Barton Fink (1991)

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nTitle: Barton Fink (1991)

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nDirector: Joel Coen

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nCast: John Torturro, John Goodman, Judy Davis, John Mahoney,nSteve Buscemi, Tony Shalhoub

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nAsk anybody who writes for a living and they’ll tell you, writingncan be a noble, rewarding and even cathartic affair, but most of all, it cannalso be hell. In Barton Fink, the Coen Brothers captured this sentimentnperfectly by telling the story of Barton Fink, a playwright who writes storiesnabout “the common man”, the working stiff, Barton wants to be a voice for them.nThe good thing is that Barton’s plays are getting rave reviews; he’s finally gettingna taste of success, of recognition. It’s at this same time that a Hollywoodnmogul offers Barton a job “writing for the pictures” paying him a thousandndollars a week. Barton accepts the job offer because he sees it as a way ofnmaking money that can later allow him to write more plays, not because he isnthrilled at the idea of writing movies. So off Barton Fink goes to Hollywood.nHe stays at Hotel Earl, a name that sounds a lot like Hotel Hell, which I’mnsure was the Coen’s direct intention. This is hell for Barton, because it’snwhere he intends to write his first screenplay, it’s where he intends to escapeninto the “life of the mind”. And so starts Barton Fink, a film that portraysnHollywood as a place filled with wound up, greedy and downright crazy people, anplace that is not as glamorous as some might think.

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nSo that’s the premise for Barton Fink, a film that’s andouble edged sword because it’s both about the struggles of a writer and the hecticnlife of a Hollywood mogul, so it’s both a film about writing and aboutnfilmmaking. The life of the writer is covered by the character of Barton Fink,na character attempting to write his first screenplay. We follow him right downnto that intimate moment when the writer sits in front of his type writer tryingnto write that first sentence, that first original thought, that first spark ofnan idea that will get that screenplay going. Barton Fink really goes into thatnmental struggle one must go through in order to write a story. This strugglenhas been addressed in many films about writing like Naked Lunch (1991) andnSpike Jonze’s Adaptation (2002), it’s a common thing that writers go through:nhow to get started, where to begin. At times Barton just stares at the blanknpage, unable to type a single thing. Every little thing distracts him, he triesnto write and a fly buzzes by. He tries to type and his neighbor comes knockingnat the door. He tries to write and the wallpaper is peeling off the walls. Whennhe does write, he writes about the same themes he’d write in his theater plays,nhe writes about “the fishmongers”, the working class; an interesting way innwhich the Coen’s point out how sometimes, all throughout their body of work, writersnand filmmakers end up talking about the same themes  repeatedly. So be ready for a film that analysesnthe nature of writing and as a result, is a very brainy, complex film.  

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nOn the Hollywood filmmaking side of things we get to see Bartonnmeet film producers, which are portrayed as a hectic bunch, always speaking atnlightning fast pace, which perfectly captures the way Hollywood moguls think,nalways trying to be one step ahead of what’s hot, what’s in, always trying tonstab each other’s backs first. If you know anything about Hollywood, then younknow what a wrestling match it can be to write a film with some depth to it andnthen finding  someone willing to fund it.n90 percent of the time, all Hollywood cares about is making the nextnTransformers movie. There’s always that fight between the brainy writer and thenmoney hungry producer. In Barton Fink Hollywood is a stampeding train lookingnfor someone to ram and if this film is any indication, it’s the brainy, poetic writersnartistic integrity that is on its tracks. Even though they’ll tell you theynlove you “kiss this man’s shoe!” in reality, they don’t want you to write ansad, fruity picture. As soon as he arrives to Hollywood Barton meets JacknLipnick, a Hollywood producer who says he is where he is because he is meanernand louder than anyone else in town. Lipnick (which by the way sounds like “limpndick” and I’m sure this was intentional) wants Barton to write a film aboutnwrestling in order to make a quick buck, but Barton doesn’t want to write a sillynb-movie . In accordance with the persona of a writer, Barton is a more cerebralnkind of guy, so Barton is confronted with a conundrum: should he write a commercialnfilm about wrestling? A film that follows a formula? Or can he turn this wouldnbe film into a commentary on the struggles of the common man?  I enjoy how the film explores these ideas,nthis dichotomy: to make an intelligent film that can actually say somethingnabout life or to make a meaningless film that says nothing?

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nAs is the case with practically any Coen Brothers film, thencast is top notch. On Barton Fink we have two great actors who take up a bignpart of the screen time and these are John Torturro and John Goodman, twonactors whom the Coen brothers continually work with. These two characters arenat the crux of what this film is about. On the one hand we have Torturro playingnBarton as the brainy writer who struggles with his own mind; he is continuallynasking perfection of himself. ”Shouldn’t your first duty be to your gift?” Henis a writer determined to do something worthwhile, sometime that matters.nThough at the same time he comes off as a hypocritical character, at timesnadvocating for the common man, but then not even listening to the stories thatnhe might have to say, one could say that Burton sees himself as superior to thencommon man. He sees himself as more refined, than the common man. Then on thenother hand we have Goodman playing Charlie Meadows, a guy who in the eyes ofnBarton represents the common man that he wants to write so much about. In anway, one feeds off the other. For example, Charlie enjoys talking with Bartonnbecause he’s an intelligent individual who always has something insightful tonsay. In Charlie’s eyes, Barton is not an idiotic sheep in the heard. TonCharlie, Barton is special and he admires him for that. Barton tells Charlie thingsnlike “the life of the mind…there’s no road map for that territory…and exploringnit can be painful” and Charlie just eats it up. For Barton, Charlie is thencomplete opposite. To Barton, Charlie is the quintessential common man, workingnfor the system as an Insurance Salesman; a sheep in the heard, slaving away tonhave a little money with which to eat and drink his nights away. But boy, couldnhe tell Barton some stories; unfortunately, most of the time Barton won’tnlisten to his stories, he just talks about himself. But they continually meet,nbouncing off their musings on life. Their encounters lead to a very unexpected place.

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nAn interesting aspect of Barton Fink is that it is a filmnfilled with many symbolisms and possible interpretations; it speaks about manynthings at the same time. Ultimately, Barton Fink will end up meaning differentnthings to different people, much like a David Lynch film. Actually, visuallynspeaking this film has many homage’s to Lynch’s own Eraserhead (1977), startingnwith John Torturro’s crazy hairdo. Multiple interpretations aside, at heart, morenthan anything, the film expresses the frustrations involved with artisticncompromise. The film itself has a very somber mood to it, very film noir, veryndark…we get the feeling that Hotel Earl is indeed hell. Every character thatnstays in Hotel Earl is always dripping in sweat. The heat and humidity arenextremely palpable here. “Sometimes it gets so hot I want to crawl right out ofnmy skin” says Charlie at one point. One of the many interpretations for thisnfilm is that Hotel Earl is hell and that John Goodman’s character can benrepresentative of either fascism, Satan or a figment of Barton’s own mind, takenyour pick! I’ve also read that since Barton lives “the life of the mind” thatnCharlie represents his physical side? There’s even another take on the filmnthat says that Barton’s hotel room represents his mind and that everything thatnhappens in the hotel is representative of what’s going on inside his head! Sonjust be ready for a movie that’s open to various interpretations. All these wild interpretations make sense, especially when we take in consideration that the film takes a turn towards the surreal side ofnthings.

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nIt should be noted that Barton Fink came to be as result ofnthe Coen’s suffering from writers block while writing the screenplay for Miller’snCrossing (1990). You see, writing Miller’s Crossing proved to be such andaunting task for the brothers that they took a break from it; a hiatus so tonspeak. Now, the Coen’s being such gifted writers, their hiatus involved writingnanother masterpiece, which ended up being Barton Fink, a film that won criticalnacclaim and numerous awards at the Cannes Film Festival! It’s a very specialnfilm that I place next to Sunset Blvd. (1950), Adaptation (2002) and Ed Wood (1994)nas some of the best films about filmmaking out there. If you enjoy writing andnwould like to see all your struggles to get that script, book or play off thenground represented in a film, then do yourself a favor and check this excellentnfilm out, the common man will be here when you get back.

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nRating:  5 out of 5   

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