The Directors Who Mastered The Art Of The Minor Character 

Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro) was in Miller's Crossing for much longer than 2 minutes and 7 seconds. He has at least five scenes, and is one of the major supporting players. You also have him credited to Barton Fink...

@@lowemckee3638 Yep. Screwed that title up, oops. The 2:07 is from Chet in Barton Fink (I must have left it uncorrected when I copied the title over). Bernie is in Miller's Crossing for about 15 minutes, and does play a fairly major role. I had him included originally as an example of how they develop his character and his impact on the story is much larger than his 15 minutes on screen. I changed the script, but left him in, probably could have found a better example for that moment.

@@ThomasFlight Thanks for the explanation, and I agree that Bernie's short screen time has a major impact as well! Overall fantastic video.

Great video, think you just need to adjust your audio mixing. Was a little hard to hear your voice over the background music.

Thomas Flight k

You could say...it really tied the film together.

And it tied the room together.

The best example of a MacGuffin

It tied the whole movie together ;)

Should share this credit with the Lebowski car...

Now if only the film itself weren't minor.

Yeah, well, that's just like, uh, your opinion, man.

@@dantean nice b8 m8

@@samarvora7185 😂😂!!

The Big Lebowski is an amazing movie

That's a great one!

in fact you have no clip at all from Burn After Reading...

You got that right. My favorite is Mike Yanagita from Fargo. I cringe from remembering. He's also very important to the plot

Yes!!!

@@oddballsok Watch again, he does indeed

Saral Koirala I see you’re not golfer.

Lol

LOL

😂👍🏻👊🏻

That's an excellent comment!

If a main character is done right, the representation is complicated, sometimes complex, at least somewhat contradictory, not fully Socratically self-aware, occasionally spontaneous in thought or action, and suggestive of a great deal of unrepresented aspects, that mysterious dark matter neither probed nor susceptible to probing. I think few real people meet these criteria. They are closer to being caricatures. The more bound to habit a person becomes, the more nearly he approaches the condition of a breathing caricature.

Really brilliant comment... Perhaps that's a major reason why I can't stand Dickens.

the shamus...

If you didn't remember a character you wouldn't remember that you don't remember them xD

Abso 🔔 lutely

Stfu Bradley, you’re out of your element

Bradley it’s a quote from the movie bro

@A Toaster Oh gods, you're right!

Just play any Rockstar game, they’re all masterpieces.

The Legend of Zelda games are another example of colorful minor characters

Carlos Freitas yes !!

You should try to play all "Trails of" game... It's one of underated JRPG, but the amount of quality that they give to creating the world and NPC is very impressive... It's seem that every NPC has their own minor story or script that changed as you progress the story...

I watch diner every xmas night

Casting should receive a great deal of credit in finding these actors and adding to the atmosphere. Casting teams spend months prior to a film searching for intriguing and fitting actors. Film directors choose from who casting has filtered.

@@edha4827 Tremendous young ensemble cast.

Agreed; enjoyed the video and this comment by Roger Keith. I submit that creating minor characters with such success is an undertaking very different than creating major characters with success. (Both Dickens and the Coen brothers are good at both, in my view.) With such Dickensian minor characters, there is no ongoing requirement for them to fit into any ecology. Social, financial, ethical, moral, even physical eccentricities produce no friction for those characters and therefore they are without boundaries. Main characters, in contrast, are forced to work within many boundaries; as the video points out, often provided by these minor characters. Minor characters like these are free to be as wacky as desired, which is a large portion of their charm/memorability. Major characters are constrained to work within limits and that struggle is a large portion of theirs.

@@JeffThePoustman main characters have to be relatable and the charm of wacky eccentricities can get tiresome fast. plus the eccentric probably wouldn't go on an adventure in the first place

Well Dickens alone might be the most influential author in cinema's history since his books even describe types of shots that range from close-ups to establishments shots and arguably film continuity and even suspense of what you can't see behind the door, just the knob moving.

@Roger Keith: Yes, you make a good comparison. But it also highlights how the Coen Brothers, like Dickens, use these minor characters primarily as comic relief. And I mean "use" in the pejorative sense of "manipulate" and "exploit". These minor characters are not given respect as full human beings. Contrast that with Dostoevsky's use of minor characters . . .

Yes yes, indeed. It's all about "grotesque" characters.

How cool is that! Just watched Inside Llewyn Davis the other week, superb movie

💗

That’s bad ass Frank

You are not LaBeouf...

@@doctorthirteen5727 lol I was going to write this exact thing before I found your comment. I love that weird-ass dentist.

kinda funny lookin

@@edha4827 Well, Buscemi might have been, but Melissa certainly isn't nowadays. She is in great shape, like she was when "Reba" wrapped up, and even my wife kept commenting on her knockout legs.

@@yvwic50 Yeah, I think he was just quoting her character! :)

Ha - yeah, that “Go Bears” line is awesome.

GAWDDAMMIT!!!

I noticed that almost all of their films have an oddball storekeeper or clerk.

That line and "Son, you got a panty on your head"...just thinking of them makes me giggle.

Fargo: The father in law Lebowski: Bunny, the carpet pissers, Maude's giggling friend, the private eye in the VW Burn After Reading: The Seattle morning television show hosts

" I'm a Dapper-Dan man! "

I finally watched all of the Coen's films while making this video (I had seen them all except The Ladykillers) and I rewatched a lot of them while making the video and they're all pretty good. I don't know which ones you've seen but here's my (highly personal) ranking in order of must-watchedness: The Big Lebowski O Brother Where Art Thou? No Country for Old Men Inside Llewyn Davis Blood Simple Fargo Raising Arizona True Grit The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Hail, Caesar! A Serious Man Miller's Crossing Barton Fink Burn After Reading The Man Who Wasn't There Intolerable Cruelty The Ladykillers

Shit dude I saw Burn After Reading in a charity shop today but didn't look at it to know it was a coen brothers film, thanks for letting me know your picks! The Big Lebowski is definatly my favorite they've made that I've seen so far. then I'd probably say The Man who wasn't there, Raising Arizona, No Country for old men, Fargo, A serious man and then O Brother Where Art Thou?. and I loved them all! I just think because of the characters feeling so real, which movie you rate high depends on what characters you like the most or feel you understand more.

@Patrick Farrell I did leave Hudsucker out oops. I'd put it just above Barton Fink and below Miller's Crossing.

@@ThomasFlight That's an interesting and unusual ranking. Mine would be something like this: 1. Fargo (1996) 2. Barton Fink (1991) 3. No Country for Old Men (2007) 4. The Big Lebowski (1998) 5. A Serious Man (2009) 6. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) 7. Miller's Crossing (1990) 8. Raising Arizona (1987) 9. The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) 10. Burn After Reading (2008) 11. Blood Simple (1984) 12. True Grit (2010) 13. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) 14. Hail, Caesar! (2016) 15. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) 16. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) 17. Intolerable Cruelty (2003) 18. The Ladykillers (2004)

@@ThomasFlight I'd put 'Barton Fink', 'Fargo', 'No Country for Old Men', 'Miller's Crossing' and 'A Serious Man' in the top tier. 'O Brother Where Art Thou?' as a runner-up? Should be further down the list, with the likes of the so-so Coen flicks like 'Intorelable Cruelty', 'Burn After Reading', 'The Man who wasn't There' or 'The Ladykillers'. And I've always found 'The Big Lebowski' hugely overrated and never as impactful as 'Barton Fink' or 'Fargo' - these two are Coen Brothers at their finest in depicting the madness and loneliness of a man's obsession, with such memorable scenes as the box on the beach next to Barton echoed by the snow buried bag of money in 'Fargo', both of which are preceded by the hat blown in the wind in the opening titles scene of the 'Miller's Crossing'.

Stephen Root also portrayed a minor character in season 1 of Fargo.

I have my bear skin.

work's what's kept us happy

What are you talking about Glen?

I hate the f***ing Eagles man...

They always find great ways to use that Irish monk! Shout out to Jon Polito big time.

Just because we’re bereaved doesn’t make us saps!!!!

jay folk No surprise there. I consider Hell or High Water “No Country-lite”. (I love HoHW by the way.)

Fantastic Example. She has always stuck with me, so too have the old timers sat by the door

We might also consider the genius of the French auteur, Jaques Tati.

Cought my attention as well

Thanks!

She was in there originally. Ended up getting cut somehow... meant to leave her in!

ever? bit of a stretch. they are up there without a shadow of a doubt. but they're certainly not the best of the best. they certainly can't be mentioned without being a part of a small crowd of directors who are considered to be just as genius as they are.