Quiz 14: Coen brothers films – answers

1. Where did the Coens get the title for their first film, Blood Simple (1984)?

In Dashiel Hammett's Red Harvest, the Op tells Brand the escalating violence has affected his mental state: "This damned burg's getting me. If I don't get away soon, I'll be going blood-simple like the natives."

2. In Raising Arizona (1987), what is Arizona's first name?

Both of them, father and son, are called Nathan.

3. In Miller's Crossing (1990) why is one of the characters called 'The Dane'?

The character, then called 'The Swede' was written for Peter Stormare (who is Swedish) but he was unavailable as he was at the time playing Hamlet (Prince of Denmark), so the characters was renamed.

4. In Barton Fink (1991), what is the title of Barton Fink's social-realist melodrama which was successful in New York? (And where did he get it?)

Bare Ruined Choirs. It's from (Shakespeare's) Sonnet 73.

5. Why is Fargo (1996) a misleading title?

It wasn't shot there. Fargo is in North Dakota, and most of the film was shot in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Some exteriors were filmed in ND, but no scenes at all in either Fargo or Brainerd.

6. In The Big Lebowski (1997), who played the other one? (And in what other Coen film did he play the leading role?)

Jeff Bridges (as The Dude). He also played Rooster Cogburn in True Grit (2010), reprising the role for which John Wayne won an Oscar (in 1969).

7. Whence the title of O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000)?

In Preston Sturges's Sullivan's Travels (1941) film-maker Sullivan is intending to make a film with that title. He never does.

8. Who was the leader of the first group of Ladykillers (1955) and who was the Coens' (2004)?

Alec Guinness. Tom Hanks.

9. From what poem by what poet does the title of No Country for Old Men (2007) come?

Yeats's 'Sailing to Byzantium' begins with the words, 'That is no country for old men'.

10. In The Tragedy of Macbeth (Joel Coen, 2021) whose nepowife plays Mrs Macbeth? (And how many children did the Lady have?)

Joel Coen's wife Frances McDormand (which might be why he had to make it). 'How many children had Lady Macbeth?' is the title of a classic 1933 essay by L. C. Knights. There is no answer to the rhetorical question.

Garry Gillard | New: 25 April, 2023 | Now: 26 April, 2023