Barton Fink
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| Barton Fink | |
|---|---|
 film poster |
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| Directed by | Joel Coen Ethan Coen (uncredited) |
| Produced by | Ethan Coen |
| Written by | Joel Coen Ethan Coen |
| Starring | John Turturro John Goodman Michael Lerner Steve Buscemi Judy Davis |
| Music by | Carter Burwell |
| Cinematography | Roger Deakins |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation |
| Release date(s) |  May 1991 (Cannes premiere) 21 August 1991 (limited) 23 January 1992 |
| Running time | 116 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $9,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
Barton Fink is a 1991 film by Joel and Ethan Coen. It tells the story of Barton Fink (John Turturro), a young, intense, and rather dislikeable writer of social realist plays in the early 1940s whose raison d'être is to "create a theatre of the common man", but who is suffering from writer's block.
The film's enigmatic story has been interpreted as an examination of the creative act, a satire on Hollywood, a Joseph Campbell-like heroic quest, or even an allegory for the rise of Nazism.[citation needed] The Coen brothers themselves remain characteristically tight-lipped on the subject.
Barton Fink won the Palme d'Or at Cannes by a unanimous vote, as well as the awards for Best Director and Best Actor. It was the only film in the history of that festival to sweep those three honors. Michael Lerner's portrayal of the egotistic film producer Jack Lipnick was hailed by critics and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
[edit] Synopsis
Barton Fink is a playwright and screenwriter loosely based on the 1930s playwright Clifford Odets.[citation needed] After the success of his Broadway debut, Bare Ruined Choirs, Fink relocates from his native New York to Los Angeles to work as a contracted writer for Hollywood studio chief Jack Lipnick of Capitol Pictures, whose character is based on MGM's Louis B. Mayer. Fink settles in an old hotel and tries to write the script for a Wallace Beery B-movie about professional wrestling. However, he begins feeling claustrophobic and develops writer's block.
As in many of the Coen Brothers' films, Barton Fink contains a menagerie of grotesque supporting characters. In this film, these include Charlie Meadows (John Goodman), Barton's jovial neighbour.
Charlie shows Barton some Greco-Roman wrestling moves and tell about his romantic escapades. Barton ignores Charlie's stories and rambles on about the dreams and goals of the common man that Barton tries to represent in his plays.
As Barton's writer's block does not abate, Capitol producer Ben Geisler (Tony Shalhoub) suggests that Barton talk to another scriptwriter. Barton subsequently runs into another scriptwriter by the name of W.P. "Bill" Mayhew (John Mahoney), whose previous writing Barton greatly admires, and asks him for advice and insight. Mayhew is an alcoholic novelist whose character may be based on William Faulkner. Barton admire's Mayhew's novels, but he is disillusioned when he learns about Mayhew's mistreatment of his mistress, Audrey (Judy Davis) and when he learns that many of Mayhew's books have been largely ghostwritten by Audrey.
Audrey agrees to help Barton, urging him to create a simple morality tale using basic storytelling formulas. Barton and Audrey sleep together, but when he wakes up, he discovers Audrey dead on the blood-soaked mattress. Charlie hears Barton's screams, and comes to Barton's door, where Barton initially dismisses him. Barton then comes to Charlie's door, tells him that he is in trouble and asks Charlie to wait with him while he calls the police. Charlie convinces Barton not to call the police and then tells Barton to wait in the bathroom while he cleans up the crime scene. Charlie returns to Barton's room sometime shortly thereafter and he tells Barton that he must leave town for a while and asks Barton to hold a small package for him in the meantime, which Barton agrees to do. Police detectives come to see Barton when he returns to the hotel after a meeting with Lipnick, and ask about his relationship with Charlie, who turns out to be a wanted serial killer.
When Barton's writer's block finally lifts, he quickly writes the screenplay for the wrestling movie. At a celebratory dance at a big band jazz concert, Barton refuses to let a Navy sailor cut in on his dance partner and a fight ensues. The detectives tell Barton that Mayhew has been decapitated, and that they suspect Barton. After the detectives handcuff Barton to the bedframe, they try to apprehend Charlie with their guns drawn. Charlie shoots both detectives and then rants at the handcuffed Barton about why he committed the crimes. After freeing Barton, who flees, Charlie stays in the now flame-engulfed hotel.
We next see Barton working at Capitol Pictures during World War II. Lipnick rants and complains that Barton's scriptwriting is unsuitable and unusable for the studio. Barton wanders to the beach with Charlie's mysterious package, chats with a young woman in a bikini, and then, after a pelican dives into the ocean, the screen goes black.
[edit] Influences
The Coens claim the film was inspired by an attack of writer's block they suffered whilst working on the screenplay for Miller's Crossing.
The Coens were inspired by Otto Friedrich's City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood, a book about the history of moviemaking in the '30s and '40s with an emphasis on the many German expatriates in Los Angeles.[citation needed] Barton was based on Clifford Odets, a Jewish-American author of leftist plays like Waiting for Lefty and Awake and Sing! who went to Hollywood to write screenplays.
W.P. Mayhew is a composite character of 'Lost Generation' novelists William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald both of whom went to Hollywood to write for the movies, largely out of financial necessity (Fitzgerald, like Mayhew, needed to provide for his disturbed wife's care in mental institutions), only to struggle with a decline in their careers and descent into alcoholism. Faulkner even worked, uncredited, on a Wallace Beery wrestling picture called Flesh, although this is a coincidence.[citation needed]
Fink's Jewfro haircut resembles that of Henry Spencer from David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977). There are also a number of other elements similar to Eraserhead, such as the style of the hotel, and the loud ambient noise.[citation needed]
[edit] External resources
- Coenesque: The Films of the Coen Brothers
- You Know, For Kids! Barton Fink page
- Film review with pictures
| Films directed by Joel and Ethan Coen |
|---|
| Blood Simple • Raising Arizona • Miller's Crossing • Barton Fink • The Hudsucker Proxy • Fargo • The Big Lebowski • O Brother, Where Art Thou? • The Man Who Wasn't There • Intolerable Cruelty • The Ladykillers • No Country for Old Men |
| Preceded by Wild at Heart |
Palme d'Or 1991 |
Succeeded by The Best Intentions |
