The Coen brothers almost always never take themselves seriously.
Which is a huge cop out for poor artists to always say: I'm only joking!
This film for instance is awesome in many ways, but then you get the ufo bits and...wtf? Other than them being silly and going for a joke, the ufo doesn't add anything, infact it takes the movie down from classic status to "yet another silly Coen movie nobody, other than the bros and their fans, will appreciate".
Od d round objects are a staple across nearly all Coen films. In this case the era was one of UFO paranoia after the Roswell incident. When Daves wife shows up at the house she is revealed to be wildly paranoid and feels alone when she describes her alien abduction experience. At the end, Ed imagines the same UFO visiting him at the prison, only to take off leaving him as bewildered and alone as Daves wife.
shareYes I know the idea, but isn't it a film-student level joke? Does it have any place in this film???
I mean, it's the kind of joke seen in a film class because it's just an exercise, but it's not the kind of joke you should put in a real movie which, supposedly, should be aiming higher than a school exercise.
Like I said, you always have this feeling of the Coen snickering in the back of the theatre at their idiotic, out of place humor, pulling the rug under the viewers with a "don't worry we are not really serious!"
I guess i didnt view it as a joke. It was just another example of Ed soul searching throughout the entire film for something that would take him away from his soul killing wife, job and life, imagining the UFO would take him away from such a mundane life.
As for laughing at the audiencee because of their jokes, theyre usually more accused of making fun of thier own characters.
Ok, that's a better take than just a joke.
But I never got the feeling that he believed any of what the crazy wife told him. I guess he was just wishing that was true, that they would set him free from that situation etc. And then they don't (that's the joke part...)
Anyway, it goes against what his actions are in the movie: he's not really trying to get away from it all, he wants to accuse himself so...why would he feel the need to escape the reality he's in?
It seems to me that, after all this story happened to this man, he would feel relieved that it's gonna be over. He's burdened by life since the beginning of the movie, that's his "happy ending".
"the more you look at something the less you really know"
https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5RvDorEnMc
Heisenburg uncertainty principle
The whole film revolves around it
Even the lawyer seems to believe his own version of the story
Yes that part was awesome! But how do you connect it with the ufo bs?
The more I look at the ufo bits, the less I think the Coens really know.
Unreliable narrator. He's writing a story for a magazine prior to his execution. I struggled for years to try and make sense of it, but that's all I got. Heisenburg is just too prominent. Maybe he took the neighbors UFO story and ran with it. Everybody sees everything different (in the movie ...and out)
shareSo you mean that's some bs he's giving the press to get some money?
It could be the case, but why should we care about that version of facts?
Wouldn't it fit better this story if he explained us "I told the magazine some bs story about ufos"? I'm gonna rewatch it, I totally never got your idea on my own.
I didn't see your reply til now. Yes he's embellishing his story for the magazine is a theory. I've tried to make sense of the UFO stuff and the symbolism (the spinning hubcap looks like a UFO, the light shades in one scene, the light shining on the lawyer, the old lady's story. He could have conjured those images into a bullshit story. Looking at the movie from a normal perspective, none of it fits. Looking at it from this perspective and knowing the Cohen's strange movie endings/meanings/subtexts, I'm trying to draw a more obvious conclusion. The UFO stuff seems so outlandish, it's almost like they are giving away and being tongue in cheek.
I love this movie. It's easily in my top 3 Cohen bros films. I took it all at face value the first 3-4 viewings and was looking for the hidden meanings of the UFO stuff. But knowing how they toyed with your mind in "A Serious man"~ trying to find the meaning of life is pointless (See also PI). The open ending and randomness (coin flips, etc) of "no Country for old men", nihilism in TBL...and a little mish mash of some of their other films luring you to figure it all out and make sense of it, only to tell you "The dude abides" and The real Lebowski was a big fraud the whole time, as was the kidnapping. Granted there are deeper symbolism and meanings in their movies, but they don't really give you answers to the questions you are seeking.
I don't even want to believe the unreliable narrator angle, but it seems to fit. The guy is a bore in his life. Then he's in prison and has plenty of time to think (same for hair cutting and other downtime) to come up with a more exciting article.
Maybe he actually had selfish intentions with Birdy. Maybe he did hook up with the scammer. If you read the comments, people find a lot of this shit unbelievable that a father would let this old guy come hang out with his daughter and take her away to SF on his own or that he didn't know what to expect at the hotel
Your statement says it all. Your name is ironically Heisenberg (for different reason?) or is that a reference to Breaking bad?
The Lawyer scene is the key scene. Sums up the entire movie. "The more you look at ______ the less you know"
That seems totally Cohenesque. I think it's a big clue in the movie and in life.
Did you like Hail Caesar?