What's you Coen Brothers "order"?

Cafe Society
41
  1. Barton Fink
  2. Raising Arizona
  3. Miller’s Crossing
  4. Big Lebowski
  5. Fargo
  6. O Brother. . .
  7. Man Who Wasn’t There
  8. Hudsucker
  9. Blood Simple
  10. Intolerable Cruelty
    I liked them all (yes, even Intolerable Cruelty).
42

I was bored, so here are the average rankings (up to my post) for each of the movies. I included all lists with at least 9 of the 10 movies on them (there were 19 such lists). If a movie was left off of a list because it was deemed too horrible, or because the lister couldn’t sit through it, it got tacked on to the bottom of its list.

I’m sure I made a few minor mistakes, but this is essentially accurate. In parenthesis is the number of #1 votes each movie received.
3.00 – Fargo (4)
3.84 – Big Lebowski (7)
3.95 – Raising Arizona (1)
4.17 – Miller’s Crossing (2)
5.58 – Blood Simple (0)
5.63 – O’ Brother Where Art Thou? (2)
5.89 – Hudsucker Proxy (1)
6.32 – Barton Fink (2)
6.53 – Man Who Wasn’t There (0)
8.58 – Intolerable Cruelty (0 – 6 votes for #10)
Intolerable Cruelty was on only 12 lists, and was easily the least liked of the 10. Big Lebowski was polarizing, with only 6 of its 19 votes being from 3-7.

43

I’ve only seen 4 of them. I’ll have to check out the others.

  1. Fargo
  2. The Man Who Wasn’t There
  3. The Big Lebowski
  4. O Brother Where Art Thou

This is not a “best to worst” listing. More like “best to 4th best”. There’s a wide range between 1 and 4 but that simply reflects how good number 1 is and says nothing negative about the others.

44

Apart from David Lynch, I don’t follow directors or writers or even actors, but now that I know two of my favorite movies have them in common I definitely intend to seek the rest out. I agree completely about TBL. My first viewing was almost unimpressed. But three hours later, thinking about the Dude, I had to watch it again. I bought it three weeks ago and have seen it six times already. More and more brilliant each viewing.

“Is it… What day is today?” ~The Dude

  1. The Big Lebowski, easily top five faves ever
  2. Raising Arizona, easily top ten faves ever
    eh. I’ve seen Fargo but I wasn’t impressed or eager to see it again, either. It might be a case of too much hype, that tends to make me much more critical of a movie. Even listing only three movies, I didn’t like it enough to put it as an actual #3.
45
  1. Barton Fink
  2. The Big Lebowski
  3. Fargo
  4. Raising Arizona
  5. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
  6. Blood Simple
  7. The Man Who Wasn’t There
  8. Miller’s Crossing
  9. Intolerable Cruelty
  10. The Hudsucker Proxy
    I thought Miller’s Crossing was beautiful, but kind of boring. I’ve been meaning to rent it and The Man Who Wasn’t There, which I haven’t seen since it was a new release. I hope I’ll be able to get more out of them on second viewing.
46

Too tired to actually put them in any order, just wanted to comment that I am shocked that Barton Fink is so low on peoples lists (I know there are a couple of exceptions).

I think that’s probably my #1 or 2.

47

1 Big Lebowski
2 Fargo
3 O Brother
4 Barton Fink
5 Man Who Wasn’t There
6 Raising Arizona
7 Miller’s Crossing
8 Blood Simple
9 Hudsucker Proxy
Haven’t seen - Intolerable Cruelty

1 and 2 are way ahead of the rest of the pack… 3-8 I like a lot and their positioning could be interchangable. 9 was ok, but not great.

48

If I may re-fuel the debate over the merits of Intolerable Cruelty (re: whether it’s a worthy addition to the Coen Canon seeing how it wasn’t a “homegrown” creation of theirs), I’d like to say that, after finally seeing it, this movie is friggin hilarious, George Clooney was friggin hilarious, Catherine Zeta Jones didn’t remotely cause me to cringe (how’s that for a rave), and, if there weren’t as many Coen-ish stylistic flourishes as in previous films, the sublime wackiness quotient (possibly their greatest hallmark) was more than in abundance.

Oh, and The Big Lebowski still bites it. :slight_smile:

49

I haven’t seen Intolerable Cruelty so,

  1. Fargo
  2. Millers Crossing
  3. The Big Lebowski
  4. Blood Simple
  5. Barton Fink
  6. Raising Arizona
  7. The Hudsucker Proxy
  8. The Man Who Wasn’t There
  9. 'O Brother Where Art Thou
50

Can I just say that one of the best things about the Coens is the fact that fans can have this exact discussion - almost every movie is great, and everybody has their own favorite. At the very least, their films are interesting and miles ahead of most Hollywood products. This is the reason I will definitely see any movie they put out. (Luckily we have Ladykillers coming out soon!)

That being said,

  1. 'O Brother Where Art Thou - right now this is my favorite, and one of the most re-watchable of the Coen Bros. movies. I really like the visual imagery in this one, and find the story as good as the dialogue.
  2. The Big Lebowski - easily could be number one - freaking hilarious. THe fact that I have seen this as much as I have speaks volumes.
  3. Raising Arizona
  4. Barton Fink
  5. Fargo
  6. The Hudsucker Proxy
  7. The Man Who Wasn’t There

I still need to watch Miller’s Crossing, Blood Simple and Intolerable Cruelty (and Ladykillers), and I am sure they will cause a reshuffling of the list.

51

As a result of this thread, I went ahead and picked up The Hudsucker Proxy. Brilliant. Plus, I love Jennifer Jason Leigh. Lots. She did an excellent job in that. It was a tossup between that and O Brother Where Art Thou? I think that’s next on the list…