Seed Newsvine"Barton Fink" - The Life Of The Mind!
Before the Coen Brothers were wrongly robbing prizes from Paul Thomas Anderson (read here), they were winning thoroughly deserved prizes for their best film to date with "Barton Fink." "Barton" made headlines in 1991 after winning an unanswered three top prizes at the Cannes Film Festival: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. The Cannes Film Festival has rules of awarding a film a maximum of one prize. Well, "Barton Fink" made quite the impression.
The scene: As our title character Fink (John Turturro) is getting arrested by a couple of detectives, for crimes he is not responsible for, the hotel elevator rings. Charlie is here. Charlie Meadows, of course is played by John Goodman, in a performance that deserves to be studied. Up until this climatic moment, Barton and Charlie have grown very amiable with each other; hotel neighbors who couldn't be anymore dissimilar (both in physical and mental stature). Barton, we know, has serious writer's block. Charlie, that mysterious, large man next door, goes on travels for periods of times, and well--heads start to roll. Literally. The homicidal angle isn't the kicker though. The Coens really weird things out by making the physical and metaphysical world fuck each other silly. As Charlie runs down the hallway, the walls catch fire. "I'll show you the life of the mind!" Charlie yells as he shoots at the detectives. After the first detective is dead, and the second injured, Charlie slows to a steady march to deliver the killing shot to the second detective. This image, is one of the most iconic of the last twenty years. Photographed from the inside of Barton's room, where he is handcuffed to the bedpost, we see a side profile view of Charlie march by the open door, sweaty, rifle in hand, with brilliant colors of the fire from the wall on the other side of him. Charlie lowers the rifle to the second detective's head. "Heil Hitler!" he declares. Boom.
Why we love it: There is tremendous power in this scene. For a film that for many viewers is quite frustrating, comes this wholly organic and visceral few moments that transcend logical explanation or categorization. It goes to a level that no one can label. "I'll show you the life the mind! I'll show you the life of the mind! I WILL SHOW YOU THE LIFE OF THE MIND!!!" Charlie bellows. The rawness of the performance, mixed with the uneasiness from the bluntness of the violence creates this dizzying effect for viewers. The Hitler remark usually throws some viewers off too. That's if you read it off of a page. But listen to Charlie say it. There's a frankness to his voice while delivering that salute. Don't forget that "Barton Fink" takes place in 1930s Hollywood--a locale serene and picture perfect place and one that is far, far away from the eve of the second world war. Though on a timeline America is on the cusp of WWII, the entertainment industry couldn't be more detached in its own absurdness. Still, in a general plot outline of the struggles of writer's block and the search for creativity, to work in this post-modern aesthetic portrayal of madness is quite utterly divine. Here the Coens deserved every award handed to them.
