HAIL, CAESAR!: The Coens Just Want To Have Fun

The Coen Brothers have managed to put their own twist on noir, the buddy comedy, crime drama, romantic comedies, westerns, and spy films. They are clearly film historians, so they want to show their love of movies by tackling classic genre films that cannot be sold to modern audiences.

How did they manage to do this? By stuffing them all into a caper/existential crisis film, set in old Hollywood. We get to see Channing Tatum’s face hovering dangerously close to a grown man’s crotch and to contemplate the implications of believing in God. The nihilism of the Coen Brothers is not on full display, but it bubbles underneath the surface like a Soviet submarine off the coast of California.

Et tu, Clooney?

Hail, Caesar! is the Coens letting loose, and showing an appreciation for the history of film and lamenting its potential demise; there are fairly obvious references to the present threat of television to the world of film. Josh Brolin’s character in Hail, Caesar!, Hollywood fixer Eddie Mannix, is the character that holds the film together around a series of tremendously entertaining vignettes that play on genres that the Coen Brothers would otherwise never get to tackle.

Eddie Mannix is a devout Catholic who repents enough to make up for the sins of all of the Hollywood actors whose messes he cleans up. He is responsible for keeping his studio’s actors from garnering negative press, but a different company is courting him for a new position, with better pay and less hours. Taking that job seems like an easy decision, but some people feel like God has a plan for them, and Mannix believes that he is meant to be at the studio.

The mess he is asked to clean up in this film is his most bizarre yet, as Hollywood star Baird Whitlock (played by George Clooney, who proves once again that he can play the Coens’ signature bubbling moron with great aplomb) is kidnapped by two extras, played by Jeff Lewis, and Wayne Knight in one of those “It’s good to see that guy again!” roles.

Whitlock is delivered by the extras to, of all people, a group of Communist screenwriters, whose hypocritical demand of a handsome ransom is a display of the Coens’ rather consistent conservative beliefs, perhaps established during their Midwestern upbringing. Kidnapping is not the least bit foreign to the Coen Brothers, nor is the prevalence of idiots, which everyone but Mannix seems to be. However, in a move that we have not come to expect from the directing duo, we are given an idiot in Whitlock that we are supposed to love; one that shows us the beauty of naivety, rather than its danger.

This little bit of hope is normally reserved for characters like Fargo’s Marge Gunderson and other strong female characters, but here the optimism is provided by young Western star Hobie Doyle. Doyle is played by relative unknown Alden Enrenreich, and he absolutely steals the show as the innocent, dopey cowboy who somehow manages to see the best in every situation. There may not be a more likable character in any of the Coens’ other films, and he is fun in a way that no Coen construction has been since in at least fifteen years.

That fun is consistent with the overall feel of the film, which features Tilda Swinton playing a set of twins, as well as a hilarious throwaway exchange between Hobie Doyle and Ralph Fiennes’ Laurence Laurentz, who hopelessly tries to transform Doyle into a period actor. Would that it were so simple…

Getting to the Point

The central thread of the film is the kidnapping of Baird Whitlock, but like most other Coen Brothers’ movies, the story is not what the filmmakers want you to remember. The film almost seems like a clever excuse to riff on the things that they love, as well as the things they find ridiculous. We no longer live in a world where a Coen movie comes out every year, and they want to cram as many ideas into each film as they can, realizing that their filmography is finite.

Never before have the Coens seemed to have more fun than they have in Hail, Caesar!. It is almost as if they treated this film like a mutual dare. “I bet you can’t manage to shove a surrealist choreographed water scene, a musical western, a Bible epic, and a cheesy musical into the same movie.” “Oh yeah, just watch us!”

In accordance with this admiration of film history, Hail, Caesar! is Roger Deakins’ first film shot on traditional film since his last collaboration with the Coens, 2010’s True Grit. Deakins has switched his allegiance to the world of digital, contrary to many of today’s most prestigious directors and cinematographers clinging to celluloid. As usual, Deakins knocks it out of the park, especially in the depictions of the genre films. Scarlett Johansson’s synchronized swimming scene is particularly beautiful, even if her story line is the least interesting part of the film.

The film is not the Coens’ most interesting, most important, nor most insightful, but it is nice to see incredible filmmakers kick their feet up and make one for themselves, even if it subverts the expectations of the wider audience, to whom this film was (wrongly) marketed. Moreover, the Coens can pack more thematic punch in a lighthearted film like Hail, Caesar! than most filmmakers can in more serious fare.

There is one scene, in particular, where Mannix brings together a Catholic priest, a Baptist minister, a rabbi, and a Greek Orthodox priest to critique the depiction of Jesus in the studio’s new film, also called Hail, Caesar! It features the back-and-forth dialogue that we have all come to love from the Coens, with the biting satire that is sure to isolate many viewers. Their slew of pretty clueless characters is not restricted to the actors, the religious leaders display many of the same traits.

What does “The Future” hold?

As Clooney’s character sits in on conversations with his Communist captors (who refer to themselves as “The Future”), he begins to wonder if the Hollywood system is broken. Why do the writers and actors get a relatively small cut of the studio’s profits? At the very least, they should be paid equally, the Communists explain. The Communists comically switch between valid points and utter nonsense at a whim, and they actually show a great degree of greed when they refuse to compensate Whitlock for his troubles.

The impressionable Whitlock’s view of the system has changed, but Mannix is there to do what he does best, fix the situation. He literally slaps some sense into him. The most reasonable, high-character man in the film shows him that this is the reality of the industry, whether he likes it or not.

Greed drives us all to a certain extent, whether we consider ourselves Socialists, Communists, or Capitalists. It is the ugly face of humanity. But what makes Hail, Caesar! different than the rest of the Coen’s work is that the scene immediately following a contemplation on human nature, we get Channing Tatum dramatically jumping on a Soviet sub off the California coast with a teacup-sized dog under his arm. Oh, and that ransom money that the “The Future” obtained (you know, the whole point of the film’s central story) is accidentally thrown in the ocean, sinking into the abyss.

Why? Because in Hail, Caesar!, the Coens are going to do what they want. The Coens are always there to point out that none of this nonsense matters. This is far from their most nihilistic film, but they have to let us know how fleeting our experiences and ideas are, no matter how ridiculous the surrounding events become.

Conclusion

A middling effort by the Coen Brothers’ standards is still a damn good film, and that is exactly what Hail, Caesar! is. Even when the directing duo sit back, relax, and have fun they manage to pack a thematic punch. One minute you are watching an extravagant homage to 1950’s cinema, and the next you are contemplating the influence of religion on media. All of the performances are tremendous, especially those from Josh Brolin, Channing Tatum, and Alden Enrenreich.

This is the Coens showing their age by packing in all of the things they have wanted to direct but haven’t had the opportunity to yet. The film flies by in a hurry, but it will leave a long-lasting impression if you allow it to.

Where does Hail, Caesar! rank among the Coens’ other films? Why do you think the audience reception has been so negative?

Hail, Caesar! has been released in British and American cinemas, for international release dates, check here!