The Coen brothers’ sophomore effort, Raising Arizona, was a far lighter follow-up to their dark noir
tale Blood Simple. It’s a comedy in
the style of Looney Tunes, with zany expressions, lots of screaming, and
physical comedy. But then there are dark and sinister elements which make it a
cartoon comedy for adults and maybe older kids. This is the first Coen brothers
film I ever had any exposure to when it used to play on cable when I was a kid.
I had no appreciation for the finer things at the time so I only took it at
face value as an absurd comedy. Little did I know that eventually the
filmmaking duo (Joel and Ethan co-write and direct, although in their earlier
films Joel was the credited director and Ethan the producer) would become my
absolute favorite filmmakers. And looking at Raising Arizona now, I can clearly see their usual themes and
styles emerging. In fact they were still developing their own style at the
time, but there are shots that they continually come back to and every one of
their films contains at least one scene with “that Coen brothers feeling.”
