Date of Award
2014
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
"Audiences were first introduced to sibling filmmaking duo Joel and Ethan Coen in 1984 with their debut film Blood Simple. Since then the brothers have experienced considerable commercial and critical success with their 16 films, garnering six Academy Awards wins and more than 30 nominations. Attempts at naming a definitive style or genre or subject matter is a difficult undertaking when it comes to the Coen canon, and yet it seems to be this consistent unpredictability that continues to attract critics and audiences alike. Whatever the styles or genres they are working within or the subject matter of their story, though, the brothers’ interest in telling stories in America, about Americans is always clear. Ethan Coen said once, addressing this common thread, “We grew up in America, and we tell American stories in American settings within American frames of reference” (quoted in Gilmore, 'Raising Arizona' 7). One could add, too, that they say something about America, and what it means to be American. In addition to grounding their films in recognizably 'American' settings, Fargo’s blustery Mid-Western landscape for example, and topics like the 1960s folk music scene in Inside Llewyn Davis, the Coen brothers draw upon American cultural myths in their explorations of what it means to be an American." - from page 1
Recommended Citation
Carey, Lauren, ""Breaking Boundaries" and Exploring Identity in Three Coen Brother Films" (2014). Senior Theses. 2.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/clas_theses/2
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