Talking To The Screen

The Man Who Wasn't There :2001

'The Man Who Wasn't There' is the Coen brothers' latest film adventure.  For 
those who don't know, the Coen brothers are the creative family that gave the 
brilliance of 'Fargo', 'Raising Arizona', 'The Big Lebowski' and others to the 
world.  Most recently was 'O Brother, Where Art Thou', a reinterpretation of 
Homer's The Odyssey: a bold undertaking to say the least.

With 'The Man Who Wasn't There', the Coen brothers have given a masterful 
example of neo film noir.  The themes film noir has seen something of a revival 
in the past handful of years.  'Blade Runner' spawned a new style coined 'tech-
noir' for obvious reasons, and was followed by 'Strange Days' and 'Dark City'.  
The angst and isolation of the protagonist, the femme fatale archetype, 
juxtapositions of innocence and corruption are all film elements that speak to 
an audience today just as well as they did following the second world war.  The 
popular success of 'LA Confidential' is evidence of modern culture's affection 
for noir.  In my opinion, there was little extraordinary about 'LA 
Confidential', but a detective story like that hadn't been told since 
'Chinatown'; I suppose people were just salivating for more noir.  

Where 'LA Confidential' could have been a remake of a film from the 40's or 
50's, 'The Man Who Wasn't There' has taken the themes and period of classic film 
noir, and given them a clearly modern interpretation.  In terms of plot, 
blackmail, adultery and murder comprise the requisite corruption for our 
innocent Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) to be faced with.  The twist however, in 
'The Man Who Wasn't There' is that Ed is absorbed by the corruption becoming the 
anti-hero as opposed to Philip Marlowe's heroic cleanser.

The Coen brothers are also more explicit than classic film noir makers were in 
posing the existential questions of their story.  Fortunately, explicit in 
existential questioning doesn't mean obvious.  Ed Crane, a barber, is 
intentionally isolated from the world.  He doesn't talk much.  Doesn't do much.  
The hair he cuts grows back, and he cuts it again.  His isolation becomes 
transcendence, as if there's a secret and only he knows it, and then descends 
into loneliness.  Equally post-modern looks at truth, justice and guilt are 
presented and explored in 'The Man Who Wasn't There', but my philosophical 
stamina is low at the moment.

I highly recommend 'The Man Who Wasn't There' for anyone, but especially movie 
lovers.  This is a new turn for a classic and familiar style.  My hope is that 
'The Man Who Wasn't There' and 'Fight Club' will become the forerunners of a new 
wave of film noir.  Only time will tell.  Maybe 'Memento' will be the breaking 
of the dam.