Coen
Subtitle: framing religion in amoral order
By: Elijah Siegler, editor
Publisher: Baylor University Press
Published: 2016
Place of publication: Waco, Texas
Language: eng
Number of pages: 317
ISBN-13: 9781481302838
Subjects: Motion pictures; Religion; Religious aspects; Criticism and interpretation; Film
Description: "Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, True Grit--Joel and Ethan Coen make movies. They make movies that matter. But do these movies matter for religion? Coen is a masterful response to this question of religious significance that neither imposes alien orthodoxy nor consigns the Coens to religious insignificance. The Coen movies discussed each receive a chapter-length investigation of the specific film's relation to the religious. Far more than just documenting religion in all Coen films--from blink-and you'll-miss-them biblical references to gospel tunes framing the soundtrack--the volume, cumulatively, mounts a compelling case for the Coens' consistent religious outlook with an original argument about precisely what constitutes religion. The volume reveals how Coen films emerge as morality tales, set in a mythological American landscape, that critique greed and self-interest. Coen heroes often confront apocalyptic and unredeemable evil, face human limitation and the banality of violence, and force audiences to wrestle with redemption and grace within the stark moral worlds portrayed on screen. This is religion on Coen terms. Coen teaches its readers something new about religion, about film, and about the kind of world-making that each claims to be" -- From the publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: Are the Coen brothers religious filmmakers? or, How simple is Blood simple? / Elijah Siegler; title: Act one: The early films: reading religion as ... Morality in Raising Arizona / Eric Michael Mazur; title: Theology in Miller's crossing / Kerry Mitchell; title: World creation in Barton Fink / S. Brent Plate and Elijah Siegler; title: Community in The Hudsucker proxy / Ellen Posman; title: First intermission: So are the Coen brothers religious filmmakers?: Fargo between Christian moralism and postmodern irony /Richard Amesbury; title: Act two: The middle films: analyzing religion and ... Fandom in The big Lebowski / Erica Hurwitz Andrus; title: Race in O brother, where art thou? / Chad Seales; title: Money in Intolerable cruelty and The ladykillers / David Feltmate; title: The state in Burn after reading / Finbarr Curtis; title: Second intermission: Are the Coen brothers formally coherent?: No country for old men between time and eternity / M. Gail Hamner; title: Act three: The later films: theorizing ... Transcendence in The man who wasn't there / M. Gail Hamner; title: Hermeneutics in A serious man / Gabriel Levy; title: Death in True grit / Michael J. Atlman; title: Absence in Inside Llewyn Davis / Jason C. Bivins; title: Epilogue: Hail, Caesar? / Elijah Siegler.