- Hardcover: 248 pages
- Publisher: Orion; 1st edition edition (20 July 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0752818147
- ISBN-13: 978-0752818146
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.4 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,163,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
"Why do you want to write a biography of us ? ... we're boring" was Joel Coen's initial response to Ronald Bergan. He has a point. Choking on his kir in disbelief that they have never heard of Kieslowski, this former chronicler of the lives of Jean Renoir and Sergei Eisenstein might not seem ideally suited to writing about two fans of Doris Day musicals and the comedies of Cheech and Chong. That the book remains so readable is due to Bergan's style, highly critical but, like the films covered, irreverent bordering on rudeness. Never over-cerebral, Bergan has clearly done his research as he covers their output from the earliest remakes ("Lassie Come Home" as "Ed ... A Dog") to "O Brother Where Art Thou?" The brothers themselves, chain smokers who pepper their dialogue with "heh-heh"s, come across as Smart and Smarter. Joey Ramone lookalike Joel loves dog movies whereas Ethan is an outrageous sentimentalist. The Coen Brothers is not the ideal introduction for newcomers, nor for particularly sensitive fans, but for those who enjoyed, or were bemused by, Cheshire and Ashbrook's quirkier guide to the weird and wonderful Coen Brothers, this is a good follow up --Stephen Portlock
Review
'The background information on each film is stunning ... THE COEN BROTHERS is a must for any self-respecting Coen fan.' (SCREENTRADE )
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First Sentence
During one of their writing sessions, Joel Coen (46) suddenly pulled out a gun on Ethan (43), his brother and co-creator of all their movies, and threatened to kill him. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
During one of their writing sessions, Joel Coen (46) suddenly pulled out a gun on Ethan (43), his brother and co-creator of all their movies, and threatened to kill him. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Coens are among my favourite filmmakers and I was looking forward to learning a lot more about their films. Boy was I disappointed with this feeble book.
Bergan makes light of responses from the Coens that they would not be able to spend much time co-operating with him on this project. His jokey manner may have been an attempt at a double-bluff to conceal the fact that he simply didn't have the access required to produce a decent biography. It becomes rapidly evident that the vast majority of the book is culled from previous interviews and secondary sources. The result is patchy and superficial.
Ironically, the constantly self-regarding Bergan includes one section about how he was in a private bar with the Coens and that he would have tried harder to interview them if he'd known he was going to write this book. Aside from containing no information of any real interest (it's presumably there to indicate to the reader how important the author is), it also accidentally highlights the complete inadequacy of Bergan's research.
Alas, Bergan tries to make up for the lack of material by attempting the occasional analysis of the Coens' films, motivations and influences - a job for which he proves himself woefully inadequate. Most of the time his assertions are risibly contrived. Often, incapable of coming up with any cohesive idea, he resorts to unconvincing and highly tenous comparisons with other movies, seeming to be more interested in showing off his own film knowledge than in casting any light on the Coens' work. One gets the impression that Bergan doesn't actually understand the movies at all.
As if this wasn't bad enough, this is all presented with a fifth-form writing style that resorts all too often to peurile puns. Bergan is also fond of throwing in savage adjectives - for example, a director's work is described as *mindless* mainstream movies. While such editorialising might be forgiven if it added depth to what the author was saying, that certainly isn't the case here. More often than not, such dismissive terms are entirely gratuitous, having no relevance to what is being said. One suspects they are in there simply to indicate how brilliant Bergan thinks he is. Indeed, the whole book has a rather patronising tone.
What a waste.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Bergan knows his stuff. A biography veteran, here he follows the career of the Minnesotan pair, from trying to find a distributor for Blood Simple right up until O Brother Where Art Thou? Their films are patchy (I hated Fargo, but thought that Big Lebowski and Barton Fink were great) but as personalities, they're worth the attention. Bergan's stance is an intriguing one: sometimes he is very critical of their work but you get the feeling that he wouldn't devote his time to this if there wasn't a spark of admiration for them. He is a very perceptive writer and the academic material introduced here from other sources is very accessible. He manages to place them in today's cinema. They may have started in the indy sector but the fact that they can get stars of the box office clout of George Clooney and now Brad Pitt means that they are now part of Hollywood. Coen Brothers contains some interesting snippets and Bergan puts it all together with style and class.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
If you LOVE the Coens, you'll LIKE this book
18 Dec 2000
Format:Paperback
Ronald Bergan, biographer of such film legends as Jean Renoir and Sergei Eisentsein, has been commissioned to write the first offical biography of the brilliant, yet elusive American filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen. Anyone who loves the brothers' work will enjoy this book simply because info on the bros is so hard to come by: they rarely do interviews and stay just far enough outside of the mainstream to avoid tabloid headlines. The book on the whole, unfortunatley, seems to have been rushed. Even the physical look-- from the type face to the occastional type-- seems a bit unporfessional. There were sections about the Coen youth where I, the ultimate admirer/fan, got bored and skipped ahead-- that is almost impressive. Once the author settles into his format, he simply goes through each of the Coens' eight films in order. That gets pretty dull and uninformative, especially if you've read The Making of the Big Lebowski by William Preston Robertson (and if you haven't, do it). The other major problem with Bergan's book is that he too often jumps the line from biographer to critic. While discussing their work, he will 'factually' point out flaws in performances, filming techniques, even script-writing. Aside from this being out of his jurisdiction, his opinions--which are just that-- come off as shallow and unsupported. If you're gonna tell me that the brilliant last line of Raizing Arizona ruins the whole ending, you better have good reasons why! Bergan doesn't. There are few of his critiques that i agreed with, but the point is that he shouldn't be making these judgements at all. But because the Coens have stayed to private, it's great to get your hands on anything that discusses their behind-the-screen struggles and triumphs. Learning how they got funding for Blood Simple was fascinating and inspiring for any film student or independant filmmaker. The brilliance of the Coen brothers is not quite reflected in this somewhat shallow biography, which seems to have been written partly against the will of not only the author, but the subjects as well. The true fan, however, should be able to find enough gems to be worth the price of admission. Ciao.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
a real "shove in the bottom drawer" book
30 Dec 2000
Format:Paperback
It's hard to add much to Josh's review, and perhaps I shouldn't, as I put this book down after page 114. I too found myself skipping long (slow) passages and growing tired at the never-ending parrallels drawn between the Coen's work and that of other film-makers. I would have preferred to hear more of what the brothers had to say, rather than the theories and beliefs of their biographer.
If you're after an in-depth study at how the Coen Brothers go about making a movie, buy William Preston Robertson's "The Making of Joel & Ethan Coen's The Big Lebowski". It's a better read by far.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
What can one say?
29 Sep 2001
Format:Paperback
This book is supposed to be the first authorized biography about the Coens, but to be completely honest it's not much of a biography. The book reads more like a review of the Coens and each of their films. Much of the biographical information is interesting just for the simple fact that the brothers are so elusive that anything regarding their past and how they first funded their films is a gem not to be discarded. However, most of the book is divided into chapters that review and critique each of the Coen's films. Now, I didn't mind this, but a biography is not a collection of film reviews. It seems to me that the author (though possibly a fan) just didn't feel like writing this book especially since the brothers seemed so reluctant that he was writing it. Or true to Coen style, maybe that's how they intended the book to turn out (either knowingly or unknowingly to the author). Overall, an interesting, but slow read worth the time if your a film buff.
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