Rate You 3 Favorite Coen Brother's Movies

[Otter]

Everyone gets 3 picks:

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Stuck to the source material better but it didn't have the Duke.

Worse still, they mangled the showdown between him and Lucky Ned Pepper something awful. Bridges mumbled the 'Fill your hands!' line so badly you could barely understand it and having him ride w/ twin pistols instead of twirling that Winchester lever action was just blasphemy.

I went to one of those dinner and a movie theatres with the recliners and beer with my old man to see it. Hardly had any complaints but man - that is one of the climactic moments in western history and while the cinematography is great, poor line reading and a weird stylistic choice just took some of the starch out of it.

Never read the book, but in the movie Cogburn had ridden with Quantrill. The pistol in each hand bit is exactly how they rolled.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Frazod

Never read the book, but in the movie Cogburn had ridden with Quantrill. The pistol in each hand bit is exactly how they rolled.

Short, easy read.

I know he carries a rifle in the book but honestly don't recall specifically if he uses it in the shootout (or if the author clarifies either way).

I just know it's pretty damn cool seeing John Wayne chamber a round and fire it one-handed and if I'm betting, Bridges just couldn't manage it.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

And maybe I'm in BL's camp of just not having seen TBL enough to appreciate it like I should, but in contrast to Raising Arizona where they nailed the humor, I don't see why I should have to watch it 5 times to accept it's greatness.

It's not like it's a chore, and it's hard to put into words what exactly is happening. I know many others have tried, so it's not just me.

But it seems like people somehow go into TBL with expectations that are just off from what they get. But when you acclimatize [that's the best word I can think of], the humor just bursts out everywhere.

I think part of it is that the humor is so deadpan and downplayed, and in a way throwaway, that if you're trying to soak in the entire film you don't even register that some things are humorous. Then when you're acclimatized it just hits you. And the jokes are familiar and comfortable and make you laugh over and over and over. So when you click with the movie's 'vibe' you'll realize that it's not a slog to 'get' and it was so worth the second viewing.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Short, easy read.

I know he carries a rifle in the book but honestly don't recall specifically if he uses it in the shootout (or if the author clarifies either way).

I just know it's pretty damn cool seeing John Wayne chamber a round and fire it one-handed and if I'm betting, Bridges just couldn't manage it.

I'm pretty sure that the big loop lever on the rifle was a Hollywood invention.

The partisans who rode with Quantrill would generally carry four, or sometimes six, pistols into combat, so that they could fire a large number of rounds without reloading, and were extremely proficient shooting two guns at once on horseback. They also short loaded their pistols, so that they wouldn't kick as much, which helped with accuracy while firing from a moving horse. It also helped them conserve gunpowder.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Frazod

I'm pretty sure that the big loop lever on the rifle was a Hollywood invention.

The partisans who rode with Quantrill would generally carry four, or sometimes six, pistols into combat, so that they could fire a large number of rounds without reloading, and were extremely proficient shooting two guns at once on horseback. They also short loaded their pistols, so that they wouldn't kick as much, which helped with accuracy while firing from a moving horse. It also helped them conserve gunpowder.

The rifle was a Winchester 1873 and yes, it had the loop on the lever.



Now I have no idea if that was a common way of trying to get it cocked from horseback or not, but I gotta believe it had been done before...

Short loads were pretty common for some of those pistols because the cylinder would blow up if you overloaded 'em. There was a trick to preventing it I can't remember off the top of my head; something like loading beeswax into the back of the cylinder to keep the charge from leaking out into the next chamber, but my memory was that they just used smaller loads and that fixed it.

The Walker Colt seemed pretty notorious for it. And you can blame Unforgiven for this information because I went down a rabbithole years ago after Little Bill said something about the Walker Colt having a propensity for blowing up on guys. So I looked it up and sure enough - pretty common problem. It seemed to be a design problem with the Colt but some other pistols had metallurgy issues that created similar headaches.

[Frazod]

I'm talking about ones with the big loop, like this.



You can't spin cock a normal-sized one.

[DJ's left nut]

Good info.

Half-assed internet research says that was kindof a John Wayne invention going all the way back to Stagecoach and yes, required the modified lever.

[Chief Pagan]

Originally Posted by Otter

I'll have to watch Miller's Crossing again on the next rainy day.

I honestly thought "The Man who wasn't There" would get more rep. It's dark but a great homage to film noir and it's really good.

FYP

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Good info.

Half-assed internet research says that was kindof a John Wayne invention going all the way back to Stagecoach and yes, required the modified lever.

Yep. It certainly looks cool, though.

It is possible to cycle a lever action rifle with one hand; I've done it. It's definitely hard on the wrist, though, and not very practical.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Chief Pagan

FYP

An 'homage to film noir'? Now I'm excited.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Frazod

Yep. It certainly looks cool, though.

It is possible to cycle a lever action rifle with one hand; I've done it. It's definitely hard on the wrist, though, and not very practical.

I used to do it with my pellet gun. Just a little wrist snap rather than a 'loop'. Then I didn't get my thumb out of the way in time once and it snapped shut anyway...with the meaty side of my thumb lodged up in the mechanism.

I stopped doing it after that. Pretty sure it was hell on every part of the action and sight but I was a kid and it was fun.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I used to do it with my pellet gun. Just a little wrist snap rather than a 'loop'. Then I didn't get my thumb out of the way in time once and it snapped shut anyway...with the meaty side of my thumb lodged up in the mechanism.

I stopped doing it after that. Pretty sure it was hell on every part of the action and sight but I was a kid and it was fun.

I did it with my BB gun as well. I only did it once with a real gun, and it wasn't loaded. I only did to show my buddy that it was possible.

[Chief Pagan]

Originally Posted by vailpass

An 'homage to film noir'? Now I'm excited.

I kid you not.

And can I interest you in Intolerable Cruelty if I said it follows the dictates of a 1930's screwball comedy.

[DeepPurple]

I gave Blood Simple honorable mention in my post, but I didn't have it in my top 3. However, I'm surprised more posters didn't at least bring it up. Maybe the title made some people get a different idea and they didn't see it. It was the Coen Brothers first movie, they made it on a budget of $800K. They had gone to 40 family members and borrowed $20,000 from each. The movie made $4 million, so everybody got more money back. I saw Blood Simple on HBO in 1985 when it was a year old and when their following movie Raising Arizona came out, I saw it twice in the theater because I was blown away even more.

They had some many new and usual filming techniques in Blood Simple, it's a classic for cinematographers. Here's one of my favorite scenes as detective M. Emmet Walsh gets stabbed in the hand by Francis McDormand, and then he shoots through the wall. I wish the clip was longer.

[carcosa]

Man, it's so hard to pick a top three... Here's what I came up with (not ranked):

Inside Llewyn Davis
No Country for Old Men
Burn After Reading

BAR is criminally underrated and holds up as possibly their funniest movie. Brad Pitt is ****ing hilarious, and I honestly think it's his best role.