Barton Fink (1991)

Director: Joel and Ethan Coen
Stars: John Turturro, John Goodman



Review:

The Coen Brothers have been well known of making films with a lot of twists that spins your head around, and despite the lesser circular momentum this gives to your head in the first viewing, it may be the weirdest of all their works.

Barton Fink, played by John Turturro, is a play writer and receives many critical acclaim in Broadway. He however is not satisfied and want to achieve new high in artistically. He received an offer from a film producer in Hollywood, and write for a wrestling picture. However he have a writer's block, and during his course of overcoming it, he meet several characters that all appears as common people with dark little secrets.

I saw this movie a few days ago and did not know what to talk about it, and did a little research on this film. So I was told that this film contains high amount of symbolisms. However I found none of the symbolisms actually hold up throughout the whole movie.

I was told that the hotel room Barton Fink was staying represents his mental state. The hotel room was hot, and the wallpaper fell off, but we didnt see it actually correspond to Fink's emotion. Yes the wallpaper was not shown to be falling off when Fink's is in full motion with his script, but that would be because Fink was so into his work that he didnt notice it. To me the room is more like Hollywood, which is alienating and unwelcoming, but that would be too shallow to be a symbolism.

"Your room does that too?"

Another common symbolism I have seen is the hotel, when it caught in fire at the end, symbolize Hell. It does look like Hell, but I fail to see what is the point there. So the hotel is Hell, and? Fink can escape pretty easy, and not much to be tormented. There is not much point to have a symbolism if it doesnt mean anything?

It does look like hell.

I am more interested in the characters. Barton Fink is a writer that not only want the audience to love him, but also write for artistic values. He want to write for common people, and keep his connection with the common people. But he is not common people. He talks with screenwriting jargon when excited like a literate, and did not listen to the story of ordinary people. We all heard the theory that movies are good because they were about ordinary people that we connect with, but the dilemma is ordinary people attend boring lessons for 9-5 and watch TV for the night, or work 9-5 typing and get drunk get night, and repeat it the next day. And I believe nobody want to see that for the whole movie. So in order to interst people, the movie most get un-common.

The characters are un-common in such way. A successful writer who Fink admires turns out to be a drunk with his secretary done all his work, and a boss that likes your previous work revealled his interest in only how much money you make for him. An ordinary fat insurance salesman turns out to be a lunatic. So Fink got inspired by them, but only to be dismissed from the studio. Aint that ordinary? Bosses usually know shit.

A gentleman, a writer, and a drunk.

Even the symbolism doesnt work for you, it is still an entertainment movie just to see the awkward situations that arouse when people with totally opposite personalities fact each other. Fink talks with the guy next door, complains that he complained about him making too much noise. Fink faces his boss, who so passionate about Fink's work but only interest in how many he could make from the picture, seeking answers from Fink who did not have any since he wanted something more artistic and not just for amusing the crowd. You witnessed and laughed since you did not know how to resolve it.

This is a movie open for different kind of interpretations, and you can have your own. Though none of the interpretations such to fit in perfectly, it maybe the whole beauty of it that great films can sometimes be whatever you want it to be, though I would say it was to vague to say what it really is.