Preconceived Racial Overtones
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Joel Coen
pmreviews7 — 10 years ago(June 30, 2015 03:23 AM)
Let me first say that I'm a fan of several Coen Brothers movies.Some of my favorites are: Raising Arizona, Crimewave etc.I like the quirky style of some of their flicks.
But I was beginning to think they had a problem with blacksjust based on the fact that I didn't see many main black characters in their films . And some of the parts I did see seemed to mock them.
On 'Crimewave' they had a black guy who was a would be hero being called 'Buckwheat' and get a mocking death, dying with a smile and shaving cream on his face.Later someone retorts to a boy ,who finds him - "Where'd you get the Negro son?" Other than these parts 'Crimewave' is one of my favorite movies because of the otherwise wild humor in it.
On 'Fargo' they seem to make prominent a black lawn jockey statue on the husband's work desk.And a black landlord gets KO'd by the kidnappers.These are minor parts that have these elements.
And on 'O Brother Where Art Thou' they have a young black guy cowering from a singing Ku Klux Klan.
It wasn't until they did the 'Ladykillers' that I saw them finally have starring black characters that showed more of a range and (based on the original version)the old lady outwitting the crooks that I felt some difference about the situation.I generally like some Coen Bros moviesbut I just had to point out these parts.
*One odd partially off target note is that I happened to at different timeshave met-Tom Hanks-William H Macy and George Clooney on my job years ago All who were in some of these movies.