Comments on: On the Coen Brothers and Nihilism

By: jorm

jorm — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 01:13:50 +0000

In reply to Callie. Both of those movies were released after this post was written.

By: Callie

Callie — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 01:17:38 +0000

How can we not mention A Simple Man?Or Burn after Reading?

By: Neil Kandalgaonkar

Neil Kandalgaonkar — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 19:57:46 +0000

I agree the films are unsettling but not due to nihilism. Nihilism is the proposition that life is without purpose or meaning. And there is a very distinct line between good and evil in all their movies. But their movies do lack a couple of anchors that the average Hollywood movie does have, which might make them *feel* nihilistic.

1 – The world has no bias towards good or truth. There films don’t start with a harmonious web of sympathy that is violated by a single evil individual. The world is just a loose collection of people, half of whom are below average in intelligence, with competing interests.

2 – Powerful or romantic emotions do not lead one to redemption. This is a particularly American trope which is what makes the Coen brothers’ movies feel “European”. In a Coen brothers movie, you might do horrible and stupid things for love. Love will NOT make you a better person. Even the protective or possessive feelings that most people feel for babies are satirized, as in Raising Arizona.

The Coen brothers don’t idealize society, and they don’t elevate love as the supreme emotion. Instead, their most sympathetic characters are small-town law enforcement officers. People with compassion, forbearance with the faults and limitations of others, humility, and decency. Even if these characters don’t have the power to change the world, they can create little islands of goodness. Ultimately it’s a very conservative outlook, just without theism.

Some people have suggested that Vonnegut novels operate the same way (the author agreed).

By: psymbiotic

psymbiotic — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:47:23 +0000

Your logic also follows for Barton Fink and Miller's Crossing. :>

I also thoroughly enjoyed No Country For Old Men as well. Probably one of the best antagonists I've seen in a film in memory. :>

Egan

By: pallmalls

pallmalls — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:17:50 +0000

I've kinda filed The Big Lebowski into the bucket of "Movies I Will Never See Because Most of its Hardcore Fans Annoy the Shit out of Me". I've probably heard every single line from the movie at some point or another without even knowing it, and I don't even know what the film is about. As far as incessant, out-of-context movie quoting goes, it's Monty Python for People Without Neckbeards.

It may be the greatest movie ever made, but it will likely forever languish in the bottom of that bucket, along with Buckaroo Banzai, Napoleon Dynamite, and Snakes on a Plane.

By: angel_boi

angel_boi — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:20:47 +0000

In reply to angel_boi.

although with hudsucker... so much is by chance...

By: angel_boi

angel_boi — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:19:22 +0000

Where do you place hudsucker... its almost unrepentantly upbeat?

also "And then I woke up." is i think unambiguously just about his dream of the future. of growing old with their own kids... not the whole move...

just sayin.

By: schwa242

schwa242 — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:15:37 +0000

In reply to schwa242.

Er, I actually meant this review of The Big Lebowski, though the other is good as well.

By: angel_boi

angel_boi — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:14:38 +0000

In reply to tintintin.

its brilliant and brutal of course.

also blood simple. omg.
very much a kin to NCFOM.

By: mr_chip

mr_chip — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:08:11 +0000

What's amazing is that No Country is an almost scene-for-scene faithful adaptation of Cormack McCarthy's novel, except that the scene I consider the emotional core of the novel is so incredibly truncated in the film that it changes the whole feel of things. One might even say it makes them more nihilistic.

Highly recommended.