For cinephiles nationwide, a new movie from the Coen Brothers is a seismic event, one that demands eyeballs glued to the screen for all the minute details that might escape average viewers. After all, there’s not a single Coen Brothers movie that is weakened on a second viewing. The sibling filmmakers make movies that get better with repeat viewings, and their latest Hail, Caesar! is no exception. Though not a monstrous hit at the box office, Hail, Caesar! is among of the year’s funniest movies, as well as a joyous cruise through some of the more sordid elements of Hollywood lore, all done with a loving wink.
Obviously, much of the dissatisfaction from wider audiences towards the film was rooted in the fact that the film featured some of the most misleading trailers of recent memory. Basically, they were selling a movie that didn’t exist, one where a group of Hollywood A-listers unite to rescue the kidnapped superstar Baird Whitlock (played to moronic majesty by George Clooney). But Hail, Caesar! was really about Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), a studio executive who has to contend with a varied roster of eccentric stars and directors each over flowing with their own set of problems for the studio and their public image. The kidnapping of Baird Whitlock by communist screenwriters is just one of many problems that flummoxed exec has to deal with.
The character of Eddie Mannix is named for a real life fixer in classic Hollywood. If a star committed an unsavory act, Mannix would operate behind the scenes and make sure that public image of the star and his studio wasn’t tarnished by the publication of said events. In the movie, Mannix does perform some of these actions, though nowhere to the extent of his real life namesake.
The Coen Brothers have used real life figures to inform their movies many times over the years, from the fact that practically every character in Inside Llewyn Davis have counterparts rooted in reality to the basing of the eponymous Barton Fink on the screenwriter and playwright Clifford Odets. In Hail, Caesar!, the Coens extend this tradition beyond just the character of Mannix with an expanding roster of eccentrics and dopes that are all somewhat based in historical fact.
Clooney’s Baird Whitlock is an amalgam of movie stars, with a bit of Charlton Heston and the seedy underbelly of Clark Gable. The rumor that circulates about Whitlock on the set of On Wings as Eagles is an allusion to the longstanding rumor that Gable had George Cukor fired from Gone with the Wind because the director knew of a homosexual affair the star had in order to further his own career. As seedy and intriguing these claims may be there’s no concrete evidence that there’s any facts behind it. Whitlock is rumored to have engaged in his affair with the director Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes), who is loosely based up on Cukor, who was one of the few openly gay directors in the classic Hollywood period, with a touch of Vincente Minelli tossed in for good measure.
The chief conflict for Laurence Laurentz is the fact that the studio has dictated that Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich in a breakout performance), a cowboy actor, is to star in the glitzy drama Merrily We Dance. Basically, the Coens took the idea of a western actor like Tim Holt moving into dramatic features, as he did in real life, but escalating the matters into one of ample idiocy and incompetence. This lengthy scene of accents and wordplay is among the funniest scenes in all of cinema in 2016, one that could be watched on repeat and not lose an ounce of its comedic potency.
DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson) is based upon Esther Williams, the queen of the aquatic pictures. However, the subplot of attempting to hide Moran’s pregnancy from the public with a plan instituted by Mannix to arrange for Moran to adopt her own child is from the true story Loretta Young. Eager for the sordid stories are the gossip columnists Thora and Thessaly Thacker (Tilda Swinton in dual roles), each based upon the rival columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parson. These two columnists were the TMZ of their era, ruthless jackals that would run anyone’s name through the mud for a buck. Channing Tatum plays Burt Gurney, a song and dance man that is based upon Gene Kelly. We even see Gurney perform one of his numbers in a scene that seems pulled from one of Kelly’s naval musicals. Once again, the Coens have fun turning the clean cut image of a character like Gene Kelly by having Burt Gurney be the ringleader of the Hollywood communists who orchestrate the kidnapping of Baird Whitlock.
The Red Scare did find its way into Hollywood, coming to a head with House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Numerous careers were placed in jeopardy by being outed as card carrying communists, and then there were the infamous Hollywood Ten, a number of blacklisted screenwriters who had their livelihoods stripped for their political beliefs. In the world of Hail, Caesar!, the Coen Brothers have the perpetrators of the kidnapping of Baird Whitlock be a group of communist screenwriters who were actively trying to inject propaganda into movies – of course, this is the Coens having fun with the notion of a vast conspiracy to shift public attitudes towards communism through the movies. Some have taken umbrage with the Coens’ use of this story, alleging that it doesn’t represent reality, but Hail, Caesar! isn’t a work of historical fact, it’s a joking lark through many aspects of Hollywood history rife with exaggerations and distortions.
As the film takes through a number of genres and styles of old Hollywood, the special features of the Blu-Ray of Hail, Caesar! take us further behind the scenes, featuring a handful of featurettes with interviews of members of the cast and crew. These featurettes give us a better understanding of the historical influences that run throughout the film, from the characters to the costumes to the sets and cinematography. Absent from all of these features are Joel and Ethan Coen, which should come as no surprise to those who have purchased Blu-Rays of Coen Brothers movies. As usual, their preference is allow the work to speak for itself and don’t ever expect the filmmakers to guide your interpretations or intentions behind their work.
Throughout their career, the Coen Brothers have crafted films that operate on a very cerebral level featuring characters that are dumber than bricks and Hail, Caesar! is no different. It’s an all-encompassing comedy of errors with a sharp sense of homage to the characters and genres that they’re riffing on. Yet at the same time Hail, Caesar! is an examination of the creative process, movies as the ultimate collaborative art form with Eddie Mannix as the wrangler tasked with keeping all of these moving parts working the right direction. As I said before, Hail, Caesar! gets better and better upon repeat viewings and will eventually be rightfully hailed as subtle little masterpiece that it is. Why didn’t people catch on initially? It’s…complicated.
Hail, Caesar!
- Overall Score
Summary
A loving romp through the sordid past of Hollywood, Hail, Caesar! is the Coen Brothers’ loving homage to movies of the past featuring outstanding performances and one of the single funniest scenes of the year.