i'll show you the life of the mind.

    last weekend Professor Thomas S.Hibbs (a distinguished professor of Ethics & Culture and also Dean of the Honors College at Baylor University) visited Ave Maria University - at which I am a sophomore - and gave an excellent talk. I was so excited because his talk was on the films of the Coen brothers, of which I happen to be a huge fan. One of my fellow sophomores (and fellow lit majors) interviewed him about his talk, which went as follows: 

Leslie: What led you to choose to speak on the Coen brothers’ work?

Dr. Hibbs: I think the Coen brothers are an interesting set of filmmakers in contemporary film. They’ve operated in various genres of film from Westerns to neo-noir to straight comedy. They make films that bridge the gap between independent and popular film. Often, they make movies based upon novels. For True Grit, they went back to the original book. Also, they have used Cormac McCarthy novels. The Coens operate in an interesting niche in film, between literary text and the visual genre that is film. They also raise interesting philosophical questions in many of their movies. As a philosopher who works on film, I find them interesting for that reason as well.

Leslie: I know that Blood Simple was the Coen brothers’ directorial debut and they came out with True Grit recently. How do you think the Coen brothers’ work has evolved over time?

Dr. Hibbs: I don’t see a clear line of development in the Coen films. They strike me as filmmakers who really search for interesting ideas. It is interesting to compare them to other contemporary filmmakers, including Shyamalan and Nolan. A development in philosophical ideas can be seen in Nolan’s films, for example in The Dark Knight and Momento. Shyamalan strikes on one or two big ideas but hasn’t found stories to sustain interesting movies. The Coen brothers are different. They have no clear philosophical development, but rather go in search of interesting ideas, giving their own twist and take to these stories.

Leslie: What are your thoughts on Blood Simple and what is its relationship to the rest of the Coen brothers’ work?

Dr. Hibbs: The Coen films are beholden to classical film noir; Fargo has elements of this. Also, in No Country for Old Men, they play off classic noir themes. Blood Simple does this probably more than any of the others. It is a crime film depicting a culture immersed in criminality, lust, greed and violence. It’s a culture where it is difficult to tell who’s good and who’s bad. The characters are trapped in worlds that they are trying to figure out. Within the Coen films are stylistic echoes of borrowing from classic noir.

In neo-noir, which emerged in the 1970s, filmmakers do something different. One real difference is that filmmakers in the ‘70s were more consciously imitating noir. Films were not really called noir until the 1940s. By the ‘70s and ‘80s, filmmakers were consciously making noir as we know it.

In Blood Simple there is a dark, even nihilistic comic element not as present in classic noir. Blood Simple raises philosophical questions including how comedy changes when noir is incorporated. Are we laughing at or with the characters in this film? Are there innocent human beings in the world? Is there a possibility of justice in this world?

Another theme in Blood Simple has to do with its title. The premise of the film is based upon a crime-sighting theory that no matter how callous a criminal is, in the moment of committing murder, the supposed criminal will lose control, go “blood simple” and make a mistake, betraying him or herself. The film calls into question whether characters can get away with criminality. There is a tendency in modern noir, say in Chinatown or in Body Heat, to depict characters that get away with crime. The Coen brothers huddle close to this camp.

Leslie: In your book Arts of Darkness, you discuss the redemptive quality of the noir genre. In what way does Blood Simple, as a neo-noir film, have a redemptive quality?

Dr. Hibbs: Blood Simple doesn’t have that quality. True Grit might be said have this. O Brother, Where Art Thou? may also offer a clear understanding of justice. Blood Simple is more problematic because it flirts with a kind of nihilism. Although, there may be some level of justice to be found in the film. In Arts of Darkness, I argue that there is a quest for redemption in classical noir. From the ‘70s onward there was a split in noir. Some films carry on the quest for redemption while others show a preponderance of nihilistic noir. Blood Simple is of the latter category.

  during his talk on these films by Joel and Ethan, Professor Gibbs stated how they are always faithful to the source. For example, in True Grit, the dialect, plot, events, and characters were so accurate to the original novel. I remember a lot of people leaving the the theater after True Grit, mumbling about how oddly scripted it seemed and how awkward the characters' speech was, but that's how it was written in the book, and as usual with the Coen brothers, they stayed true to the original source. I say kudos to them on that. They are also very unpredictable in their filming if they have written the story themselves, rather than pulling from a novel. Every film I have seen by them has had a deeply philosophical thesis, even if not observed immediately. Almost all their films require some studying and close reviewing in order to find the significant metaphors and hidden hypothesis'. There is frequently a fundamental battle between lust and greed, with the continual triumph of greed. Just as a premonitory warning, the greed's gonna win. Another aspect of their filming that I like is that we often participate in a disorientation of perspective with the primary character, i.e.; the camera is focused on a telephone, we see a hand pick it up and as the camera pans out the window we hear the voice. There is a feeling of disconnection with reality that the character is experiencing that carries over to the audience. Many of their films are reminiscent of the classic noir films of the '40's and '50's. The finality to these films were democratic in a very sobering way...nobody wins. Like all classic noir films that were centered around criminal investigation or sexual motivations, the Coens' films and characters reflect these occasionally. For example, in Barton Fink, like the general motif in most classic noir films, the criminal undoes himself. The "life of the mind" is damnation. At the end of Barton Fink John Goodman as Charlie Meadows is running through the burning hotel, exposed as the crimnal, and yelling "I'll show you the life of the mind! I'll show you the life of the mind!" It really is disturbing and gives the impression of neo-noir films, which basically treated the theme of mental dispossession within stylistic and tonal frameworks derived from classic film noir. Just a fore-warning for those who wish to be writers.. do NOT watch Barton Fink. Basically, it depicts the mind as hell, with the platonic writer eternally tormented on this earth and only able to write if he suffers from great internal, mental and spiritual pain. When I finished the movie I couldn't sleep and was both disturbed, scared stiff to ever pursue writing...but also, deeply inspired to write. Kinda paradoxical, but it definitely stirred my emotions and affected my perception of writing and those who write by profession. An interesting detail I noticed about the Coen's is their pointed attention to dialects. stiff western grammar and dialect in True Grit, oddly funny mid-western Minnesota accents in Fargo, the semi-hippie "dude" californian surfer speech in the Big Labowski, the New York dialect of Barton Fink, the deep southern drawls in Oh Brother Where Art Thou, and so on. They are also all about integrating natural rhythm, community, and comedy into their films, especially in metaphorical, symbolic, or over-toning methods. I highly respect these men, the actors they frequently use in their films, and I strongly recommend you to take the time to sit back and watch a stunning magnum opus of the universally esteemed Coen brothers. 
(I also commend them on their film composition choice: Carter Burwell. He composed around a dozen of their films.)