KPBS film critic Beth Accomando says a Coen Brothers film is always something to look forward to and Hail, Caesar! Opening this weekend is no exception. CLIP 27 Apple take two… On the surface, the Coen Brother’s Hail, Caesar appears to be a screwball romp through an old school Hollywood studio… CLIP Ah… faith, faith… blah… cut… But as with the Coens’ other films a single viewing doesn’t reveal all that’s intended. In the case of Hail Caesar, a kidnapped movie star from off a Biblical epic sets the story in motion. CLIP We have your movie star, gather $100,000 and await instructions. The calm at the eye of this madcap hurricane is Eddie Mannix, a studio fixer who takes care of anything that comes up. And he makes sure that people know their place, even a big movie star. CLIP You are going to go out there and you are going to finish Hail, Caesar. You are going to give that speech at the foot of the penitent thief and you are going to believe every word you say. You are going to do it because you are an actor and that’s what you do. Just like the director does what he does and the writer and the script girl and the guy who claps the slate, and you are going to do it because the picture has worth and you have worth because you serve the picture and you are never going to forget that again. In an odd way Hail Caesar is as much about faith and religion as the Coens’ A Serious Man. Mannix is Catholic but the altar he worships at is Hollywood. And at the very end, the Coens cut to their directing screen credit right when we expect to see a shot of Christ on the cross. What does it all mean? Well as the Dude said, CLIP “it’s more complex, uh, might not be just such a simple... uh, you know?” Beth Accomando, KPBS News
Companion viewing
"Barton Fink" (1991)
"The Big Lebowski" (1998)
"A Serious Man" (2009)
A Coen Brothers film is always something to look forward to and "Hail, Caesar!" (opening this weekend in select theaters) is no exception.
On the surface, the Coen Brother’s “Hail, Caesar!” appears to be a screwball romp through an old school Hollywood studio.
But as with the Coens’ other films, a single viewing doesn’t always reveal what the film’s true intentions and meaning are. I have regretted writing some reviews after only watching some of their films once because repeated screenings have changed my perceptions and crystalized my understanding and appreciation for the films.
“Hail, Caesar!” is no exception and I still feel like there are things I’m missing because the Coens frequently engage in the art of distraction, pretending their films are about one thing when really they are about another. It’s this quality, though, that makes re-watching their films so rewarding. It’s not like peeling back the layers of an onion but rather like looking at a multi-faceted gem that keeps changing as you look at it from different angles and in different kinds of light.
In the case of “Hail, Caesar!” a movie star, Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), kidnapped from off a Biblical epic sets the story in motion. His sudden disappearance threatens to bring the film presenting the story of Christ to a halt and stirs the interest of twin gossip columnists (both played by the splendid Tilda Swinton).
The kidnappers, who identify themselves as “The Future,” turn out to be a bunch of communist writers that want to take the Hollywood studio to task for its capitalistic greed.
The calm at the eye of this madcap hurricane is Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), a studio fixer who takes care of anything that comes up. And he makes sure that everyone knows his/her place, even a big movie star.
When Baird Whitlock starts to veer off course, Mannix slaps him around and delivers this speech:
“You are going to go out there and you are going to finish ‘Hail, Caesar!’ You are going to give that speech at the foot of the penitent thief and you are going to believe every word you say. You are going to do it because you are an actor and that’s what you do. Just like the director does what he does and the writer and the script girl and the guy who claps the slate, and you are going to do it because the picture has worth and you have worth because you serve the picture and you are never going to forget that again.”
In an odd way “Hail, Caesar!” is as much about faith and religion as the Coens’ “A Serious Man,” in which a man of questioning Jewish faith seeks to understand why he’s suffering.
Mannix is Catholic but the altar he worships at is Hollywood. The Coens open the film with a statue of Christ on the cross in a Catholic church. Then at the end, they return to that image but on a movie set. Mannix moves from worshipping in the church to worshipping on a sound stage with a heavenly glow painted on a cyclorama. The Coens cut to their directing screen credit right at a point when we expect to see a shot of Christ on the cross. What does it all mean? Well as the Dude, one of the Coens’ greatest creations, said, “it’s…uh, more complex, uh, might not be just such a simple... uh, you know?”
“Hail, Caesar!” (rated PG-13 for some suggestive content and smoking) allows the Coens to pay tribute to old school Hollywood filmmaking, everything from Esther Williams pool extravaganzas to MGM style musicals to British drawing room comedies to aw shucks cowboy adventures. There’s a zany energy on screen but a sense of meticulous control behind it. Imagine the film as a crazy cuckoo clock but with Swiss watch precision hidden inside. It feels light and fun but there also is a lot of craft — and in this case meaning — that’s not as readily apparent.
Oh, and one last note, Frances McDormand steals the show as a woman editor (she looks a lot like character actress Thelma Ritter) who chain smokes as she edits multiple films in a darkened room with a row of upright Moviolas. Her scene is hands down my favorite of the film.
