I spoke to students that day about their writing assignments: They’re reviewing Raising Arizona and True Grit. I asked them how many movies by the Coens they had seen. A young woman answered: “How can we know? We don’t really know who directs the movies we see.” When I mentioned O Brother, Where Art Thou?, several students lit up in happy recognition. I mentioned The Big Lebowski. Cheers! (To my dismay, they didn’t know A Serious Man, Barton Fink, or The Hudsucker Proxy.)
As I talked about these films, I was again impressed with how the Coens’ films seem to have a spiritual center, one that—like Lebowski’s precious rug—ties their whole cosmos together. It has something to do with their affection for idiosyncratic fools; their love of comedy (from the most straightforward slapstick to the most subversive satire); an understanding that salvation cannot be earned with righteousness; and a strong apprehension of… no, not goodness, but grace and evil.
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