Film Review: Barton Fink

Charlie (cocks gun): "Look upon me! I'll show you the life of the mind!"

The Coen brothers' Barton Fink, a mystery-drama-thriller released in 1991, explores the inner workings of its eponymous main character, a writer who cannot write. Fittingly, the Coens composed Barton Fink on a writers' block-induced "vacation" from working on the script for Miller's Crossing, a much darker and less surreal film. In our readings on Raising Arizona, we saw the connection between Hi and his bogeyman/alter ego, Leonard Smalls. In Barton Fink, the protagonist also has a nightmare figure of his own: a large, strange man who acts as his counterpoint and anti-muse.

In the film, set in (ostensibly) Los Angeles circa 1941, the celebrated, "tough" young playwright Barton Fink, played by John Turturro, checks in to the creepy and slightly sinister Hotel Earle and begins work on his first Hollywood screenplay. His artistic pretensions are interrupted by a neighbor—the only other guest at the hotel we see—in the form of Charlie, a jovial, self-effacing salesman who seems to be the very "common man" Barton claims to speak for.

 Charlie (John Goodman) has a knack for appearing just when Barton is about to begin writing. At first, Barton, an elitist who likes to expound on his own deep sensitivity and inner pain, finds these visits an annoyance. Later he looks forward to the conversation and camaraderiethough he is careful to never take Charlie particularly seriously. It is only when Charlie is gone on a sales trip that Barton learns the truth: Charlie is, in fact a serial killer by the name of Karl "Madman" Mundt.

By this time, Barton has already had a few surreal adventures in this, his "life of the mind." In search of inspiration, he has befriended a washed-up souse of a writer and his secretary-girlfriend, Audrey. after a night with her, he wakes up to find that she is dead beside him. His good buddy Charlie, recruited to help, efficiently disposes of the body. Before he leaves on his trip to the "head office," he leaves a parcel in Barton's keeping. Is it, in fact, Charlie's odds and endsor is it the head of Audrey?  

With this mysterious package on the desk beside his typewriter, his writing flows uninterrupted. The script is finished, and in the end, Charlie returns to the Hotel Earle (and to Barton Fink) in a fiery blaze of glory.

Barton Fink introduces us to two men who appear to be opposite sides of a coin: Barton, the hapless, egocentric aesthete, and Charlie, a buffoonish Everyman who kills people. Barton's literary   output is in inverse proportion to Charlie's presence: when Barton starts writing, Charlie interrupts. When Charlie leaves town, the writer's block is lifted. But who killed Audrey- Charlie or Barton? Perhaps there was only one man there all along.

Barton Fink wasn’t a commercial success when it came to theaters; perhaps it was bit too surreal for moviegoers who prefer easy answers. The Coens obviously delighted in the twists and turns of their story, whetting the viewers’ interest while leading them down a rabbit hole where perhaps there is no meaning at all. This is a classic Coen brothers film: weird, profound, disturbing, and occasionally messy. I highly recommend giving it a go.

© Shaii Stone 2011