Book Description
The Big Lebowski begins with a case of mistaken identity which escalates when Jeffrey Lebowski-alias The Dude-attempts to seek recompense for the despoliation of his ratty-ass little rug, and then finds himself entangled in a kidnapping caper as a bagman-a situation that goes from bad to worse due to the interference of his hapless bowling partners.
In this film the Coen brothers have taken on the preoccupations of Raymond Chandler, but have given them a postmodern spin, while at the same time leaving Philip Marlowe's ethos intact as The Dude wanders through the fractured world of nineties L.A. trying to do the right thing. Like the award winning Fargo, The Big Lebowski is suffused with a droll humor and a verbal felicity that is as delightful as it is startling.
Customer Reviews:
Coen magic.......2007-05-09
The genius of thew Coens captured in this outstanding comedy. The characters, as ever, outdo the narrative, but the quotable lines come close to matching their masterpiece, Raising Arizona. Remember - nobody f#*k with the Jesus!
An awesome accompaniment for my favorite movie........2002-06-12
Although the words don't match exactly from the book to the movie, due to ad-libbing of the actors, this book is a must-have for any fan of The Big Lebowski. This book will make you laugh as much as the movie did.
Entertaining as scripts go..........2000-02-28
One of the Coen Bros' best works. Their twisted world is never more hilarious as it is here.
A Must!.......1999-04-08
This scriptbook is essential to the uncompromising Lebowski fanatic. Great for neighborhood plays too! An easy way to study the simply brilliant use of dialogue found and recycled throughout the film. What's more, the cover image is far out and would make a great poster.
Book Description
These four early works by the internationally lauded filmmaking team deal with the subject for which they are best known: corruption and crime in situations that combine the real and the surreal with the hilarious. Of the scripts included here, Barton Fink--an intense look at the psychological ruin of a New York playwright trying to make it in 1940s Hollywood--is a masterful culmination of these themes.
Customer Reviews:
It's Raising Arizona.......2003-09-12
The best movie EVER! The straight script, I had hoped to stumble onto some dialogue that wound up on the cutting room floor but to no avail. Being interested in screenplay writing I was curious how the Coen's conveyed all of the sight humor into their screen play. If your looking for screen play examples (the how to write a screenplay books are worthless) this has been very helpful to me. Too bad their aren't any story boards to go with it.
Amazon.com
Since their debut with Blood Simple in 1984, Joel and Ethan Coen have created a unique body of work that seems to project their combined imaginations directly onto the movie screen. By concentrating on the filming of their homage to Raymond Chandler, The Big Lebowski, this book provides a great deal of insight into the way that these extraordinary filmmakers take an idea and transform it into a movie.
Text and illustrations combine to reveal the Coens' combination of quirkiness and craft, and the ways that the singular (or is it binary?) vision of the brothers combines with actors and crew in the group effort necessary to produce a finished film. This book doesn't attempt a critical analysis of the work of Joel and Ethan Coen--the complexity of their vision resists such an approach. Instead, we're treated to a fly-on-the-wall view of the creative process, and it's enough to get the most casual film lover to grab a notebook, rent a camera, and start making movies! --Simon Leake
Customer Reviews:
Worst "book report" ever.......2007-09-15
I've never felt so intellectually abused by a book as to resort to writing a scathing review like this on Amazon. This book is mind-bogglingly aweful! It reads like an 8th grade book report. It has no pretense of a plot and does amazingly little to actually delve into the making of the Big Lebowski. Don't buy it! Half of it is literally just the author monotonously describing what *happens* in the Big Lebowski. YES, repeating what you've watched in the movie!! Page upon page reads like "and then the dude goes into...and then...and then..." Much of the rest is an incredibly egotistical author bragging about how "in" he is with the Coens and prattling on about his interactions with them and how well he knows them. The author's grasp of english is profoundly poor and his "hip" slang falls utterly flat and non-sensical as he tries to invent numerous non-words. Even the pictures have nothing to do with their placement in the text. The ONLY redeeming characteristic of the book is that the author includes many long quotes from the Coens and the people who work closely with them.
A Great Read For Filmmaking Enthusiasts.......2007-04-30
Every once and while I look for books to re-inspire my need to make films. This is one of those useful books for people interested in the real filmmaking process. This book doesn't have useless interviews about how much fun the actors had working with a director but covers every thought and decision the crew had to make in the production. If you're a Coen Brother's fan, you'll also be interested to gain some insight into how they invent and produce their signiture films.
One of the best books written about the Coens.......2004-03-27
This book was co-written by William Preston Robertson who is someone, if you've studied the end credits of the Coens' early film, who has worked on their films in various capacities. He's often provided voiceovers where needed and even offered a place for them to crash when they developed writer's block while working on the screenplay for Miller's Crossing.
So, he writes this book with an insider's perspective. At every opportunity he makes fun of them (as only a close friend can) and spends the first part of the book tracing their career up to The Big Lebowski. The rest of the book plays out as a quasi-Making Of that is quite an entertaining read. For example, he places their film in the grand tradition of bowling noir, a very rarified subgenre of the film noir. Robertson is quite funny as he pontificates about this subgenre at some length.
If I had one complaint about the book is the amount of detail that is gone into about the storyboarding process which I could have done without. But this is a minor quibble at best.
Robertson's style of writing is very casual and easy to read--it won't take you long to get through this book. If you are a hardcore fan of the Coens, then you will definitely enjoy this book and all the little, inside jokes. It will certainly deepen your appreciation for the film and acts as a great companion-piece.
more about the Coens than the film.......2003-08-23
The Big Lebowski is my all-time favorite movie; I bought this book hoping to read lengthy interviews with the cast, see behind-the-scenes photos and stills from the film, etc. Instead, this book deals with the technicalities of the Coen brothers' film making in general, with The Big Lebowski only serving as the most-often referenced case-in-point. So I'd say read this if you're interested in the Coens' film making technique, but if you're interested in The Big Lebowski specifically you won't really find much here.
Gotta love..........2000-09-05
Got to love the Coens, and thheir style of filmmaking. Read it.
Book Description
Joel and Ethan Coen are among America's best-loved and most lauded independent filmmakers. With their latest work, O Brother, Where Art Though?, The Oscar-winning team returns to the period-piece films of their earlier career (Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy) and showcase once-again their pitch-perfect ear for hilarious and outrageous dialogue, as well as their penchant for the fantastic.
Based on Homer's Odyssey, the movie stars George Clooney as Ulysses Everett McGill, along with Coen-mainstay John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson as fugitives from a chain gang who embark on a mystical and musical journey through 1930s Mississippi. History and allegory are expertly entwined as, along the way, the three escapees encounter a blind prophet, are tempted by sirens, do battle with a Cyclops (in the form of a one-eyed Klansman), fall in with George "Baby Face" Nelson on a bank heist, and cut a blues record with a young guitar prodigy who bears a striking resemblance to the real-life Robert Johnson.
Customer Reviews:
Coens Are Truly Learning How To Write!.......2001-03-23
This is a fun and wacky screenplay to read! It really puts images into your mind that will make you laugh and wonder. I haven't even seen the movie yet, and I still was able to "get" the jokes and laughed a lot. Just think to yourself, "This is going to be a lot like Raising Arizona" and you'll figure it out.
Ranks right up there with the Coens' Fargo script, which is also a good read.
Required reading.......2000-12-30
I've been a fan of the Coens' movies for years and I do believe I've figured out a way to enjoy them more thoroughly: READ THE SCREENPLAY. There's no writing that's better in the movies right now. I'm not a film maker, I'm not a script writer, I'm not a director, I'm not an actor, I'm not a movie critic, I'm not even the damn guy who tears the ticket and stands behind that big velvet rope sayin' "To your right" or "To your left." All that I am is a fan of the movies as well as a fan of literature. These guys know how to make words create people and they do it well time after time.
Specifically "O Brother ..." is a screenplay that mixes Homer with Bluegrass with Old Movies with (whether the Coens know it or not) Mark Twain and folks along those lines. In fact, there's a scene in Huck Finn in which Huck states he'd prefer his dinner all cooked together in one pot so that the juices swap around and make things go better. That's a pretty good metaphor for "O Brother ..." Rather than the screenplay that's about hicks or racism or a woman scorned, the Coens mix it all up and believe me things go better that way.
This is the literature of our time. You should watch AND READ these movies.
teachem2@home.com
Average customer rating:
|
The Brothers Grim: The Films of Ethan and Joel Coen
Erica Rowell
Manufacturer: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Direction & Production
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Entertainment Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0810858509 |
Book Description
Joel and Ethan Coen (b. 1954, 1957) started their careers in obscurity on a shoestring budget cajoled from family and friends in Minneapolis. Working entirely outside the studio system, the Coen brothers scored an unlikely first success in 1984 with their postmodern noir film Blood Simple. Two decades and nearly a dozen movies later, the Coens are now among the best-known writer/directors in Hollywood, turning out major studio releases featuring stars such as George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Tom Hanks.
The Coens' films all share a distinctive, quirky ambience that critics have come to identify as "that Coen brothers feeling." Tricky moving camera work; frequent use of the voiceover; homages to directors and cinematic genres; a fascination with unexpected, off-kilter violence; and omnipresent black humor are all defining elements of the Coens' cinematic world.
From such highly stylized movies as Barton Fink and The Man Who Wasn't There to more mainstream but dark comedies such as Raising Arizona, Intolerable Cruelty, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the Coens are equally at home with existential despair and comic exuberance, and are known for scripts packed with an obvious love for language. This collection of their most important interviews spans twenty years and is the most comprehensive published on the brothers.
Book Description
The most commercially and critically successful film of Ethan and Joel Coen, Fargo was nominated for five Academy Awards and received two, an exceptional achievement for a low budget, independently produced film. This volume explores Fargo from a variety of perspectives. Providing a detailed account of the film's production, reception and place within the career of the Coen brothers, it covers issues and themes significant to current film discourse, including genre, gender and sexuality, race, history, culture and myth.
Download Description
Fargo is the most commercially and critically successful film of Ethan and Joel Coen. Immediately recognized as an important work, it was nominated for five Academy Awards and received two, an exceptional achievement for a low budget, independently produced film without major stars. Fargo is also a film that explores middle-American themes and settings from an original and unsettling perspective, challenging traditional genre structures. This volume explores Fargo from a variety of methodological perspectives. Providing a detailed account of the film's production, reception and place within the career of the Coen brothers, it explores issues and themes that are important to current film discourse, including genre, gender and sexuality, race, history, culture and myth.
Book Description
An analysis of the Coen oeuvre through O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). The authors, German film critics, include a previously unpublished interview with the filmmaking brothers on their off-center work in genres they both satirize and pay tribute to: film noir, horror, screwball comedy, and buddy escapade. As Ethan Coen says: "We grew up in America, and we tell American stories in American settings within American frames of reference. Perhaps our way of reflecting our system is more comprehensible to non-Americans because they already see the system as something alien." Well illustrated.
Average customer rating:
- Wasted Writing Effort and a Waste of Your Time
- What can one say?
- a real "shove in the bottom drawer" book
- If you LOVE the Coens, you'll LIKE this book
|
The Coen Brothers
Ronald Bergan
Manufacturer: Thunder's Mouth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Entertainers
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Biographies
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
| Actors & Actresses
| Directors
Direction & Production
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Screenwriting
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Coen Brothers: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series)
ASIN: 1560252545 |
Book Description
Blood Simple, Barton Fink, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Fargo, Hudsucker Proxy, and The Big Lebowski - moviegoers either love the Coen brothers or they hate them. Those who love them believe they have made some of the most innovative, entertaining, and idiosyncratic films of the last 25 years. Their movies have grossed over $1 billion, and Fargo won Oscars in 1997 for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress. Brought up in small-town America, the brothers have been making movies from the age of eight. Joel directs; Ethan writes and collaborates with his brother in the later stages as the story develops its visual identity. The Coen brothers set the standard for creative cinema.
Customer Reviews:
Wasted Writing Effort and a Waste of Your Time.......2003-10-10
The author of this book obviously feels he's as witty as the Coens. I hate to break it to him, but he's not. To make up for underachievement in this area, he fills the book with unneeded "editorial" comments on the films themselves. Why does the author feel he needs to criticize Jon Polito's performance in Miller's Crossing, and why does he think we'd care? It simply feels the author is stretching for lack of material, since he probably didn't get much cooperation from the filmmakers themselves. I attempted to make it through the entire book but kept putting it down out of frustration with the author. Don't waste your time with this one.
What can one say?.......2001-09-29
This book is supposed to be the first authorized biography about the Coens, but to be completely honest it's not much of a biography. The book reads more like a review of the Coens and each of their films. Much of the biographical information is interesting just for the simple fact that the brothers are so elusive that anything regarding their past and how they first funded their films is a gem not to be discarded. However, most of the book is divided into chapters that review and critique each of the Coen's films. Now, I didn't mind this, but a biography is not a collection of film reviews. It seems to me that the author (though possibly a fan) just didn't feel like writing this book especially since the brothers seemed so reluctant that he was writing it. Or true to Coen style, maybe that's how they intended the book to turn out (either knowingly or unknowingly to the author). Overall, an interesting, but slow read worth the time if your a film buff.
a real "shove in the bottom drawer" book.......2000-12-30
It's hard to add much to Josh's review, and perhaps I shouldn't, as I put this book down after page 114. I too found myself skipping long (slow) passages and growing tired at the never-ending parrallels drawn between the Coen's work and that of other film-makers. I would have preferred to hear more of what the brothers had to say, rather than the theories and beliefs of their biographer.
If you're after an in-depth study at how the Coen Brothers go about making a movie, buy William Preston Robertson's "The Making of Joel & Ethan Coen's The Big Lebowski". It's a better read by far.
If you LOVE the Coens, you'll LIKE this book.......2000-12-19
Ronald Bergan, biographer of such film legends as Jean Renoir and Sergei Eisentsein, has been commissioned to write the first offical biography of the brilliant, yet elusive American filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen. Anyone who loves the brothers' work will enjoy this book simply because info on the bros is so hard to come by: they rarely do interviews and stay just far enough outside of the mainstream to avoid tabloid headlines. The book on the whole, unfortunatley, seems to have been rushed. Even the physical look-- from the type face to the occastional type-- seems a bit unporfessional. There were sections about the Coen youth where I, the ultimate admirer/fan, got bored and skipped ahead-- that is almost impressive. Once the author settles into his format, he simply goes through each of the Coens' eight films in order. That gets pretty dull and uninformative, especially if you've read The Making of the Big Lebowski by William Preston Robertson (and if you haven't, do it). The other major problem with Bergan's book is that he too often jumps the line from biographer to critic. While discussing their work, he will 'factually' point out flaws in performances, filming techniques, even script-writing. Aside from this being out of his jurisdiction, his opinions--which are just that-- come off as shallow and unsupported. If you're gonna tell me that the brilliant last line of Raizing Arizona ruins the whole ending, you better have good reasons why! Bergan doesn't. There are few of his critiques that i agreed with, but the point is that he shouldn't be making these judgements at all. But because the Coens have stayed to private, it's great to get your hands on anything that discusses their behind-the-screen struggles and triumphs. Learning how they got funding for Blood Simple was fascinating and inspiring for any film student or independant filmmaker. The brilliance of the Coen brothers is not quite reflected in this somewhat shallow biography, which seems to have been written partly against the will of not only the author, but the subjects as well. The true fan, however, should be able to find enough gems to be worth the price of admission. Ciao.
Books:
- The Carl Rogers Reader
- The Cormac McCarthy Value Collection: All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain
- The Dark River (Fourth Realm Trilogy, Book 2)
- The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God
- The Divine Matrix: Bridging Time, Space, Miracles, and Belief
- The Incredible World of Spy-Fi: Wild and Crazy Spy Gadgets, Props, and Artifacts from TV and the Movies
- The Layguide: How to Seduce Women More Beautiful Than You Ever Dreamed Possible No Matter What You Look Like or How Much You Make
- The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club)
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Wireless Java Programming for Enterprise Applications: Mobile Devices Go Corporate
- The Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses: Sedges, Rushes, Restios, Cat-Tails and Selected Bamboo
- Munch by Himself
- Piety and Politics: Imaging Divine Kingship in Louis Xiv's Chapel at Versailles
- Sleeping with Strangers
- The Ramona Collection, Vol. 1: Ramona the Brave / Ramona and Her Father/Ramona the Pest/Beezus and R
- Stars Upstream Life Along an Ozark River
- The Power of Learning: Fostering Employee Growth
- Open Minds: 21st Century Business Lessons and Innovations from St. Luke's
- Arco the Ultimate Office Survival Guide
The Big Lebowski: The Making of a Coen Brothers Film
I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski: Life, The Big Lebowski, and What Have You
Ethan Coen and Joel Coen: Collected Screenplays 1: Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink
Rushmore (Classic Screenplay)
True Romance: The Screenplay
