There are few filmmakers working today whose style is so admired and so diverse, perhaps because they’ve always found a way to give each genre they work in their own unique touch. Let’s dive into the sometimes dark, often hilarious, world of the Coen brothers.<\/p>\n
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Source Material<\/h3>\n![\"Nicolas](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/raising-arizona-dialogue.jpg?w=755\" "\\"Nicolas")
<\/a>Raising Arizona<\/a> is a perfect example of a fresh, humorous take on sympathetic, yet devious characters. Image via Twentieth Century Fox<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\nUnlike other titans of the industry, such as Steven Spielberg<\/a>, Ridley Scott<\/a>, and David Fincher<\/a>, the Coens write all their own material. This allows them to take more chances and have more control than a director-for-hire that’s brought to a project only when a studio has already decided on a script. If you think directing a Coen script is easy, there are plenty of examples<\/a> out there of people who have tried and fallen flat.<\/p>\nThey do like to adapt other writers’ work, often in a tongue-in-cheek way. For instance, O Brother, Where Art Thou?<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is a modern retelling of Homer’s Odyssey<\/em>, and The Big Lebowski<\/em><\/a> owes much to Raymond Chandler<\/a>‘s 1940s hard-boiled detective fiction \u2014 albeit with a very different tone and hero.<\/p>\n
\nDialogue<\/h3>\n![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/walter1-1.jpg\" "\\"John")
<\/a>These quirky, often surprisingly acute, characters shine through the entire catalog of Coen films. Image via Gramercy Pictures<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\nIt’s easy to identify “Coen-isms” in their scripts, but it’s harder to pin down what makes their writing so distinctive. They like to defy expectations for their characters, and often inject an unusual, complex word into a simple sentence, one that draws attention to itself, or give a self-aware line to someone of less than typical intelligence.<\/p>\n
An example would be the line from The Big Lebowski<\/em>: “Dude, Chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature.” Walter, the gun-totting Vietnam Vet seems an unlikely hero of political correctness, yet he’s a typical Coen character in his contradictions.<\/p>\n
\nVisual Acuity<\/h3>\n
<\/a>Raising Arizona<\/a> is a perfect example of a fresh, humorous take on sympathetic, yet devious characters. Image via Twentieth Century Fox<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n Unlike other titans of the industry, such as Steven Spielberg<\/a>, Ridley Scott<\/a>, and David Fincher<\/a>, the Coens write all their own material. This allows them to take more chances and have more control than a director-for-hire that’s brought to a project only when a studio has already decided on a script. If you think directing a Coen script is easy, there are plenty of examples<\/a> out there of people who have tried and fallen flat.<\/p>\n They do like to adapt other writers’ work, often in a tongue-in-cheek way. For instance, O Brother, Where Art Thou?<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is a modern retelling of Homer’s Odyssey<\/em>, and The Big Lebowski<\/em><\/a> owes much to Raymond Chandler<\/a>‘s 1940s hard-boiled detective fiction \u2014 albeit with a very different tone and hero.<\/p>\n These quirky, often surprisingly acute, characters shine through the entire catalog of Coen films. Image via Gramercy Pictures<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n It’s easy to identify “Coen-isms” in their scripts, but it’s harder to pin down what makes their writing so distinctive. They like to defy expectations for their characters, and often inject an unusual, complex word into a simple sentence, one that draws attention to itself, or give a self-aware line to someone of less than typical intelligence.<\/p>\n An example would be the line from The Big Lebowski<\/em>: “Dude, Chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature.” Walter, the gun-totting Vietnam Vet seems an unlikely hero of political correctness, yet he’s a typical Coen character in his contradictions.<\/p>\n
\nDialogue<\/h3>\n
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\nVisual Acuity<\/h3>\n