Joel and Ethan Coenare my favorite filmmakers, and part of the reason why is how they come up with such stark, striking characters who hit to the heart of their films’ themes while never standing in as simple symbols or archetypes. These are characters who manage to break out even when they’re part of a milieu that’s as immaculately crafted as a Coen Brothers’ movie (and that’s saying something since the Coens tend to work almost exclusively with the likes of cinematographerRoger Deakinsand composerCarter Burwell).
The Coens and their immensely talented actors have brought us a slew of unforgettable characters over the directors’ 30-plus years of filmmaking, so it was a tough task to whittle it down to the cream of the crop, but I think you’ll find a nice balance of their heroes, anti-heroes, and walking horror-shows below.
Loren Visser (‘Blood Simple.’)
Best Line: “The world is full of complainers.”
Most filmmakers spend their entire careers trying to make a film as good asBlood Simple., and the Coens hit it out of the park in their debut feature. The story is a delectable pulp noir about a man who hires a private detective to kill his cheating wife and her lover only to have the detective fake the killing and off the cuckold husband instead. And it gets darker from there!
Visser is one of the Coens’ more colorful sociopaths, butM. Emmet Walsh, in one of the best performances of his career, perfectly plays the character as a bit of an aw-shucks hick until he reveals his true and deadly nature. He wraps us up like boa constrictor, and his pronouncement and fate at the end of the film is both darkly comic and chilling.
Tom Reagan (‘Miller’s Crossing’)
Best Line: “Nobody knows anybody. Not that well.”
Loosely based on theDashiell HammettbookThe Glass Key,Miller’s Crossingis a love triangle with the most cynical character giving all the love he has for two people who will never appreciate it, never recognize it, and never truly reciprocate it. It’s a heartbreaking movie about a fool who knows he’s a fool, and yet he can’t escape his nature that there’s a good guy buried deep down (of course, burn that guy and he may behave somewhat differently).
Charlie Meadows (‘Barton Fink’)
Best Line: “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.”
No offense toMichael Lerner, who played the colorful head of Capitol Pictures, Jack Lipnick, butJohn Goodmanwas absolutely robbed of an Oscar nomination for his heartbreaking yet terrifying performance as Barton Fink’s guardian demon, Charlie Meadows. The story of a Broadway writer who comes to Hollywood only to get writer’s block when he’s forced to do a film he hates is the Coen Brothers taking aim at themselves, but they created a profound and disturbing character when they dreamed up Charlie Meadows, a character who arouses our fear as much as our sympathy.
Marge Gunderson (‘Fargo’)
The Coens love to draw up sinister characters, but Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) is probably the manifestation of everything they see as good in the world. She’s not a ‘Mary Sue’, but she is the closest thing you’ll find to a “hero” in the Coenesque worlds of liars, cheats, and murderers. The fact that she comes face-to-face with the bizarre darkness of her peculiar murder mystery and stays the same is a testament to the strength of her character, which recognizes what’s truly important in life.
The Dude (‘The Big Lebowski’)
Best Line: “I’m the Dude. So that’s what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.”
Of course The Dude is on this list. The Coens have created plenty of memorable characters, but here, with the help ofJeff Bridgesbeing Jeff Bridges, they created a cultural icon. Even if the character wasn’t meaningful for both pop-culture and for Bridges’ career, the Dude would still be a standout thanks to being the Coens’ unique spin on the stoner and gumshoe archetypes meshed into one. But that’s just like, my opinion, man.
Walter Sobchak (‘The Big Lebowski’)
Best Line: “Smokey, this is not ‘Nam. This is bowling. There are rules.”
I couldn’t figure out the best line for Walter because he steals all of his scenes. Again, Goodman was robbed (no offense to the other Best Supporting Actor nominees this year, but the only one who’s even half as memorable is Christof fromThe Truman Show) and his performance is a boundless ball of angry energy that consumes the screen, and yet at the very end, we see it’s all been hiding a very delicate, very damaged man. It’s all been bluster, and Goodman portrays it perfectly.
Delmar O’Donnell (‘O Brother, Where Art Thou’)
Best Line: “We thought you was a toad.”
The Coen Brothers took a spin onHomer’sThe OdysseywithO Brother, Where Art Thou, andTim Blake Nelsonends up stealing the show with his slow-witted performance as Delmar, one of a trio of escaped convicts running towards a supposed buried treasure during the Depression-era South. Like any Coen Brothers’ movie, this one is jam-packed with talent, and yet Nelson’s comic timing makes Delmar a standout, especially in the scene where he tries to explain that there was a misunderstanding regarding transmogrification.
Freddy Riedenschneider (‘The Man Who Wasn’t There’)
Best Line: “The more you look, the less you really know. It’s a fact, a true fact. In a way, it’s the only fact there is.”
Freddy Riedenschneider (Tony Shalhoub) is almost like the Coen Brothers saying “We absolutely hate lawyers, but we have to show respect where it’s due.” Riedenschneider is the bullshit artist to end all bullshit artists, and yet his position in the film does have thematic weight as his fast-talking con man is juxtaposed against the taciturn protagonist Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton). Riedenschneider is able to take post-modern malaise and uncertainty and whip it into a murder defense that’s so disgustingly admirable that we’re agape at his bravado.
Anton Chigurh (‘No Country for Old Men’)
Best Line: “What’s the most you ever lost on a coin toss?”
As we recently reported, while on-screen sociopaths like Hannibal Lecter and Patrick Bateman may be colorful,Javier Bardem’s chilling performance as the cold-blooded Anton Chigurh is far more scientifically accurate, and yet that’s only half the reason why the character is so menacing. Chigurh is a borderline force of nature, driven not so much by a need for the money Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) took as much as a need to kill, and the money provides a loose excuse to do so. He’s the alpha predator among men, and the way he walks between the mundane (like enjoying a glass of milk) and the malevolent (gleefully strangling the life out of a cop) is utterly captivating.
Best Line: “Appearances can be…deceptive.”
I can’t help but wonder if the Coen Brothers’ instructedBrad Pitt, “Just play this role as if Chad is a gigantic, dumb puppy.” Idiocy and underhandedness is usually punished in Coen Brothers’ movies, and Chad certainly gets his comeuppance in due course, but until then, he’s a delightful source of cheerful stupidity masquerading as the hero of his own spy flick. If it weren’t for Pitt’s charm and the strength of the writing, we might fall into loathing Chad and his clumsy attempts at extortion, but instead he’s a joy to watch every second he’s on screen.
