Barton Fink
| Barton Fink | |
|---|---|
 film poster | |
| Directed by | Joel Coen Ethan Coen (uncredited) |
| Written by | Joel Coen Ethan Coen |
| Produced by | Ethan Coen |
| Starring | John Turturro John Goodman Steve Buscemi Judy Davis |
| Cinematography | Roger Deakins |
| Music by | Carter Burwell |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation |
Release dates |  May 1991 (Cannes premiere) 21 August, 1991 (limited) 23 January, 1992 |
Running time | 116 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $9,000,000 (estimated) |
Barton Fink is a 1991 film by Joel and Ethan Coen. It tells the story of Barton Fink (John Turturro), a young, intense, and rather dislikeable writer of social realist plays in the early 1940s whose raison d'être is to "create a theatre of the common man", but who is suffering from writer's block.
The film's story is enigmatic and open to multiple interpretations. Critics have variously interpreted it as an examination of the creative act, a satire on Hollywood, a Joseph Campbell-like heroic quest, and even an allegory for the rise of Nazism.[citation needed] The Coen brothers themselves remain characteristically tight-lipped on the subject.
Barton Fink won the Palme d'Or at Cannes by a unanimous vote, as well as the awards for Best Director and Best Actor. It was the only film in the history of that festival to sweep those three honors.
Synopsis
Template:Spoiler Barton Fink is a playwright and screenwriter loosely based on the 1930s playwright Clifford Odets.[citation needed] After the success of his Broadway debut, Bare Ruined Choirs, Fink relocates from his native New York to Los Angeles to earn a quick buck as a contracted writer for Hollywood studio chief Jack Lipnick of Capitol Pictures, whose character is based on MGM's legendary Louis B. Mayer. Lipnick seems enthused about Capitol making a movie with a special Barton Fink quality, telling him that "the writer is king" at Capitol Pictures.
Fink settles in an old, creepy hotel called the Hotel Earle. When he is put to work scripting a Wallace Beery B-movie about professional wrestling, he feels trapped in his sweltering, claustrophobic hotel room. Soon, he suffers a serious bout of writer's block: all he can manage is an introductory line reminiscent of his hit play in New York.
As in many of the Coen Brothers' films, Barton Fink contains a menagerie of grotesque supporting characters, arguably the polar opposites of the simple but noble common men about whom Barton writes. Chief amongst these is Charlie Meadows (John Goodman), Barton's jovial and loyal next-door neighbour at the hotel. They first meet after Barton complains to the hotel desk clerk about loud noises coming from Charlie's room (a man's laughter, presumably Charlie), but the duo quickly hit it off, and a friendship develops between them. Though Barton thinks little of the Beery movie, Charlie is impressed, saying the effort "could be a pip." While Charlie disparages his own intellect, he often asks Barton about the "life of the mind" as a writer.
Trying to be helpful, Charlie shows Barton some Greco-Roman wrestling moves, and repeatedly offers to tell Barton stories of his escapades in door-to-door insurance sales, briefly mentioning trysts with amorous housewives. But each time he begins such a tale, Charlie is interrupted by Barton, who rambles on about the dreams and goals of the common man -- while at the same time ignoring the stories of Charlie, the sort of "common man" he purports to represent in his plays. Still, Barton gives Charlie the New York City address of his parents to look up when the salesman says he must return to that city due to problems at the "head office".
His writer's block does not abate, and Barton asks Ben Geisler (Tony Shalhoub), a fast-talking Capitol producer, for advice. He suggests Barton talk to another scriptwriter. In a bathroom, Barton discovers W.P. "Bill" Mayhew (John Mahoney) vomiting into a toilet. Mayhew is an alcoholic novelist also working for the studio (almost certainly based on William Faulkner, with small touches of F. Scott Fitzgerald thrown in). Barton is initially starstruck, having greatly admired Mayhew's novels. However, his opinion sours when he witnesses Mayhew's warped, abusive relationship with his mistress, Audrey (Judy Davis) and when he learns that many of Mayhew's great books turn out to have been largely ghostwritten by Audrey. Mayhew is either unwilling or unable to offer much screenwriting advice, instead complaining quite eloquently about his own problems.
Audrey agrees to help Barton, however, telling him that he's overthinking the subject, and that most Hollywood movies are simple morality tales using basic storytelling formulas. Barton and Audrey sleep together in his hotel room (in a likely nod to the Hays Code, the pair are shown in bed together, but Barton's feet are shown touching the floor as they kiss). When he wakes the next morning, Barton discovers Audrey dead on the blood-soaked mattress. His screams of terror alert Charlie, who proposes covering up the death for fear of ruining Barton's reputation -- the mass media in Hollywood are always looking for a scandal connected to the movie business, and even if he were never implicated in any wrongdoing, Barton's career would be finished. Barton agrees to the cover-up, and Charlie hauls the body away.
Charlie then tells a despondent Barton that he has to leave town for a while, and asks him to keep a small package. Again, Barton agrees, and places the package in his room. His mental state seems to be deteriorating: he opens a Gideons Bible and reads a passage about Nebuchadnezzar's dream. (Nebuchadnezzar was the title of the novel Barton asked Mayhew to autograph for him; like the statue in the dream, Mayhew turns out to have feet of clay.) Then, turning to the first page of the Book of Genesis, Barton finds his own opening for the screenplay has replaced the familiar first lines of the Bible. He spends time gazing at the sole decoration in his room, a picture of a bikini-clad girl on a beach.
After a meeting with Lipnik (where he succeeds in stalling until he can produce a screenplay), Barton returns to the hotel lobby one day to find two police detectives (Deutsch and Mastrionotti) waiting for him. In addition to some antisemitic barbs at Barton's expense, they ask him about his relationship with Charlie, revealing him to be the alter-ego of Karl "Madman" Mundt, a wanted serial killer with a penchant for decapitating his victims. Barton admits to knowing him, but denies knowing him too well. They tell him that Audrey was found decapitated, and that Mundt is the suspect.
His writer's block finally lifts, and Barton quickly writes the screenplay for the wrestling movie. At a celebratory dance at a big band jazz concert, Barton refuses to let a Navy sailor cut in on his dance partner. After taunts from the other military men, Barton again rants about his creativity and his efforts on behalf of the common man, only to inadvertently provoke a fight that descends into interservice rivalry between Navy and Army.
He returns to the hotel, and discovers the detectives in his room, reading the script for the wrestling movie. He tells them to take their "filthy eyes" from the script, then they announce that Mayhew was discovered decapitated, and that they suspect Barton was involved in the murders, asking if Barton and Charlie had a "sick sex thing" between them.
Barton ignores their questions, instead complaining about the increasing heat in the hotel, and distractedly mumbling about Charlie's having returned. From the hallway, the elevator bell chimes, and the detectives handcuff Barton to the bedframe, then step into the hallway, revolvers drawn, to apprehend Charlie.
The elevator door opens, and flames lick from the doorways. Charlie appears in the elevator, holding a briefcase. The police tell him to put down the case. Charlie feigns compliance, but then withdraws a shotgun from the case and fires it, killing detective Mastrionotti. The flames erupt behind him, and Charlie yells, "Look upon me! I'll show you the life of the mind!"
Detective Deutsch turns and runs in terror, followed by Charlie, who repeatedly hollers, "I'll show you the life of the mind!" as he fires again, this time striking Deutsch's legs and crippling him. Charlie reloads the shotgun, then calmly presses the gun to Deutsch's face and quietly says "Heil Hitler" before killing him.
Charlie paces to Barton's room, and, trying to chat with him, seems to act as though nothing unusual has happened. Barton is repulsed, but a weary Charlie says, "They say I'm a madman, Barton, but I'm not mad at anyone. Honest I'm not. Most guys I just feel sorry for... so I help people out. I just wish someone would do as much for me." Barton asks why Charlie involved him in the crimes, and an enraged Charlie yells, "Because you don't listen!" He calms, then tells Barton "You think you know about pain? You think I made your life hell? Take a look around this dump. You're just a tourist with a typewriter, Barton. I live here. Don't you understand that?"
Charlie bends the metal bedframe out of place, freeing Barton, then tells Barton that the package he was keeping was not in fact his. Charlie goes to his own room, unlocking the door while the fire seems to consume the entire hotel. Barton packs his things and leaves the hotel.
We next see Barton at Capitol Pictures. He's on a telephone, trying unsuccessfully to reach his parents, but is pulled into a meeting with Lipnick. The studio executive is now in full military regalia in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor. He tells Barton that his script is terrible, too 'fruity', and that not only will it never be produced, none of his works ever will, so long as he's under contract to Capitol; Fink is no writer, he's a "God-damned write off."
Barton wanders to the beach, holding the mysterious package. A girl in a bikini sits near him, and Barton compliments her, asking if she's in pictures. "Don't be silly," she replies, then strikes the same pose as the girl in the picture in Barton's room. A pelican dives into the ocean, surfaces, and the screen goes black. The bird's plunge had not been scripted.
Influences
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The Coens claim the film was inspired by an attack of writer's block they suffered whilst working on the screenplay for Miller's Crossing.
The Coens were inspired by Otto Friedrich's City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood, a book about the history of moviemaking in the '30s and '40s with an emphasis on the many German expatriates in Los Angeles.[citation needed] Barton was based on Clifford Odets, a Jewish-American author of leftist plays like Waiting for Lefty and Awake and Sing! who went to Hollywood to write screenplays.
W.P. Mayhew is a composite character of 'Lost Generation' novelists William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald both of whom went to Hollywood to write for the movies, largely out of financial necessity (Fitzgerald, like Mayhew, needed to provide for his disturbed wife's care in mental institutions), only to struggle with a decline in their careers and descent into alcoholism. Faulkner even worked, uncredited, on a Wallace Beery wrestling picture called Flesh, although this is a coincidence.[citation needed]
Fink's Jewfro haircut resembles that of Henry Spencer from David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977). There also a number of other elements similar to Eraserhead, such as the style of the hotel, and the loud ambient noise.[citation needed]