Book description
In 2008 No Country for Old Men won the Academy Award for Best
Picture, adding to the reputation of filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen,
who were already known for pushing the boundaries of genre. They had
already made films that redefined the gangster movie, the screwball
comedy, the fable, and the film noir, among others. No Country is just
one of many Coen brothers films to center on the struggles of complex
characters to understand themselves and their places in the strange
worlds they inhabit. To borrow a phrase from Barton Fink, all Coen
films explore "the life of the mind" and show that the human
condition can often be simultaneously comic and tragic, profound and
absurd. In The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers, editor Mark T. Conard
and other noted scholars explore the challenging moral and
philosophical terrain of the Coen repertoire. Several authors connect
the Coens' most widely known plots and characters to the shadowy,
violent, and morally ambiguous world of classic film noir and its
modern counterpart, neo-noir. As these essays reveal, Coen films often
share noir's essential philosophical assumptions: power corrupts, evil
is real, and human control of fate is an illusion. In Fargo, not even
Minnesota's blankets of snow can hide Jerry Lundegaard's crimes or
brighten his long, dark night of the soul. Coen films that
stylistically depart from film noir still bear the influence of the
genre's prevailing philosophical systems. The tale of love, marriage,
betrayal, and divorce in Intolerable Cruelty transcends the plight of
the characters to illuminate competing theories of justice. Even in
lighter fare, such as Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski, the comedy
emerges from characters' journeys to the brink of an amoral abyss.
However, the Coens often knowingly and gleefully subvert conventions
and occasionally offer symbolic rebirths and other hopeful outcomes.
At the end of The Big Lebowski, the Dude abides, his laziness has
become a virtue, and the human comedy is perpetuating itself with the
promised arrival of a newborn Lebowski. The Philosophy of the Coen
Brothers sheds new light on these cinematic visionaries and their
films' stirring philosophical insights. From Blood Simple to No
Country for Old Men, the Coens' films feature characters who hunger
for meaning in shared human experience -- they are looking for
answers. A select few of their protagonists find affirmation and
redemption, but for many others, the quest for answers leads, at best,
only to more questions.
""This volume is written for both fans of the Coen
brothers and the philosophically curious, without the technical
language. Both educational and entertaining, this philosophical
compilation is recommended for public and academic libraries,
particularly those with degree programs in philosophy and
film."--Joshua Finnell, Library Journal" --
Mark T. Conard is assistant professor of philosophy at Marymount
College. He is the series editor of The Philosophy of Popular Culture
series and the editor of numerous books, including The Philosophy of
Film Noir, The Philosophy of Neo-Noir, and The Philosophy of Martin Scorsese.
