I remember going to see Barton Fink four times in the theater -the feel of it, the eerie angry humor of it - I couldn’t get enough..I remember also the very nasty review of it in The New Yorker which is worth finding and reading to see how exactly wrong someone could get this film…please see this film-and then see it again and again and notice all the amazing performances and enjoy the beautiful darkness -“I WILL SHOW YOU THE LIFE OF THE MIND!!”
Another "lost" Coen brothers film is "The Man Who Wasn't There". Slow burn, but filled with great actors, a very interesting plot, and some very unexpected twists. "Barton Fink" was also excellent, but the real revelation in the film is how good John Goodman was in his role. That he continued with a string of striking performances, but never got any recognition, is a crying shame.
At Cannes, it won the Palm, Best Director and Best Actor. Arguably, it may be their most overrated. I would say Hudsucker Proxy is probably their most underrated, even though it's not nearly their best. It came right after Barton Fink, and it was crushed under the expectations from the critics who loved the art film style of Fink. The same thing happened initially with The Big Lebowski. Their followup to Fargo was mercilessly panned in theaters, but now it's their most beloved and known in popular culture.
Around the time it was released, the Coens said they’d one day, after John Turturro had aged the same number of years, like to bring him back for a sequel called Old Fink. They said it would show Fink as a college professor in the 60s, as I recall. Presumably he would have been blacklisted, maybe even named names (hence the title). Maybe they were joking, but I would’ve rather seen them make that movie than some of their other films, though I’m happy with what we have.
The title was “underrated” Blood Simple is not underrated. It has a Criterion release in 4K and is often on peoples best films list. He was wrong that it flopped, 9 mil on a 4 mil budget. Thats not a flop. I was alive back then and it was a limited release mostly in art houses and Its per screen average was quite high. Barton Fink was regarded as a masterpiece when it came out and that film fizzled and is forgotten for the most part hence “underrated.”
There’s a chinese film called’ the girl’ the gun, and the noodle shop’ that’s essentially a scene for scene remake of blood simple. Set in the 1600’s in China.
Many, many people talk about Blood Simple as an inspiration. It was always legendary. I think Hudsucker Proxy & Miller's Crossing and a few other Coen flicks are equally under-rated with Barton Fink. Which is a masterpiece in my opinion.
This is also probably my favorite Cohen Bros. Film. A masterpiece. I believe it won at Cannes. I’ve always considered it a frame tale as indicated by the beach rock painting.
Barton Fink remains my favourite Coen brothers film. I saw it when it was released in '91 and was immediately drawn into this bizarre world. It looks like the real world but there are many things off about it. I still question how much is real and how much is in Barton's fevered imagination. I don't believe Charlie Meadows (aka Madman Mundt) actually exists. When Barton wakes up to find Audrey dead in his bed I think his hold on sanity finally slips away. The scene where the hallway bursts into flames should be the final tip off that what we are watching is not really happening. What's in the box? Is it Audrey's or Mayhew's head? When I watched the film again when it was released on video, and later dvd, I couldn't help seeing a certain similarity with Eraserhead. Barton looks like a cross between Henry and Harold Lloyd. This is a great film.and it's a shame that it was not more popular, but I understand why it might not find a wider audience. I imagine this was also the case with another very underrated and underappreciated Coen brothers film, The Hudsucker Proxy.
I also sometimes think that Barton like the Coen Brothers taking a break from Miller's Crossing, wrote the story we see in the film.Inspired by the women in the picture above his typewriter while suffering writer's block for the wrestling picture, what we see is what he daydreams while stuck staring at that picture, instead of typing. There are so many possible interpretations, such as your one. It'a a great film.
it is the first film by them i saw that made an impact on me, and had this meditatively profound level to it under all the great events and acting in the story. it was the art of outsiders when such stuff was very hard to find in the early 90s.
I remember when Barton Fink came out and I don't recall it being underrated. It certainly wasn't underpraised. Far from it, in fact. People RAVED. Of course, time alters perceptions, and, at this point, I guess I don't hear it lauded in the way films like The Big Lebowski or Fargo are. However--when was the last time you heard ANYONE mention A Serious Man or The Man Who Wasn't There? Or Inside Llewyn Davis? Now THOSE are "underrated." More so than Barton Fink. For me, Barton Fink was the Coen's veering as close as they ever have before into David Lynch territory, and while I won't claim I understand all of it, I do love it, nonetheless. It's a beautiful film. OH! And I love David Lynch, too. His films are just a different experience.
Coen Bros. movies are either really dark or mostly lite. Sometimes, like "Fargo", and "Burn After Running," they are a bit of both. "Barton Fink" is deep in the dark category as is "Miller's Crossing." I tend to like their lite stuff like the Hudsucker Proxy," "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" and especially (being a registered dyed-in-the-wool Achiever) the immortal and indomitable DUDE.
I always thought that W.P. Mayhew was based on F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was the insane drunk, abusive to his wife, accused of stealing from his wife's writings, his wife was insane, out of money he ended up writing movies for Hollywood (none of it used) and even half wrote a book about Hollywood (might have turned into his best work if he didn't die from alcoholism). Though, John Mahoney does look a lot like Faulkner. I wonder if their life stories are similar or if the Coen Brothers took from both lives.
So convinced that Coen brothers could do far better take on Napoleon than Scott. So many genres, why not an historical epic, or some unique angle on NB and his times?
They are not just "making fun" of serious issues in a mocking way. It jolts the audience. Like when the wife is being kidnapped in Fargo and she blunders around with a blindfold on. It's funny and horrible at the same time, instead of showing these moments as cartoonish humor, you see the pain as well. It's in all of their movies and other directors that make emotionally impactful movies seem to use it too.
The “Most Underrated Coen Brothers Film” is, arguably, “Miller’s Crossing” (1990), because it’s kinda their masterpiece and it doesn’t get talked about enough. Nice try, though…
Saw this film when it came out and my chief recollection is that for all his struggles, he ends up writing a screenplay that is in essence identical to the play that brought him to Hollywood. Funny that this most interesting analysis fails to mention that most salient point, the meaning of which I took to be that Mr Fink was an inferior playwright.
i suppose, he just really is a kind of naive fool ... young and inexperienced and not knowing the trials of the world, which the other characters carry as their burdens, something like that
Your Honesty is refreshing. We didn’t like it at first either, but we never trust first impressions, or our own opinions… (so much so now, in fact, that we’ve come to somewhat insanely assume that we’ll try to watch every film at least twice, either because it’s that good and we like it that much, or for the simple reasons that we might not have been in the right mood, lacked the cinematic vernacular, or was just too full of our own necessarily growing, but sophomoric sense of film appreciation at the time, rather than just focusing on trying to follow the given film playing on the screen.) Totally cool to not dig something and it’s always fine to stay that way, but something at some point might bring you back to “Barton Fink.” If and when it does, then consider giving it a second chance and try to approach it differently… you might find that you either hate it less, or surprise yourself by liking it more; even coming to love it. If we had a dollar for every time this has happened to us and movies we first couldn’t stand, then we’d have several hundred dollars by now (which feels like less-and-less every day). So, the value of giving movies a second chance, before we’ve even seen them once? “Priceless…”
@@fishtolizard3930 Thank you for your very thoughtful reply. I don't know that I will find the time to give Barton Fink another viewing; there are so many movies on my "to view" list. But I will certainly be open to trying it again. I'm trying to think if I have given a movie a second chance after not liking it the first time. None come to mind, but if one does, I will think on what might have changed in me between the two viewings. Again, thank you for your encouragement.
I totally disagree. Barton Fink is pointlessly disturbing darkness and sleazy horror, a cheap 'Shocker Flic.' I dislike it for exactly the same reasons I hated David Lynch's Eraserhead - I have copies of both but no WAY will I ever watch them again.
…wait a minute. You have copies of “Eraserhead” and “Barton Fink,” but you won’t ever watch them again? Why not? Why keep copies if you don’t intend, even on a whimsical, lazy, rainy day, to ever watch them again? Not even a “Hate Watch?” Do what you want and all, but that’s a curious thing for us to grasp. These two titles, for instance, are not likely to improve your love life… Then again, what do we know?
@@fishtolizard3930 "Hate watch," exactly. If either one of these 'Masterpieces' comes up in conversation with someone who thinks they're great, I can challenge them to watch them again.
