The first film in the history of the Cannes Film Festival to capture the top three awards--Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor--Barton Fink is the fourth film from Ethan and Joel Coen (Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing). John Turturro stars as the title character, an up-and-coming New York playwright who reluctantly takes a writing job for Capital Pictures out in Hollywood. The time is 1941. The serious-minded Fink moves into a seedy hotel (because he identifies with the common man), and is given the assignment of writing a Wallace Beery wrestling picture. Fink immediately develops a case of writer's block so huge that Hercules couldn't budge it, and seeks the counsel of the famous novelist-cum-screenwriter W. P. Mayhew (John Mahoney), a Southern alcoholic loosely patterned after William Faulkner. He also meets his next-door neighbor at the hotel, an insurance salesman named Charlie Meadows (John Goodman), whom Fink fairly clings to in desperation. In the second half of the film, the Coen brothers--as they are apt to do--pull out all the stops, and Barton Fink shifts gears to become a twisted murder mystery. As a big fan of the Coen brothers, I was delighted to see that they finally received some long overdue recognition. Unfortunately, however, Barton Fink is their least accomplished work, and comes dangerously close to self-parody too often. The numerous Hollywood jokes and writing jokes are like handing candy to people in the business (not to mention the legion of film critics who are, at heart, frustrated screenwriters), and despite the "story," Barton Fink is first and foremost (and successfully) a biting satire on Hollywood. As a tragedy of the common man, however, the film chokes on its own ludicrousness--since only a particular group of people will empathize with a man sitting before a typewriter struggling to figure out how one writes pabulum for mass consumption. Big points for originality, few points for execution, Barton Fink deserves a wider audience than its limited theatrical release, but will still baffle general audiences. Recommended, with reservations. (R. Pitman) [DVD Review--June 17, 2003--Fox, 116 min., R, $19.98--Still, in my opinion, one of the lesser Coen Brothers films, Barton Fink looks reasonably sharp in its DVD premiere, but is a little skimpy extras-wise, only featuring eight deleted scenes (which are actually slight trims of existing scenes) and a still gallery with 23 production photos. Bottom line: given the deserved popularity of the filmmakers, this is definitely worth picking up.] [Blu-ray/DVD Review—Aug. 22, 2017—Kino Lorber, 116 min., R, DVD: $19.95, Blu-ray: $29.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and Blu-ray, 1991's Barton Fink features a fine transfer and a DTS-HD 2.0 soundtrack on the Blu-ray release. Extras include interviews with composer Carter Burwell and sound editor Skip Lievsay (20 min.), costars Michael Lerner (16 min.) and John Tuturro (15 min.), and producer Ben Barenholtz (12 min.), and deleted scenes (14 min.). Bottom line: this Hollywood Golden Age satire makes a welcome debut on Blu-ray.]
Barton Fink
color 116 min. Fox Video. (1991). $94.98. Rated: R Library Journal
Barton Fink
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