A rough guide to the Coen brothers

My favourite film industry anecdote is that Bill Murray only signed on to be the voice of porcine feline Garfield in the 2004 flop because he thought it was written by Joel Coen, of Barton Fink, Fargo, and The Big Lebowski fame. Unfortunately for him, it was written by another Joel Coen, the man behind Cheaper by the Dozen.

Now, such a tale may just be a way for Murray to distance himself from the film (he did, after all, voice Garfield in the sequel), but it also highlights the allure and gravitas of the Coen brothers. Since their first feature film, more than thirty years ago, they have developed into a brand; a byword for deadpan humour, genre-busting sensibilities, and incredibly high-quality productions.

Joel and Ethan Coen were born three years apart, in the mid-1950s, into an academic family from Minnesota. While Joel went into film school at New York University, Ethan earned a philosophy degree from Princeton; they reunited in 1984 to write and direct Blood Simple, their first feature film, a low budget neo-noir flick that garnered them critical praise, catapulting them onto the world stage. It marked the film debut of Joel’s wife, Frances McDormand, as well as one of the first roles for Holly Hunter, a former roommate of McDormand; Blood Simple was the beginning of a lengthy career in the industry for both the brothers, one that would be marked by a frequently rotating cast of collaborators, many of whom went onto become big names themselves. McDormand and Hunter have both since won Academy Awards, and Blood Simple was also the debut score of musician Carter Burwell, who was nominated this year for his soundtrack to Carol.

The brothers followed this up with Raising Arizona (1987), a black comedy starring Hunter and Nicholas Cage, and Miller’s Crossing (1990), a gangster drama set during prohibition. However, it was their fourth film, Barton Fink (1991), that really saw their careers take off. Telling the tale of a young Hollywood screenwriter in the 1940s, Barton Fink takes a sharp look at the ‘golden age’ of the film industry; combining aspects of horror, noir, and comedy, Barton Fink is completely unclassifiable, and cemented the directors’ reputations as genre-busters. A commercial failure, Barton Fink swept the board at Cannes, netting the Palme d’Or, Best Director, and Best Actor prizes; the festival since adopted a rule limiting the number of possible awards to two per film. It was also nominated for three Academy Awards.

Their next film, The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), received mixed reviews, but they bounced back with their 1997 masterpiece Fargo. A comedy laced with bitterly dark elements, Fargo tells the story of Marge Gunderson (McDormand), a heavily pregnant police chief from North Dakota who investigates a number of homicides. Fargo marked the first Academy Award wins for the brothers, who took home a Best Screenplay, and the Best Actress award for McDormand. It also marked the second Cannes win for Best Director. Since then, the film, and particularly it’s use of the ‘Minnesota nice’ stereotype, have gone down in cult cinema history. The brothers followed it up next year with The Big Lebowski (1998), which many consider to be their greatest film; a surreal stoner comedy, The Big Lebowski features Jeff Bridges on top form as Jeff ‘the Dude’ Lebowski, who gets embroiled in a crime caper against his will. While it received good reviews when released, The Big Lebowski touched a nerve with many people, who consider it to be their favourite Coen brothers’ film; it has since spawned a festival in its honour, had two spider species named after it, and led to the foundation of a religion – Dudeism – that has a quarter of a million ordained priests.

The brothers then took on a number of projects, including O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), The Man who Wasn’t There (2001), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), and The Ladykillers (2004). However, it was 2007, after a three year break from the screen, that saw the brothers on top form again, with the release of No Country for Old Men. A straight up neo-Western, this tense thriller had audiences at the edge of their seats, following the story of Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), who ends up on the wrong side of cattle-gun wielding killer Anton Chigurh, played to icy perfection by Javier Bardem. A critical and commercial success, the film picked up four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor – which made Bardem the first Spanish actor to win the accolade.

Since this success, the brothers have taken a shot at CIA spy films (Burn After Reading – 2008), suburban black comedy (A Serious Man – 2009, featuring the astonishing and criminally underrated Michael Stuhlbarg), classic Western (True Grit – 2010), and folk-revival drama (Inside Llewyn Davis – 2013).

While other major international directors, such as Michael Haneke, may take one mood, and repeatedly modulate it through their careers, the Coen brothers show the importance of never standing still. Bouncing around from genre to genre, they have never settled on a single one, and yet have made their indelible mark on modern cinema; combining an ADHD-esque interest in all things cinematic with a dead seriousness about their work, the world of film is better off thanks to this masterful duo. We can definitely sympathise with Bill Murray.