Film “I Luhv Him SOOOO MUUUUUCCCHH!!!!”
posted by on July 25 at 11:13 AM
Clearly this fact makes me some kind of butthole, but until last night at the Central Cinema, I’d never seen Raising Arizona all the way through.
How this was allowed to happen? I’m a humongous Coen Brothers fan, having seen Fargo—AKA the greatest American movie not about the mob ever made—at least 150 times. But at the time of Raising Arizona’s release—1987—I required Great Movies to be awash in seriousness. (For me, this was the time of Hannah and Her Sisters (featuring full frames of e.e. cummings quotes), Room with a View (my first Merchant-Ivory swoonfest), and Blue Velvet (severed ears, sexy rape, and symbolism for beginners!).) During this phase, Raising Arizona was too goofy, with too many close-ups of ugly men hollering and chewing with their mouths open, for my taste.
But encountering it now—dear God that’s a good, weird movie. Holly Hunter’s subject line-engendering sob attack remains one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, and all of the ugliness that sent me running back in the day turned out to be part of a strange and glorious whole, once I took the time to watch it through to the end.
Coen brothers, please accept my apology. Everyone else, Raising Arizona continues through tomorrow night at Central Cinema, where they bring food and booze right to your seat.
For 1 Gabillion reasons David I am one of your biggest fans...Public Enemy....Showgirls. But now, you have reached new heights. This is truly one of my favorite films.
What an awesome movie to have only just seen. It changes your fucking life. I was once fortunate enough to have someone ask me if I knew what a recidivist was, and got to yell "REPEAT OAF-FENDER!" at her.
I know you do, honey. I know you do...
There are so many funny parts to id. The fight between cage and goodman in the double wide is one of those tears of laughter moments for me.
Mighty good breakfast flakes, ma'am.
Son, you got a panty on your head!
Are you sure you're not just telling us what we want to hear?
Remember when people thought Nicolas Cage might be a good actor? This movie, and "Moonstruck", are why. Sadly, that turned out not to be the case.
But "Fargo"? Best American movie? You're forty-odd years too late. Please don't tell me you've never seen "All That Heaven Allows".
When there was no meat we ate fowl
when there was no fowl we ate fish
When there was no fish we at crawdads
When there was no crawdads we ate sand
And it features 3 future Best Actor/Actress winners too... not to mention eventual Best Director and two-time Best Screenplay winners in the Coens.
Back when this came out, the weird thing was that it was their sophomore effort following their low-budget but very good noirish Blood Simple. Two very different movies.
Do these blow up into funny shapes?
No, unless round is funny.
Fnarf: My Fargo proclamation is emotional, not factual, but yes, I have seen All That Heaven Allows and it didn't do so much for me. (I saw it to help me contextualize my beloved Far from Heaven, but maybe I should try again, on its own terms...)
Plus, I would have totally pegged you as a Singin' in the Rain defender, over any Sirk...
Stacy at 11: !!!
Leonard Smalls is simply the greatest character ever created. Books, movies, stage; E V E R!!!!!!
"I'll kick their butts, no extra charge."
@ 9: You ate sand?
Nawww, not that mother-scratcher . . .
"Her womb is a field where my seeds can find no purchase." Does anyone know why Nicolas Cage never worked with the Coen Brothers again?
@8 and 12--Oooh, All That Heaven Allows knocked me out of the park. I rented it recently after having re-watched Far From Heaven. I was expecting a clutch-your-pearls tear jerker, but I was surprised by how affected I was by it.
I haven't seen Raising Arizona all the way through, either. But I remember my dad just laughing and laughing at it. Perhaps now's the time to do it.
Featuring a line I still use often in day-to-day life:
"Gimme back my baby you warthog from HELL!"
The panty-on-the-head line is a good one, too.
What a terrific movie.
Singin' In The Rain's all right, though I have a limited tolerance for Debby Reynolds. Donald O'Connor makes up for her, though, which makes it a good movie but not the best. For best musical, I'm partial to "An American In Paris" and "Funny Face". (or "Young Girls of Rochefort", if I can leave the country).
"All That Heaven Allows" is ten thousand times better than "Far From Heaven", which is decent but a little stiff. Visually, I don't see how anything could possibly top ATHA; the scenes where you can see the woods through the window are mind-blowing, better than anything by Kubrick. Douglas Sirk is God. None of the Seventies auteurs can touch him. And of course none of them had Rock Hudson to work with.
Holly Hunter in this movie should have won an Oscar for this. I think it's my favorite American female performance of the past thirty or forty years. Her character actually changed the way I see the world; and I'm not alone, judging by the number of quotations that are popping out here. The perfect woman (well, after Mrs. Fnarf, of course)!
21: To quote your beloved, "That was beautiful."
mind you don't hurt yourself, mordechai...
You shoulda seen the other guy.
when Rasing AZ came out, my friends and I quoted it to death, to the point where people would chase us from the room with pool cues - there's never been a movie that came remotely close to having as many quotable lines - and it wasn't just the lines, it was the way they were delivered:
Policeman: Do you have any disgruntled employees?
Nathan Arizona: Hell, they're all disgruntled! I ain't runnin' no damn daisy farm!
R.I.P. Trey Wilson
I just love biblical names, If I had another baby I would name him Jason Caliber Tab.
Sorry fellow Sloggers. I grew up with no cable out in the country. The only videos I had were Raising Arizona, The Neverending Story and some terrible PBS thing with Robin Williams called The Frog Prince. I have seen Raising Arizon at least two-hundred times. It is unquestionably my favorite movie.
Get that diaper off your head and put it back on your little sister!
I know people who don't like Raising Arizona. I feel sorry for them.
The Coens have never quite re-captured the sense of mad giddiness they got with this film. (And no love here yet for Randall "Tex" Cobb as the harbinger of the Apocalypse? That's a prime example of the demented brilliance of the thing.) I saw the trailer for Burn After Reading last weekend, and am holding my breath that it might be the one that finally gets them back to this level. If nothing else, Brad Pitt looks absolutely overjoyed to be in it.
there's never been a movie that came remotely close to having as many quotable lines
Uh, have you seen The Big Lebowski or Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? Two Cohen Brothers movies that have endless quote material.
"FORGET ABOUT THE FUCKING TOE!!!!!!!!"
@17,
As I recall, it was actually "...a rocky place, where my seed could find no purchase."
I tried to give up robbing convenience stores, but they're just so darned convenient.
Turn to the right!
"Jackie Treehorn treats objects like women!"
"I'll be takin' these Huggies and whatever cash ya' got".
@ 28, a lot of Raising Arizona's feel is due to Barry Sonnenfeld's great cinematography. He decided to become a director in the 90s and only worked with the Coens once more (Miller's Crossing)>
"Get me that baby, Hi!!!"
Well, sometimes I get the menstrual cramps, real hard.
Donnie was a good man, and a good bowler.
Probably another for the "pizza is delicious" file, but still I envy you seeing it for the first time. I myself saw it fifteen years late and was flabbergasted that it really was as funny as all my endlessly-quoting-it friends contended (I had a similar experience with the Princess Bride, which I was fully prepared to hate.) Probably my favorite "funny" Coen brothers movie. I think I'd pick "Miller's Crossing" overall, but that's subject to change at will.
I'm talkin' about me'n Dotty's swingers. As in, to swing? I'm talkin' about wife swappin', boy. What are you talkin' about?
@15 -- We ate sand.
"I don't know what his damn jammies looked like... they had Yodas and shit on them!"
I said, "Healthy white baby? Five years? What else you got?" Said they got two Koreans and a negro born with his heart on the outside. It's a crazy world.
If you like the tone of "Raising Arizona" check out the trailer for the Coens next movie:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/burnafterreading/
@42 - that made me laugh until I cried. I had forgotten that line.
The sun don't rise and set on the corner grocery!
#23 nailed it I think. That's my personal favorite line in the film. Context of one of Dot and Glenn's is carving "FART" into the wall, I think he has a patch on his eye as well.
one of my favorite parts:
when one of Hi's jailbird buddies (not John Goodman- the other one) is robbing a convenience store and asks the old man clerk "Do you have any of those balloons that blow up into funny shapes?"
The man replies: "Is round funny?"
dang Stacy at 11 beat me to the punch (and a more accurate quote, too)
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