The Coen Brothers [Paperback]

Ronald Bergan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 21, 2000

Blood Simple, Barton Fink, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Fargo, Hudsucker Proxy, and The Big Lebowski - moviegoers either love the Coen brothers or they hate them. Those who love them believe they have made some of the most innovative, entertaining, and idiosyncratic films of the last 25 years. Their movies have grossed over $1 billion, and Fargo won Oscars in 1997 for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress. Brought up in small-town America, the brothers have been making movies from the age of eight. Joel directs; Ethan writes and collaborates with his brother in the later stages as the story develops its visual identity. The Coen brothers set the standard for creative cinema.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The offbeat and idiosyncratic films of the Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, two former film geeks from Minneapolis, Minnesota, have been hard to categorize. The eight films produced in the course of a career spanning nearly two decades incorporate the major genres of U.S. film (horror, comedy, mystery) but still are firmly anchored in the film noir tradition. For the first time, British film writer Bergan has compiled an in-depth account of the pair. Joel and Ethan are puckishly oblique with their interviewer, wryly eluding questions about the symbolism in their work and their creative process. Bergan does elicit much helpful information about their love for the pulp fiction of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett and the film noir classics of the '40s and '50s. He explores their films in depth, retrieving choice anecdotes about the inception of each film and life on the set working with their talented repertory group of actors. Bergan maintains an irreverent, almost absurd tone throughout the book, in effect mimicking the unpredictable art of his subjects. Overall, a very thoughtful and clever book. Ted Leventhal
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

'The background information on each film is stunning ... THE COEN BROTHERS is a must for any self-respecting Coen fan.' SCREENTRADE --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; 1st ed edition (June 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560252545
• ISBN-13: 978-1560252542
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,561,627 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If you LOVE the Coens, you'll LIKE this book, December 18, 2000

By 

Josh B. Lederman "Joshua B. Lederman" (Somerville, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Coen Brothers (Paperback)

Ronald Bergan, biographer of such film legends as Jean Renoir and Sergei Eisentsein, has been commissioned to write the first offical biography of the brilliant, yet elusive American filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen. Anyone who loves the brothers' work will enjoy this book simply because info on the bros is so hard to come by: they rarely do interviews and stay just far enough outside of the mainstream to avoid tabloid headlines. The book on the whole, unfortunatley, seems to have been rushed. Even the physical look-- from the type face to the occastional type-- seems a bit unporfessional. There were sections about the Coen youth where I, the ultimate admirer/fan, got bored and skipped ahead-- that is almost impressive. Once the author settles into his format, he simply goes through each of the Coens' eight films in order. That gets pretty dull and uninformative, especially if you've read The Making of the Big Lebowski by William Preston Robertson (and if you haven't, do it). The other major problem with Bergan's book is that he too often jumps the line from biographer to critic. While discussing their work, he will 'factually' point out flaws in performances, filming techniques, even script-writing. Aside from this being out of his jurisdiction, his opinions--which are just that-- come off as shallow and unsupported. If you're gonna tell me that the brilliant last line of Raizing Arizona ruins the whole ending, you better have good reasons why! Bergan doesn't. There are few of his critiques that i agreed with, but the point is that he shouldn't be making these judgements at all. But because the Coens have stayed to private, it's great to get your hands on anything that discusses their behind-the-screen struggles and triumphs. Learning how they got funding for Blood Simple was fascinating and inspiring for any film student or independant filmmaker. The brilliance of the Coen brothers is not quite reflected in this somewhat shallow biography, which seems to have been written partly against the will of not only the author, but the subjects as well. The true fan, however, should be able to find enough gems to be worth the price of admission. Ciao.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars a real "shove in the bottom drawer" book, December 29, 2000

By 

Jeremy Jones - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Coen Brothers (Paperback)

It's hard to add much to Josh's review, and perhaps I shouldn't, as I put this book down after page 114. I too found myself skipping long (slow) passages and growing tired at the never-ending parrallels drawn between the Coen's work and that of other film-makers. I would have preferred to hear more of what the brothers had to say, rather than the theories and beliefs of their biographer.

If you're after an in-depth study at how the Coen Brothers go about making a movie, buy William Preston Robertson's "The Making of Joel & Ethan Coen's The Big Lebowski". It's a better read by far.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars What can one say?, September 28, 2001

By 

tvtv3 "tvtv3" (Sorento, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Coen Brothers (Paperback)

This book is supposed to be the first authorized biography about the Coens, but to be completely honest it's not much of a biography. The book reads more like a review of the Coens and each of their films. Much of the biographical information is interesting just for the simple fact that the brothers are so elusive that anything regarding their past and how they first funded their films is a gem not to be discarded. However, most of the book is divided into chapters that review and critique each of the Coen's films. Now, I didn't mind this, but a biography is not a collection of film reviews. It seems to me that the author (though possibly a fan) just didn't feel like writing this book especially since the brothers seemed so reluctant that he was writing it. Or true to Coen style, maybe that's how they intended the book to turn out (either knowingly or unknowingly to the author). Overall, an interesting, but slow read worth the time if your a film buff.