Essentials: Raising Arizona

Year: 1987 (USA)
Genre: Comedy/Screwball Comedy/Crime Comedy
Directed: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, William Forsythe, Sam McMurray, Trey Wilson, Frances McDormand, Randall 'Tex' Cobb
Production: Circle Films

The Coen brothers have made a name for themselves as a pair of brilliant masters of their craft. They build on a solid foundation aided by philosophy, literature and the Hollywood Golden age. Using a palpable mix of classicist storytelling, idiosyncratic characters and dark humor they have made an undeniable contribution to cinema that will never be washed away. So why am I not sold on the countless insta-classics that they churn out every few years?

We're artists, ARTISTS!!!

Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of The Big Lebowski (1998). Miller’s Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), True Grit (2010), Fargo (1996) and No Country for Old Men (2007) all have their moments and heck, I even like their lesser works: Intolerable Cruelty (2003), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) and The Ladykillers (2004). Still, as I have always said, to me for a film to rise above it needs to be an experience, not just a film. In that respect only two films have risen to that level, at least for me. The aforementioned Big Lebowski and Raising Arizona (1987).

Joel and Ethan wanted to make a movie as far different from their first feature Blood Simple (1984) a neo-noir that won the Palm d’Or for the auteures celebres. So instead of something dark they made something light. Instead of slow it was quick and instead of starring Frances McDormand, it starred this guy…

If the term “screwball comedy” is applied to the work of Preston Sturges then I am at a loss as to what one would call Raising Arizona. The breakneck speed at which it throws things at you is mesmerizing. Yet the story is told with such a firm hand that watching the movie at times feels like being in the cab of a Nascar; claustrophobic yet invigorating.

Guess which is which

For the uninitiated the story takes place in and around Tempe Arizona. Ed (Holly Hunter) and H.I. McDonough (Nic Cage) are as unlikely a couple as you are likely to find. One is an ex-cop while the other is a repeat offender with the attitude of a high school drop out and vocabulary of a Sunday preacher. They get married and figure the next logical step is having a kid. But after they find out they can’t conceive, they steal a quintuplet from a local millionaire in desperation. It all goes pretty haywire from there with car chases, prison breaks and one scary looking bounty hunter but the oddball characters stay true to their oddball selves from beginning to end.

Should have used Depends bitch!

The Coens showed a visual aptitude in Blood Simple but here they unleash their talents with reckless abandon, throwing the audience face first into a rube-golberg they themselves designed. The centerpiece of their contraption is a ten minute chase through the houses, convenience stores and supermarkets of Tempe with multiple people in pursuit of H.I. holding a package of Pampers. There is another point where H.I. and Ed try to keep the kid out of the bounty hunter’s hands in an epic showdown that is as tense as it is funny.

Raising Arizona is certainly not just a movie, its an experience that registers on an emotional level. H.I. finds that he’s out of his depth when it comes to becoming a parent and attempts to recede back to his former state of irresponsible ineptitude. Yet, as with all times of trial, it’s impossible to revert, you must always move forward, no matter how painful. A lesson that in my mind, is ultimately more important than anything said by a toque wearing cop with a Minnesotan accent.

Yeah? Yeah!

Final Grade: A