The Coen brothers can be considered an example of what not to do when first starting out as a writer and director in the film industry. From the beginning, they did not try to get a big name producer, go for big name actors, or write movies they knew would be hits. Instead, they raised money from the citizens of their hometown to make their first film Blood Simple, which starred pretty much no-name actors and actresses in an absurd plot. However, this put their name on the map, and it was because of that movie that we have masterpieces today like Fargo.
They use their own techniques that, if tried by any other director, would seem forced, but when put to fruition by the Coens create a film that captivates many. Although they are well-established filmmakers with plenty of hits, they definitely have had their flops. Out of the first six films we have discussed thus far, the most successful was Fargo and the least successful was The Hudsucker Proxy, the reasons being because of the film tactics used in both. The world they created in Fargo easily sucked audiences in, while the world created in The Hudsucker Proxy left audiences on the outside, confused as to what they should be taking away.
They both stylistically looked like Coen brother films, but their differences propelled one forward while the other was left behind. A films trailer is the basic set up for what the audience should suspect. Today, trailers will be viewed millions of times online and showed over and over before other films in theaters. This way, avid movie watchers will be able to grasp the concept of any film before they make the executive decision to invest their time in watching it.
The trailers for The Hudsucker Proxy and Fargo aren’t necessarily the greatest trailers to have ever been made (which is to be expected as not many trailers from back in the day do their films a lot of justice), but Fargo possesses a relatable quality that Hudsucker is missing. One line in particular from Fargo’s trailer outlines the film as a whole: “A story so strange, it’s got to be fiction. A place so real, it’s got to be true. ” Not only does the vernacular have a down to earth feel, but the fact that it is alluding to the movie being a true story reels in the viewers.
Although the truth value of this statement is debatable, the Coen brothers used this tactic to their advantage. With The Hudsucker Proxy, they took a different approach. Their one tagline from this trailer was, “a comedy of fame, fortune, sex, greed, and the American way. ” It would be a lie to say that this is not a great way to sell a movie because it is obvious that sex sells in Hollywood, but if Joel and Ethan Coen wanted to sell this rich lifestyle in their movie, they would have had to do so more forcefully.
While Fargo sets the audience up for a seemingly true story and delivers on that, Hudsucker sets viewers up for a rollercoaster ride that falls short. The theatrics featured in The Hudsucker Proxy were supposed to be what made the movie a success: there was the assumption that the techniques used to make it a visually pleasing film would be enough to make it pleasing in every other way, too. It is beautifully made, taking on a style that is new for the Coen brothers while still allowing them to insert their typical style choices, but the plot is less than satisfying.
There are people in the world that thoroughly enjoyed this film, but the fact that it made less than three million dollars at the pox office shows that somewhere they went wrong. One element that could be seen as a flaw is the combination of real and fantasy. This came into play in their previous film, Barton Fink, that, while it did not do incredibly at the box office, became a fan favorite because of the quirky but serious vibe it portrayed. At the end of the film, Barton encounters his neighbor at the hotel he is staying in who is supposed to replicate the devil, lighting the hallway on fire as he passes by.
The whole movie had an odd feel to it, so it really was no surprise for it to get even more strange. The Hudsucker Proxy was not a particularly normal film, but the placement of the supernatural element did not work like it did for Barton Fink. Towards the end of the movie, the main character, Norville Barnes, is stopped mid-air—after falling from the top of an enormous building—by an angel who is actually the CEO of the company that committed suicide in the beginning of the film by jumping from that same building.
The Coens have said that they did not know how to end the film and this is just what they came up with. Whether that is true or not does not change the fact that the ending is mostly just a cop-out: instead of fu developing the plot line and possibly moving on from the death of their main character (an idea they later are able to handle judging from No Country for Old Men), they threw in angels and madness. The abruptness of this element was not something audiences enjoyed, leading to the films unsuccessful box office run.
Fargo plays on the “based on a true story” plot line. The characters are developed in such a way that it is possible that these events could have actually taken place. Instead of advertising the film using the elements that would typically be used to draw in an audience, like the kidnapping or the murder, Joel and Ethan Coen use the realistic elements. Unlike The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo follows real humans who are just living through some semi-unrealistic events. By advertising it as a real film and then delivering that, viewers were left satisfied by the end.
No expectations were created and, if anything, those watching were given something extra through the action that was found in the film. One aspect that makes Fargo relatable and The Hudsucker Proxy not relatable is the characters. Norville Barnes is a ditzy guy who is hired for being a ditzy guy. The co-star of the film, Amy Archer, is the one who, for majority of the film, is going against unknowing Norville, who is technically supposed to be the character we are rooting for. However, neither of these characters really brings any emotion that viewers should sympathize with to the table.
The typical plotline of films goes from sympathy in the beginning to a fall-out in the middle and then back to sympathy in the end, but Hudsucker never starts out with any sympathy. Again, Norville is a foolish man and the reason he goes so far up the ladder of the company is because he is foolish, which is not an idea many people can relate to. When many movie goers are working class people looking from an escape from their working class lives, they do not want to be promised a movie about sex and greed and money, only to be stuck with a guy like Norville, stumbling his way through life.
With Fargo, the opposite is true. The audience is given a character like Marge, who is impossible not to love even if just for the way she speaks, and immediately they have a way of sympathizing with the film. They root for Marge to figure out the kidnapping case and her character alone is enough to pull people into the movie and keep them invested. Carl, one of the kidnappers/murderers of the film, could be seen as just as ditzy as Norville; he’s an outsider with no real clue on how to successfully fulfill a kidnapping and ultimately finds himself in a wood chipper.
However, with low expectations in mind, no one was waiting for anything big from the kidnappers. For a film about real people, the Coens managed to create a realistic essence in all of their characters and with a well-rounded realism to the characters, the whole film obtained a wellrounded realism as well. Throughout Fargo, Joel and Ethan Coen learned to master the art of pace; the film was slow when it needed to be, but its ability to pick up the pace at any moment was superb. With The Hudsucker Proxy, they managed to make an already slow plot seem that much more slow.
The only time the movie picked up the pace was when Norville was successfully selling his hulahoops, making it the most interesting sequence of the film. The rest of the time was spent developing the life of Norville and his relationship with Amy which never reached a point of making people care because no one cared for the characters to begin with. In Fargo, the pace is set by both the characters and the plot. With Marge, a slower pace is used because of her slow paced personality. The scenes with Marge and Norm are especially slow because their lives have no reason for rushing.
Scenes where the kidnapping is concerned move significantly faster, showing the anxiety the kidnappers have in making sure the procedure goes well and the overall high-pressure situation at hand. Joel and Ethan Coen understand how they fit into the film industry; they have the ability to produce films with their unique style and by using this technique from the very beginning, they captivated audiences. It is known that a film from the Coen brothers will be weird and will be thought provoking, even if they themselves deny many of the thought provoking elements.
They know how to use their quirkiness to their advantage, and have done so to create hits like No Country for Old Men, The Beg Lebowski, and Fargo. They also have fallen short in their lesser-loved films like Barton Fink and The Hudsucker Proxy. Some could say that audiences didn’t really understand those two films, but with the budget that Hudsucker had, the Coen’s were confident that it would succeed and it did not. All of their most successful filmmaking elements can be found in Fargo, which is why people today are still giving it the attention that is has.
In The Hudsucker Proxy, they sold out their authenticity to create something on a big scale that didn’t live up to their potential. They will later learn to create on a bigger budget while still using their style that has brought them success, an example being No Country for Old Men, but The Hudsucker proxy just didn’t do that. However, their ability to bounce back from a film that didn’t receive the best of reviews is their most important quality, one that, if they didn’t have, their career would be dead.
