It’s really a tie between O Brother and Miller’s Crossing, but I chose the former since I have rewatched it more often. As good a way to break a tie as any.
It was a toss-up for me between Miller’s Crossing and The Big Lebowski, but voted for the latter because of the clever way it twists the crime noir genre that the former so faithfully emulated. Both are chock-full of sharp dialogue worth of a Chandler or a Hammett. I’ll stop and watch either if I see them while flipping channels.
I also have a fondness for Barton Fink.
For a long time it was Fargo (Marge Gunderson is one of the great movie heroes), but their “3 Stooges Comedy” (O Brother) has worked its way into the top spot.
Fargo has sat on my DVD shelf for 3 years and I’ve watched it maybe 2 times. O Brother, I’ve watched a dozen or more. On DVD, as a laptop download, on television.
CMT ran it a couple of times a week for several months, and that made me appreciate how well it wears. (For our non-U.S. friends, CMT is “Country Music Television” and normally you might see Burt Reynolds movies there. That made me also appreciate what a wide cultural swath the film can be appreciated by.)
–The Barnyard raid with the exploding paddywagon
–The Recording Session
–The KKK rally
–The Sirens
–The George Nelson parade
–The Soggy Bottom concert w/ Pappy O’Daniel
–The underwater scene
It had TWO great endings (the pardon and the rescue by flood) and launched a popular hit song.
So. That’s my fave. but a shout out to Miller’s Crossing, Fargo, and Hudsucker.
Same here but Marge tipped the scales the other direction for me :).
“Damn. We’re in a tight spot.”
Lebowski. Love it, love it, love it! The Dude abides, even now.
I’m a bit surprised that I have not seen 4 of their movies. Of the ones I have seen I have to say Raising Arizona is my favorite. The only one on my list I would watch every single time I see that its on. I wouldn’t call it their best though. That would be Miller’s Crossing or maybe Fargo. True Grit was damn good too but it suffers by being a remake in my eyes.
“Fargo” is my all time favourite movie by anyone.
I chose Fargo but I’m disappointed to see so little love for The Man Who Wasn’t There. That’s definitely one of my top Cohen Brother’s films, maybe even number two.
I also choose Miller’s Crossing, because it plays out a little-known but classic variation of the Western hero-myth: The hero who sacrifices not his life, but his honor, to save the people. He picks a quarrel with his own side and goes over to the enemy, planning to undermine the enemy from within. When he has succeeded, he has too far disgraced himself – even in his own eyes – to be welcomed back.
The Big Lebowski. It’s not even close.
Second place is Burn After Reading, with Fargo in 3rd.
Saying that True Grit is a remake is like saying that the Judy Garland Wizard of Oz was a remake…
Even though I voted for Burn After Reading, there are a number of opt-mentioned films in this thread which I haven’t seen yet. Miller’s Crossing will be my next film to watch.
Fargo, Lebowski, Brother and Country aren’t that far behind Burn for me. Hudsucker also deserves more credit than it has been getting.
I still wonder how the Coens got involved with Intolerable Cruelty…
And then went with…?
I had a hard time choosing between TBL, Fargo, and Miller’s Crossing.
“You mark that frame an 8, and you’re entering a world of pain!” I can’t go bowling without quoting this movie.
I chose Miller’s Crossing as my favorite. It had too many great scenes, which were all brilliantly shot and framed. I’ll always remember men in top hats walking through a grey forest to kill someone. And Albert Finney with a machine gun was beautiful (and also [del]stolen[/del] borrowed by Tarantino in Kill Bill).
Thanks for the poll, gave me a good list for Netflix.
Have only seen about half, but it came down to Big Lebowski or O Brother. It was a tough choice but I went with Lebowski because, well, The Dude is in it.
For me the choice was between **Blood Simple **and The Hudsucker Proxy. Two that usually aren’t high on fans’ lists (as evidenced by this thread). My vote went for Hudsucker. So many great scenes and quotable lines. (I’ve used “Well, come on down here and I’ll SHOW it to ya, hammerhead!” on a number of occassions).
And the lengthy montage scene for the invention of the hula hoop, set to the music of Khachaturian is an all-time favorite. Inspired filmmaking!
I was turned on to **Blood Simple ** by Ebert’s 4-star review: “It tells a story in which every individual detail seems to make sense, and every individual choice seems logical, but the choices and details form a bewildering labyrinth in which there are times when even the murderers themselves don’t know who they are.”
and
“Characters think they know what has happened; they turn out to be wrong; they pay the consequences, and it all happens while the movie is marching from scene to scene like an implacable professor of logic, demonstrating one fatal error after another.”
I just knew I had to see it and I was NOT disappointed. It is a tight, expertly crafted and plotted thriller with amazing (and, since it was their first movie), novel visual style.
Great film. But the humor in **Hudsucker **tipped my vote.
You know. For kids!
Voted Hudsucker (love Paul Newman in that movie), but might have given Barton Fink a bit more love if I’d previewed the voting results first, simply for John Goodman’s part.
Oh Brother, Big Lebowski, Fargo are all on the next plateau down.
Almost chose Blood Simple, but then went with Raising Arizona since that’s the first film I remember that I thought “Who are these guys?” (The Coens). I saw Blood Simple later after I knew who they were. There are a lot of fine choices on that list although at least one (A Serious Man), maybe two, that never did anything for me and two that I haven’t seen.
I narrowed it down to my favorite 6, but couldn’t go further. Then I asked myself which one I’ve seen the most times and The Man Who Wasn’t There edged out the others.