The Coen brothers’ excruciating visit to the White House: “We just died there”
There have been many great filmmaking tandems across Hollywood history. Powell & Pressburger; the Wachowskis; the Safdies; but it’s hard to argue that any of them have been quite as successful as the Coen brothers.
Joel and Ethan are the complete package. Visionary directors, talented writers, accomplished producers and editors, what they don’t know about film isn’t worth knowing. Don’t believe me? Take a look at their trophy cabinet, then read that last sentence again.
When you make as big a splash in Hollywood as these two have, it’s only a matter of time before the top brass come calling. Three of their films – Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and No Country for Old Men – have been preserved by the US National Film Registry, which is affiliated with the government-run National Library of Congress. As the directors explained to The Sydney Morning Herald, they also had a chance to show one of their movies to the man at the very top of the chain. Unfortunately, it did not go well.
“We were invited to the White House to screen The Hudsucker Proxy when [Bill] Clinton was President, and we just died there,” Joel explained. “It did not play well there at all.”
Ethan then added that, “It’s a very, very tough room,” which might just be the understatement of the century.
Released in 1994, The Hudsucker Proxy is a comedy about an ambitious young executive (Tim Robbins) who finds himself a pawn in an elaborate scam. In the grand Coen tapestry, it doesn’t often come up as an example of their best work. Even the brothers themselves have publicly expressed their frustrations with it. The film does feature a subplot in which Robbins’ character charms a beautiful journalist played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, which I’m sure the President must have enjoyed.
Interestingly, while the Democratic Clinton administration didn’t take to the Coens’ work, the other side of America’s political divide are apparently big fans. Joel revealed that Mitt Romney, who ran against Barack Obama in 2012 as one of the most forgettable Presidential candidates of all time, apparently loves O Brother, Where Art Thou? Equally, Ethan stated that the late Vice-President Dick Cheney enjoyed their remake of True Grit.
“That is concerning to us,” he continued. “We need to talk to the other side of the aisle.”
It’s strange that the Republicans would be so keen to endorse the Coens’ work. Though rarely overtly political, their films do contain subtle digs at right-wing politics. Walter Sobchak, John Goodman’s wonderfully deranged character from The Big Lebowski, is a textbook example of the gun-toting, flag-loving ‘neocons’ that would populate the government of George W Bush a few years later. The hero of that movie, Jeff Bridges’ Jeffrey Lebowski, is exactly the sort of lazy hippie that most traditional Republicans despise. You can see why Cheney wasn’t so keen on that one.
All cinema is political, whether it was intended to be or not. The fact that so many of the Coen brothers’ movies appeal to Republicans doesn’t necessarily put them in the same camp, but it’s certainly something to consider next time you stick one on.
