The Coen Brothers, arguably the most iconic and influential directing team in cinema history, have indelibly shaped popular culture and cemented their legacy. Spanning from “Blood Simple” to “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” their body of work is characterized by its diverse range and unique stylistic fingerprint. This article will delve into a Coen Brothers biography, tracing their origins and dissecting the defining elements of their filmmaking approach to ultimately answer the question: who exactly are the Coen Brothers?
Coen Brothers auteur – Dividing credit
Joel and Ethan Coen constitute the sibling directing team known as the Coen Brothers. For many years, they circumvented Directors Guild of America (DGA) rules that stipulate a single director credit per film by assigning directorial duties to Joel and producing to Ethan, while sharing screenplay credit.
Despite this formal division, every Coen Brothers film was, in reality, a collaborative directorial effort. The brothers have humorously stated that Joel’s older age was the deciding factor in receiving the director credit. Furthermore, Joel and Ethan often jointly edited their films, but opted to credit the fictional “Roderick Jaynes” as the editor. This invented persona successfully deceived Hollywood for some time, even earning two Academy Award nominations for Best Film Editing.
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) eventually made an exception to their rules, allowing directing teams like the Coen brothers, Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, and the Wachowskis to share directorial credit. The Coens first received shared credit for directing on the film The Ladykillers in 2004.
The Coen Brothers’ origins
Born in Minnesota during the 1950s, the Coen Brothers would later revisit their home state as the setting for their acclaimed black comedy thriller, Fargo. Their directorial debut, Blood Simple, was released when Joel and Ethan were 29 and 32, respectively, though their filmmaking journey began much earlier, experimenting with a Super-8 camera as pre-teens in an airport, complete with props like a suit and briefcase.
While Joel received formal film education at NYU, a top film school, Ethan pursued philosophy at Princeton. Despite their different academic paths, the brothers collaborated on screenplays, with Joel simultaneously working as an assistant editor, which allowed him to network with filmmakers like Sam Raimi.
Joel Coen’s work as an assistant editor on Raimi’s low-budget horror film, The Evil Dead, highlighted a shared sensibility between the filmmakers, particularly their fondness for incorporating cartoonish, Three Stooges-inspired humor into more serious narratives.
This connection led to several collaborations, including a Raimi cameo in the Coens’ Miller’s Crossing, Crimewave, which Raimi directed and the trio co-wrote, and The Hudsucker Proxy, directed by the Coens and co-written by the trio.
The Coen Brothers are known for their recurring collaborations with a stable of actors, often crafting roles specifically for performers like Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, and John Turturro. A particularly significant relationship is their partnership with Frances McDormand, who is also Joel Coen’s wife. Their collaboration began with Blood Simple, McDormand’s debut and the Coens’ first major cinematic success, following a few earlier short films.
“Blood Simple,” the Coen Brothers’ independently produced debut, secured funding through private investors and stands as a stark and compelling highlight in their filmography. Unlike many of their later films that incorporate dark or eccentric humor, “Blood Simple” maintains a consistently serious tone.
This intensity would remain unmatched until “No Country for Old Men” in 2007. Heavily inspired by film noir and hard-boiled thrillers, “Blood Simple” marked the beginning of the Coens’ exploration of the neo-noir genre. Although “Blood Simple” doesn’t showcase all the trademarks that would come to define the Coen Brothers, their distinctive style is clearly emerging, leaving its mark on the film’s atmosphere and execution.
Riding the wave of critical acclaim from their debut, the Coen Brothers secured a production agreement with an independent studio, granting them full artistic autonomy and final say on their projects. This freedom allowed them to explore the breadth of their distinctive filmmaking style in subsequent films.
Early Coen Brothers films
After their grim, neo-noir introduction with Blood Simple, the Coen Brothers made an abrupt stylistic shift with their next film, Raising Arizona. This quick departure demonstrated their ability to traverse genres while retaining their unique creative vision.
The serious atmosphere of Blood Simple gave way to the madcap humor of Raising Arizona, a film that often feels like a live-action cartoon. As the Coen Brothers continued to build their filmography, their signature trademarks began to emerge, one of the most consistent being the use of desks.
Hot on the heels of “Raising Arizona”, the Coen Brothers cemented their status as major cinematic figures with two subsequent films that defied easy categorization. First came “Miller’s Crossing,” a stylish gangster film set in the past, representing a partial return to the film noir elements seen in their earlier work, though with a less pronounced stylistic flair. The very next year, they released “Barton Fink,” a psychological drama about a writer battling writer’s block, which became their biggest critical success to date.
Interestingly, the screenplay for “Barton Fink” emerged from the Coens’ own struggles with writer’s block while working on “Miller’s Crossing.” In fact, they paused writing “Miller’s Crossing” and swiftly wrote “Barton Fink” in just three weeks before returning to finish their gangster epic, even including subtle references to “Barton Fink” within “Miller’s Crossing.”
Barton Fink marked the Coen Brothers’ initial foray into the Academy Awards, earning three nominations. The film achieved greater recognition at the Cannes Film Festival, where it uniquely secured the Palme d’Or, Best Director, and Best Actor awards, a feat comparable to winning Best Picture at the Oscars and unprecedented at the time. Furthermore, Barton Fink represented a departure for the Coens as their first collaboration with cinematographer Roger Deakins, instead of their usual partner, Barry Sonnenfeld.
The Coen Brothers’ close call with failure
In 1994, the Coen Brothers released The Hudsucker Proxy, a comedy about a hapless inventor imbued with a fairy-tale quality, which unfortunately marked their first significant setback. This film, boasting their largest budget to date, was also their inaugural collaboration with a major studio and featured A-list actors in prominent roles.
While retaining many of the Coen Brothers’ signature stylistic elements, The Hudsucker Proxy was ultimately their first film to not achieve profitability. With a budget of $40 million, its worldwide box office earnings of less than $3 million represented a considerable disappointment. Despite a more positive reevaluation from critics in subsequent years, the initial reaction to The Hudsucker Proxy was overwhelmingly negative, both critically and financially.
While The Hudsucker Proxy wasn’t the only Coen Brothers film to be met with a lukewarm reception, their filmography, though filled with masterpieces, does contain a few less successful projects. Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers, for example, don’t quite measure up to their generally high standards, although even a lesser Coen Brothers film often surpasses many other movies released in the same year.
The Coen Brothers established a distinctive and recognizable film style
Following the lukewarm response to The Hudsucker Proxy, the Coen brothers made a triumphant return with Fargo, a darkly humorous crime thriller that unfolded in their familiar stomping grounds of Minnesota and, naturally, Fargo, North Dakota. Fargo‘s release was met with widespread acclaim, earning the Coens their first Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay, along with nominations for directing and editing—the latter under their alias, Roderick Jaynes, highlighting a writing approach that has historically resonated with the Academy.
By this point, the Coen Brothers had firmly established their signature style, solidifying a directorial approach that defied easy categorization by genre or tone yet remained instantly identifiable as uniquely “a Coen Brothers’ film.”
Despite common ground, the content and reception of their reviews varied significantly. To illustrate, Siskel and Ebert both praised Fargo, yet Roger Ebert initially reacted far less favorably to The Big Lebowski. However, after revisiting the film years later, Ebert revised his assessment to a four-star rating.
“The Big Lebowski” occupies a curious space in film criticism. While initial reactions were often lukewarm, the film has cultivated a dedicated and ever-growing fanbase, appreciation blossoming with each subsequent viewing. Its enduring appeal lies in its dense and intricate tapestry; no single watch can truly capture the richness of its characters, dialogue, and layered narrative. This complexity, coupled with the film’s unique tone, makes “The Big Lebowski” endlessly re-watchable, ensuring its place as a cult classic.
The Coen Brothers are celebrated for their remarkable ability to navigate diverse styles and genres, both across their filmography and within individual movies. This versatility has allowed them to establish a unique and creatively liberated space in cinema. While audiences may approach each new Coen Brothers film with a sense of delightful uncertainty, there’s an underlying trust in their masterful storytelling.
Consider the sharp turn they took after the grim intensity of No Country For Old Men, their darkest work since Blood Simple, by delivering the comedic absurdity of Burn After Reading. No Country for Old Men earned them the Best Picture Oscar, a testament to their artistic achievements. It’s a distinction they haven’t repeated, although they’ve garnered nominations for other outstanding works such as Fargo, A Serious Man, and True Grit.
Furthermore, No Country for Old Men secured the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The script, drawn from Cormac McCarthy’s novel, is a hauntingly beautiful piece of writing.
While Joel and Ethan Coen are best known for the distinctive films they direct, their talents extend beyond the director’s chair. Over the years, they’ve also contributed as screenwriters and producers on a variety of projects. These films, naturally, don’t always possess the complete Coen Brothers aesthetic, influenced as they are by other creative voices.
Examples of their screenwriting work on films they didn’t direct include “Gambit,” “Unbroken,” “Bridge of Spies,” and “Suburbicon.” As producers, they’ve lent their support to films like “Romance & Cigarettes,” directed by their frequent collaborator John Turturro, and the darkly comedic “Bad Santa.”
In conclusion – Joel and Ethan Coen have rightfully earned their place as cinematic masters. Their consistently high-quality and diverse filmography, exemplified by works like 2018’s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (a Netflix original that garnered three Oscar nominations), solidifies their status as not only some of the best filmmakers of their generation, but of all time. The praise they receive is not only deserved, but perhaps even inadequate to fully capture the brilliance of their body of work.
