Barton Fink

[grand theft sparrow]

Pretty much every Coen movie has a surreal quality to them. Hell, it's their style, right? You could apply some other layer to the plot by sayng all the weird things in the plot are nightmares...or you could just accept the quirkyness.

I accept the quirkiness. In the Coens' oeuvre, you always know when the character is dreaming.  They don't usually try and trick the audience into thinking that reality is fantasy.

Two examples are:

Raising Arizona: you always see Hi asleep before going into his dreams.

The Big Lebowski: you see The Dude being forced unconscious (by hand or poison) before he dreams.

I'm inclined to think that all of Barton Fink happened, just like Ed Crane saw that UFO in The Man Who Wasn't There or Norville Barnes jumped from the 45th floor (not counting the mezzanine) but didn't quite squish hisself.

[SmellyBoobFungus]

For me, Barton Fink seemed to be pushing a lot of criticism towards Hollywood. It's an obvious undertone throughout the entireity of the film, and I left the film feeling that there is no such thing as a 'beautiful picture' as long it's coming from Hollywood. Fink really reminded me a lot of Kauffman, as well, considering his background in theatre, his aims as a writer, and love for life. I really do love this film, but Fargo is still my most favorite.

[SHAFTR]

I took the hell approach when I saw the film.  I also have a working theory that perhaps when he starts writing the non-studio exec scenes are what he's writing about.  This would explain the differences in shooting style of the exec & hotel scenes.  I think the only reason I'm even thinking about this is because of Adaptation.  I've only seen Barton Fink once so I should see it again with these theories in mind.

[frylock]

i've not seen the movie, but i heard that barton fink is basically a take off on william faulkner, basically trashing him.  he is one of my favorite writers and i was wondering if any of the film nerds could confirm or deny this.

[MacGuffin]

i've not seen the movie, but i heard that barton fink is basically a take off on william faulkner, basically trashing him.  he is one of my favorite writers and i was wondering if any of the film nerds could confirm or deny this.

From IMDB:

The character of W. P. Mayhew is based on William Faulkner, whose first Hollywood contract was to write a wrestling movie.