Raising Arizona

The Coen brothers (Ethan and Joel) are at it again. Following their success with “Blood Simple,” the brothers must have bought more stock in the Steadicam company, and then gone out and made this picture. They still love Steadicam shots, and doing all kinds of trick things with photography; the new picture has a lot of the same visual razzle-dazzle as the first, and therefone has the same basic problem as well--everything is sacrificed for the great shot, and sometimes the narrative and dramatic end of things gets hung out to dry. I loved the opening, with Nicolas Cage's (who is excellent in a somewhat limited role) deadpan narration. It was very cool and understated, and I liked the tone.

But the picture intermittently degenerates into wild farce after that, and as such loses its greatest strength. There are a few great sequences (the baby rodeo, the introduction of the '"biker from hell") but there are some that are just completely enervating as well, and even the good ones leave you wondering just what it is they are doing there. After the dust settles and the smoke cleaps, you find yourself trying to figure out exactly why they made this picture. It does maintain some offbeat appeal at times (I especially like the high burlesque notion of having wretched rat-faced characters utter dialogue that is almost Shakespearian in its elegance) but it is really not enough to rescue the picture from the glut of its own excesses. Someone ought to get those guys together and tell them a little bit about how to construct a script. The picture is moderately interesting, and not a complete waste of time, but the thought of the Coens getting to work with a really good piece of material is infinitely more exciting.