The Coen Brothers Comedy Raising Arizona Essay

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Evaluation of a Movie: Raising Arizona

My criteria for judging a film comedy is that the material should be original while conforming to the rules of the genre. A comedy should be funny, down-to-earth, and ultimately have a happy ending. It should also have good music in it, because music can truly make or break a movie. Comedies should also have elements of low-brow humor, high-brow humor and innocence. The Coen Brothers’ Raising Arizona is the kind of movie I love, because it fits the bill on all the criteria. It is off-the-wall zany, yet grounded in reality, and completely in love with innocence and goodness at heart. Even though the characters are less than ideal by any standard, what makes them all sympathetic is that beneath the layers of gunk and ignorance, there is something good to be found. The only character who seems to lack any authentic goodness whatsoever is the bounty hunter—and he is annihilated at the end. Since the movie meets my criteria of a perfect comedy (it is original, witty, stupidly funny, sharp, intelligent, bold, genre-driven, dark yet with a good moral), I view Raising Arizona as a great movie that does a good job at reflecting our human nature by embellishing aspects of humanity to make them stand out and teach us lessons about ourselves in the process.

Raising Arizona is a 1987 film comedy by Joel and Ethan Coen starring Holly Hunter, John Goodman and Nic Cage. Cage and Hunter play a bandit and a police officer, respectively, who get married and try to start a family. Unfortunately, she cannot get pregnant. They learn that a local has had quintuplets and decide to kidnap one of the babies to raise as their own. At the same time, Goodman and a friend play former cell-mates of Nic’s.

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They escape from prison and hole up with Cage and Hunter, which greatly upsets Hunter, as she wants Cage’s lawless days to be behind him (especially now that they have a baby to care for). The escaped convicts realize that they baby is not Cage and Hunter’s; they kidnap the child from Cage and Hunter and set off on a bank robbing spree. Meanwhile, the father of the child has employed a bounty hunter to find the baby. The final showdown comes outside a hayseed bank where the escaped cons ineptly foil their own attempt at a getaway. Cage and Hunter rescue the child and Cage has it out with the bounty hunter, who represents some mysterious malevolent force that Cage reflectively recognizes as springing from his own bad actions. Cage defeats the bounty hunter and he and Hunter return the baby to the father in an act of remorse. The film ends with Cage having a vision of two elderly people being visited by their children and grand children on a holiday.

The film works on many levels. The musical score is terrific and adds to the originality of the film: it uses Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” as a main motif but applies a southern country style of playing to the classical composition, which makes it hysterically stand out perfectly against the southwestern….....

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