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Ten Days Of The Coen Brothers: Day One Part Two

Published

10 years ago

February 27, 2016

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Raising Their Game

♦ With the release of Hail, Caesar! in the UK on 4 March, Tripwire kicks off a look at all of the Coen Brothers films released to date. First we reviewed their debut Blood Simple earlier today and now our editor-in-chief Joel Meadows takes a look at their second movie Raising Arizona (1984).

Raising Arizona

Director: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Stars: Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, Trey Wilson, John Goodman

Raising Arizona came out three years after the Coen Brothers’ debut Blood Simple, but their second feature feels like they were beginning to assemble the template that they would make their own over three decades of filmmaking. Nicolas Cage plays repeat offender HI McDunnough who falls for policewoman Ed (Holly Hunter) while in prison. The pair marry but time passes and it is clear to them that Ed is unable to have children. So they hatch a madcap scheme to relieve rich eccentric car salesman Nathan Arizona of one of his five offspring.

It is easy to forget twenty-nine years after this film was made of the screen charisma and oddball charm that Cage had in the first flush of his career, and Raising Arizona helped to cement this reputation. The film also has the first appearance of Coens stalwart John Goodman as Cage’s fellow convict, the wonderfully named Gale Snoats, and unlike Blood Simple, Raising Arizona feels like a Coen Brothers film, albeit a slightly embryonic one. Biker investigator Leonard Smalls, played with wonderfully grizzled misanthropy by Leonard Cobb, lends a bizarre kind of drama to proceedings here. At their best, they are able to take a well-worn genre or subject and subvert it with style and panache.

Raising Arizona isn’t perfect by any means. Some of the weird humour falls a little flat but it is light years ahead in terms of cinematic craft while showcasing a distinctive voice in comparison to their first outing. The Coens are unquestionably unique in modern cinema, and their path to excellence began here.

JOEL MEADOWS