue than on the action and violence. But the pitch-perfect soundtrack boosts this movie into the number two spot, along with George Clooney’s funniest role.
Famous Quote: “We thought you was a toad.”
(3) Raising Arizona (1987)
One could easily argue for any of these top three movies to be in the number one spot. All of the Coen movies have memorable great dialogue, but Raising Arizona probably tops them all. The long opening sequence that sets the story before the title appears is one of the funniest and best openings of any movie.
Famous Quote: “Give me that baby, you warthog from hell!”
(4) No Country for Old Men (2007)
No Country for Old Men won the Best Picture Academy Award for the Coens, and contains excellent scenery and acting. It has some similarities to Fargo in that the Coens perfectly capture the Texas landscape here as they did with the Minnesota winter landscape in Fargo. Also, Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell evokes the heart-in-the-middle-of-chaos as Marge Gunderson did in Fargo. But we are ranking this one in fourth place for not featuring as much of the humor as Fargo, but it is still a great movie illustrating the randomness and unfairness of life, a theme the Coens would revisit two years later in A Serious Man.
Famous Quote: “What’s the most you ever lost on a coin toss?”
(5) Miller’s Crossing (1990)
Miller’s Crossing is a beautiful movie about the battle between two Prohibition-era crime bosses with underling Gabrielle Byrne as Tom Reagan providing the heart and soul throughout a complicated double-double-cross. Although today the film is well-regarded, it was a box office dud when released. And what is the meaning of the hats? Is the hat some sort of MacGuffin? Worth repeated viewings.
Famous Quote: “What is this, the high hat?”
(6) The Big Lebowski (1998)
Many might place The Big Lebowski higher on the list, and if you are talking about the movie with the most rabid fan base, then it would have to be this one. While it is full of clever dialogue and a great performance by Jeff Bridges, the above movies have more elements making them greater movies. The Big Lebowski, though, is still wonderful.
Famous Quote: “The Dude abides.”
(7) True Grit (2010)
Chimesfreedom recently wrote about True Grit, comparing it to the original version of the movie. The Coen’s version is excellent, but the movie here is ranked lower than it might otherwise be because we already had the John Wayne original.
Famous Quote: “I thought you gonna say the sun was in your eyes. That is to say, your Eye.”
(8) A Serious Man (2009)
A Serious Man grows on one upon repeated viewings. While the action element is nonexistent, there is great humor and dialogue in this movie, which raises important themes in its retelling of the Biblical story of Job with Larry Gopnik in 1967 Minnesota.
Famous Quote: “When the truth is found. To be lies. And all the hope. Within you dies. Then what?” (Rabbi Marshak quoting Jefferson Airplane)
(9) Blood Simple (1984)
Many people love this neo-noir, perhaps because it was the Coens directorial debut, so we are including it in the top ten. Blood Simple features many of the elements that would appear in better form in later movies, but it was an excellent start.
Famous Quote: “If you point a gun at someone, you’d better make sure you shoot him, and if you shoot him you’d better make sure he’s dead, because if he isn’t then he’s gonna get up and try to kill you.”
(10) The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
The Coen Brothers’ attempt at a classic screwball comedy with The Hudsucker Proxy bombed at the box office. It may have failed partly due to the fact that the movie was not what many expected. But it is an excellent homage to classic movies, and Tim Robbins as the unlikely rising business star is pretty funny.
Famous Quote: “You know, for kids.”
Hon. Mention: Barton Fink (1991), The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), Burn After Reading (2008).
Better Left Unmentioned: Intolerable Cruelty (2003), and The Ladykillers (2004).
Which Coen Brothers movie is your favorite? Leave a comment.
(Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)
Bonus Coen Brothers Ranking from the Washington Post: Is here.
I came here via your post about CD stores, but this item caught my eye.
It’s so hard to rank Coen Brothers films. I would have to agree with both you and the Washington Post critic on Fargo as their best. I did not like “The Ladykillers”.
I would rate “A Serious Man,” “Barton Fink” and “Blood Simple” higher, and “No Country For Old Men” and “O Brother” lower. I love T. Bone Burnett’s soundtrack, and John Turturro is great, but George Clooney’s wooden acting gets annoying.
Best
Tom
Thanks for stopping by (and come again). I agree there are several good arguments for ranking those three movies higher, and of those three, I like “A Serious Man” best. I suspect had I seen “Blood Simple” before I saw “Fargo,” I might have liked it more.
I understand that some may not like “O Brother” so much, but I enjoy the goofiness of Clooney’s performance just as I enjoy Cage’s goofy performance in “Raising Arizona.”
Miller’s Crossing is my personal favorite, and my vote is for MacGuffin rather than symbol. (I’d be disappointed if the Coens ever went on record that it was a symbol and explicated it. MacGuffins are always better than than symbols, imho.)
Count me among those who are not fans of O Brother. I’m not a film studies person and my preferences are entirely subjective, but something about its humor was off for me, personally, and, again, personally, the Homeric comparison bugs me. Homer and the Coens both invoke common western archetyes in their Os, but I don’t buy it as an Homeric analogue. I am a huge fan of teh Cloonster, but, for me, this was the role I have enjoyed him in least — incuding the fisaco with Douglas’s wife. I know Mrs D and I are in the minority on this.
I think No Country was a blast (sorry for all the puns), but I think of it McCarthy and not the Coens. I was rather scared of what they were going to do with it, but I walked out of the theater awed by that it looked, on the the screen, exactly how the book “looked” in my head while I read it (which I had done many times by that point). I was also rather surprised that one of the few deviations on the part of the Coens had been to tone down the violence. That surprised me, and what impressed me most with this film was what I felt was a willingness on their parts to sublimate themselves for McCarthy’s vision, which asserted, for me, their confidence and power in their craft and is, ironically, one of its greatest proofs.
Looking forward to seeing the new one.
It is great that so many people now love Miller’s Crossing, as it really is an excellent movie. And, again, I understand that some may not care for O Brother and even Clooney’s performance. But to me the movie and his performance are a perfect reboot of the classic movies from the Depression era (much like the Coens tried, with less success, in Hudsucker Proxy). As I mentioned in the post, one of the reasons I love the movie is the way it uses great music in the movie. Admittedly, I am a fan of good alt-country, bluegrass, etc. I am not sure whether or not it is fair for the music to be a factor, but without the music, I would not enjoy the movie quite so much and I would rank the movie lower.
That’s an interesting comment about the relation between No Country and the author (and I see you’ve written about Cormac McCarthy on your blog). I agree with you, and it seems they did something similar with True Grit in trying to stay true to the book.
The Post is right – “Miller’s Crossing” is number 2. And don’t waste your time with “Ladykillers” – in one scene it’s possible to see the boom droping into the frame from above. It’s an absolute waste of a film. Here’s my challenge to you: write a complete and coherent blog entry by stringing together quotes from Coen brothers’ films … or identify the some of the most confounding mysteries in their films and get a discussion started that will solve some of them. Why, for example, does H.I. McDonnough and the Warthog from Hell have the same tatoo?
I have seen various theories about the tattoo on H.I. McDonough and Leonard Smalls (the biker) in Raising Arizona. It seems people do not even agree on what the tattoo is — Woody Woodpecker, Mr. Horsepower (Clay Smith Cams), or Thrush (muffler manufacturer) bird logo. Although most discussions seem to conclude it is Mr. Horsepower, I just did a comparison and conclude that the tattoo more closely resembles the Thrush logo. Mr. Horsepower has teeth and a cigar, and the tattoos have neither.
The interesting theories are either that (1) Smalls is H.I.’s father who abandoned him; (2) they are brothers; or (3) Smalls represents H.I.’s dark side, i.e., Smalls is H.I.’s doppelganger. Regarding the last theory, note the names of “HI” (high) versus “Smalls” too. Or it could be something else the Coens threw in to confuse us. . .
There’s some more information about the movie here: http://coenbrothers.wikia.com/wiki/Raising_Arizona
Whenever the subject of a top-5 or top-10 Coen Brothers films is discussed, I find myself flip-flopping on their 2nd greatest (depending on which film I’ve seen most recently, sometimes my #2 will be BIG LEBOWSKI, other times NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. After this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if TRUE GRIT comes in at #2 sometime soon).
One thing that never changes, though, is #1: FARGO.
One thing that is great about their movies is how well they hold up on repeated viewings. I have seen most of the Coen Brothers movies multiple times, and as you mention for those two movies, I generally like each movie more each time I see it. I also agree that it is very difficult to debate about Fargo being number one even though they did so many other excellent movies.