Coen x 2 + yokels = yuks galore

The Coen Brothers have turned the crime-gone-wrong film into a cottage industry, as evidenced by all-time classic Coen creations like Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Blood Simple, and The Big Lebowski. But their funniest early foray into this subgenre was Raising Arizona (1987), a quirky, high-energy screwball comedy that’s become a cult classic for its stylized dialogue and frantic pacing. The story concerns "Hi" McDunnough (Nicolas Cage), a repeat convenience store robber, and Edwina (Holly Hunter), a police officer who processed his many arrests, as they fall in love, marry, and discover they are unable to conceive a child. Desperate for a family and barred from adoption due to Hi's criminal record, the couple decides to kidnap one of the quintuplet babies born to unpainted-furniture tycoon Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson), following the loony logic that he has "more than he can handle." But their attempt at a domestic life quickly spirals into chaos as they are pursued by Hi’s escaped convict friends, Gale (John Goodman) and Evelle (William Forsythe), and a terrifying, apocalyptic biker named Leonard Smalls (Randall "Tex" Cobb in a scene-stealing villainous role).

To listen to a recording of our CineVerse group discussion of Raising Arizona, conducted last week, click here.

This film has been dubbed a high-paced, frenetic live-action Road Runner or Looney Tunes cartoon for good reason: It plays fast and silly with wacky characters and nonstop action. It’s also quite postmodern in how it defies the typical conventions of storytelling, dialogue, and characterizations, drawing attention to its own artificiality and unrealistic elements. And it forces you to question how trustworthy a narrator Hi is, creating a feeling of uncertainty about the external truth of the story. The Coens made a unique confection by borrowing from identifiable cultural elements and popular film genres and fashioning a distinctive pastiche visually, narratively, and aurally. The visual style is highly subjective, characterized by kinetic, mobile camerawork and unusual POV shots. Raising Arizona frequently utilizes "in-your-face" extreme close-ups alongside impressive tracking, swooping, and panning dolly shots, often executed with a Steadicam.

The filmmakers put lofty, loquacious language in Hi’s mouth to tremendous effect, creating comic irony. Here we have a slack-jawed, inarticulate yokel who can mentally speak like a well-read poet and Biblical scholar. His voiceover narration is intentionally written as implausible and artificial because we know that, in reality, he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. This forces you to question how reputable Hi’s account of the story is. This poetic and talky narrative style is also possibly meant to lampoon the stereotype of the conversationally articulate Southern gentleman.

In keeping with the Reagan era and the consumerist mindset of the time in which it was made, Raising Arizona is meant to underscore the fallacy of the pursuit of the American dream in the 1980s: the quest for upward mobility at all costs and defining your social value, self-worth, and happiness based on your material possessions. Consider that the impetus fueling Hi and Ed’s yearning to achieve the American dream is to produce the perfect baby, as if the child is a product. And Hi refers to Nathan Jr. as such when he says, “he’s awful damn good. I think I got the best one.” The film further espouses that material success is an illusion – that doing the right thing (returning Nathan Jr. and bearing the consequences) will bring true happiness and fulfillment. And, at its core, Raising Arizona reminds us that even the most relationship-challenged couples can compromise successfully, work out their differences, and create the harmonious foundation necessary to raise children.

Similar works

The southern literature of William Faulkner (1919-1962) and Flannery O’Connor (1946-1964) in its vernacular and characters, and the short story The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry (1907)
Looney Tunes (1930-1969) and Tex Avery animated shorts (1935-1955)
Screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Badlands (1973)
The Dukes of Hazzard television show (1979-1985)
Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980), which also used fluid Steadicam tracking shots
Evil Dead (1981), which employed an inventive, low-budget "Shaky Cam" (a camera bolted to a wooden plank and carried by two running crew members) to achieve its incredibly fluid tracking shots
The first three Road Warrior films (1981-1985)

OthEr films by the Coen Brothers

• Miller's Crossing (1990)
• Barton Fink (1991)
• Fargo (1996)
• The Big Lebowski (1998)
• O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
• No Country for Old Men (2007)
• A Serious Man (2009)
• True Grit (2010)
• Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)