The Coen Brothers, Second Edition

I love the Coen brothers. I thought this book would be great. I found it mostly uninteresting, a little repetitive, and bit overblown by intellectual gyrations trying to relate Coen movies to other movies. The author really Wiesenthal stretches to demonstrate the latter. I skimmed a good part of it.

I always look forward to seeing new Coen Bros films, and downloaded the book out of curiosity about their lives and quirks, since they seem to have them in spades. Enjoyed the read. I hope they take time to get their mojo back because their last few films haven't measured up to earlier ones.

If you are a fan, it's worth reading (I suppose.Bar.

Didn't care for this book. It took too long to get to the "meat and potatoes." Also, I thought the Coen Brothers were some exotic team instead of from mundane United States. Kind of takes away some of their glamour. But I do love their films, and if you're a big fan, maybe this book is for you. I just prefer the Golden Age of Hollywood, so I have some prejudices.

Interesting. Describes more each film the brothers did. Their bio is woven into the history of each movie. A bit boring at times.

A very slow reading book. It reminded me of a college text book instead of an interesting biography.

Ronald Bergan offers and insightful look into how the Coen Brothers make their films from a practical point of view. It's not much on the philosophy or the three layers deep symbolism that some might desire from such quirky filmmakers, but if you are interested in the actual film making process you will find that the way they work is as unique as the characters and stories they write.The book is about how they raised the money for Blood Simple or how they waited a decade to get enough money to make Hudsucker. It's not about what hats mean in Miller's Crossing. It does a good job of showing how their recognition for their earlier films brought them stars like Paul Newman, Jeff Bridges, and George Clooney.They tend to write movies with specific actors in mind and if they cannot get that actor they put the script away and write a new movie. For instance, they waited over a year to shoot Lebowski because Bridges and Goodman were committed to other projects.You get a lot of origin stuff like how their films are influenced by noir fiction. James M Cain's Postman Always Rings Twice influences Blood Simple. Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest and Glass Key are the inspirations for Miller's Crossing. Clifford Odetes inspired Barton Fink. A friend of theirs inspired The Dude. They met a barber that influenced The Man Who wasn't There. Folk Singer Dave Van Ronk Inspired Inside Llewyn Davis. Knowing such things helps the budding screenwriter understand how you go about getting ideas and how you make them your own. The Coen's just have a knack for taking something known and making it their own.The book ends with a filmography with credits and plot synopsis of each of their films. A reader might want to read that section first for any of the films they haven't seen in order to better understand the story in the main section.

Didn't care for it; didn't finish. For me, their movies are either really good or really awful.

This is a reasonably interesting book which presents a not uncritical view of the Coen Brothers' movies. It falls down badly on page 216 where Bergan has completely rewritten the events and consequences of the turning point in The Man Who Wasn't There, which suggests that when the movie was screened Bergan wasn't there either. No excuses really - this is the Second Edition when bloomers like that could have been dealt with.Jim Simpson

heavy going

Thankfully, this is not a classic bio. True to the Coens' simplicity and directness, it follows their films, describing each, giving plenty of context and background, and following each production's career, both critically and commercially . I found this book lively, fun, and honest about the Coens and their films. I haven't seen all of them but the segments relating to the films I'd missed did not make me feel like an outsider looking in. We follow the Coens themselves mostly through quotes they made when working on each film, which is a nice way to follow their evolution.