The Coen brothers are among the most revered filmmakers working today. They’ve made all kinds of movies, from crime films to westerns to homespun murder stories to Biblical allegories to buddy horror noir about a playwright working on a wrestling movie with a serial killer living down the hall. But one thing that the duo’s films all have in common is their twisted sense of humor.
Even their more dramatic works, like No Country for Old Men and Miller’s Crossing, have hilarious moments. Out of the pair’s full-on comedic work, arguably their funniest movies are stoner noir The Big Lebowski and kidnapping caper Raising Arizona.
The Big Lebowski Is Their Best: It Drops A Listless Slacker Into A Chandleresque Mystery
From the femme fatale to the private eye to the ultimately insignificant MacGuffin, everything in The Big Lebowski is ripped straight from a Raymond Chandler mystery story except for one crucial detail— the protagonist.
Instead of a hard-boiled detective like Philip Marlowe, the character at the center of The Big Lebowski is a slack-off, White Russian-swilling pacifist who goes by “the Dude.”
Raising Arizona Is A Close Second: The Way The Camera Moves Is Funny
These days, it’s all too easy for comedy directors to just point the camera at actors and let them carry the movie with spoken jokes. Director Edgar Wright ( Dead) has credited Raising Arizona with teaching him that the humor in comedies isn’t just confined to the dialogue and situations– just the way the camera moves can be funny, too.
From the Steadicam police chase to the eyeline matches during the initial kidnapping, Raising Arizona is filled with hysterical camerawork.
The Big Lebowski Is Their Best: The Dude And Walter Are An Iconic Pair
The Coens gave the Dude a sidekick that acts as the perfect counterpoint to his laid-back attitude— a hot-tempered, gun-toting Vietnam veteran. Jeff Bridges and John Goodman are both individually perfect for their roles and share fantastic on-screen chemistry.
The Dude and Walter are one of the most iconic duos in the history of film comedy, up there with Jake and Elwood Blues, Neal Page and Del Griffith, and Sheriff Bart and the Waco Kid.
Raising Arizona Is A Close Second: Nicolas Cage Gives One Of His Funniest Performances
Nicolas Cage's career has been all over the place quality-wise, and his dramatic acting has ranged from the profound (Leaving Las Vegas, Lord of War) to the dreadful (Left Behind, Ghost Rider). But one area in which he’s always succeeded is comedic acting.
From the pitch-perfect satire of Big Daddy in Kick-Ass to the subtle self-awareness of the Kaufman twins in Adaptation, Nic Cage has always been hilarious in comedies. And in his slapstick-heavy role as H.I. in Raising Arizona, he gives one of his funniest performances.
The Big Lebowski Is Their Best: It’s Endlessly Quotable
There are plenty of quotable lines in Raising Arizona, but the memorable lines in The Big Lebowski are practically infinite.
For starters, there are the obvious ones, like “The Dude abides,” “That’s just, like, your opinion, man,” and “You see what happens, Larry, when you...". But there are just as many lesser-used gems, including “Smokey, my friend, you are entering a world of pain." Not to mention the many that are too vulgar to share here, but are just as hilarious and oft-repeated.
Raising Arizona Is A Close Second: The Slapstick Actually Works
Slapstick comedy can be very difficult to pull off successfully, especially outside the context of cartoons and kids' movies. It’s easy to have an actor fall over for a quick, cheap laugh, but truly well-crafted physical comedy is tricky to do properly.
From H.I.’s insane fight with Gale and Evelle to his supermarket stickup and subsequent cartoonish police chase, Raising Arizona’s slapstick humor works wonders.
The Big Lebowski Is Their Best: It’s Wildly Unpredictable
The Coens set out to write a hard-boiled mystery story for The Big Lebowski that would take plenty of twists and turns along the way and ultimately not hold any significant meaning. They succeeded irably with a movie that’s wildly unpredictable.
In one example of how the movie goes in completely unexpected and nearly pointless directions, the Dude visits Jackie Treehorn for some information and promptly gets drugged and sent into a surreal hallucination that goes on for the length of a full music video.
Raising Arizona Is A Close Second: Carter Burwell’s Score Is Beautifully Goofy
Carter Burwell’s score for Raising Arizona is perfectly paired with the tone of the movie. The banjos, yodeling, organs, and whistling, mixed with musical motifs from Beethoven’s symphonies, all combine to create a wonderfully goofy sound.
The main title theme, “Way Out There,” instantly conjures up an image of H.I. McDunnough running through people’s houses with a big pack of Huggies.
The Big Lebowski Is Their Best: It Spawned A Religion
Enough fans of The Big Lebowski were taken with the Dude’s lifestyle for the movie to spawn an entire religion called Dudeism, built around takin’ 'er easy for all us sinners.
Any movie that can inspire this kind of following is definitely doing something right. The creation of Dudeism proves that, to a lot of viewers, The Big Lebowski is more than just a movie.
Raising Arizona Is A Close Second: The Premise Alone Is Hilarious
Just the premise of Raising Arizona is hilarious. It shouldn’t have struggled at the box office, because the way any moviegoer would describe it to their co-worker at the proverbial water cooler would be funny on its own.
A couple who can’t conceive or adopt decide to kidnap a baby with the intention of raising it with love and care. It’s an absurd premise that touches on something really human— wanting to be a parent at any cost.
