The follow up to their debut with Blood Simple, the Coen's give us the antithesis of the moody neo noir, with one of the silliest crime films ever committed film stock. About the only thing that the two have in common besides two actors (Frances McDormand & M. Emmett Walsh), is that every single character is pretty sorely lacking in brain smarts, and even the characters that are a success, like the Arizona's, have basically no redeming qualities. All of this makes for a loud, raucous, comedy with lots of "strangeness" fodder. For example, the now patented "Coen scream" really shows up here for the first time when the Snoats brothers (John Goodman & William Forsythe) are breaking out of prison, and later from H.I when the Snoats take the kid, and yet again when Snoats realize the left the baby the middle of the road. The comedic wrath of God element debuts here in the form Leonard Smalls (Randall "Tex" Cobb), the hog riding demon "bounty hunter" (or hell hound) with grenades hanging from his vest. Smalls' bike leaves two trails of fire as it passes; we see the same technique show back up in Barton Fink, with Mad Man Mundt. The bank robbery scene is almost identical to the one in O, Brother Where Art Thou.
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| "Son, you've got a panty on your head" |
Starring Holly Hunter and Nicholas Cage as the unlikely couple (convict and cop) who find that they cannot have kids. Having heard that a local wealthy "naked" furniture salesman and his wife, The Arizona's, have a house full of quints, they decided they can solve their problem by relieving the Arizona's of one baby--after all, they have more than they can handle... Soon everyone in the film, except The Arizona's, is fighting over Junior. With even H.I.'s (Cage) boss and wife (McDormand) getting in on the action. If Intolerable Cruelty is a farce, then this is a hijinks's comedy. The filming style: the overstated close ups, the almost cartoon like sounds accompanying weapons draws and engine motors and the cartoon like violence is all very influenced by Coen pal Sam Raimi's filming style. Of course, the Coen's had been involved in project development with Raimi since their college days. Raising Arizona though is their most "Raimi like" film of their growing list of directorial achievements.
Trivia:
Florence, Arizona is the location of the Arizona State Prison, and also the name of the mother of the quints in the movie.
"Tex" Cobb was completely unfamiliar with motorcycles when he was cast in the role Leonard Smalls. He had to learn on the set while filming--and it wasn't always smooth sailing. For example, when Smalls rides up to the hole where the Snoats bros. escaped from prion through, Cobb accidentally crashed into the hole in one take.
When the police chase H.I. through the home after his diaper robbery, Nathan's Arizona's Unpainted Arizona commercial, shown earlier being filmed, is playing on the television as they run by.
Kevin Costner turned down the role H.I. McDunnough.
Holly Hunter's character of Ed(wina) was written for her.
The prison councilor wears a "Chai" on his necklace. In this case, "chai" is the Hebrew word for "life"--pronounced "hi." H.I. is called "Hi" throughout much of the film.
Specs:
Runtime: 94 min.
Rated: PG-13
Color
Original Sound Mix: Dolby
Panavision Cameras and Lenses
Language: English
AKA Arizona Junior
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