Coen Brother movie fans---rank their films.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

I'll preface this with the fact that I don't think there's ever been a truly bad Coen Brother movie. There have been some that have been merely average and rather forgettable, however.

My rankings:

1. Fargo
2. The Big Lebowski
3. A Serious Man
4. O Brother Where Art Thou?
5. Raising Arizona
6. No Country for Old Men
7. Blood Simple
8. Burn After Reading
9. The Hudsucker Proxy
10. Miller Crossing
11. Intolerable Cruelty
12. Inside Llewyn Davis
13. The Ladykillers
14. Barton Fink
15. The Man Who Wasn't There
16. True Grit

Fargo, in my opinion, is their best work. The Big Lebowski is probably my favorite of theirs. And A Serious Man is incredibly well crafted.

And O Brother Where Art Thou? and Raising Arizona are just plain fun and movies that I will watch whenever they come on television.

[Orrex]

1. Although it's DU heresy, I've never been much of a Big Lebowski fan

1. True Grit
2. O Brother Where Art Thou?
3. No Country for Old Men
4. Burn After Reading
5. Raising Arizona
6. Fargo
7. The Big Lebowski
8. Barton Fink
9. The Hudsucker Proxy
10. Miller's Crossing
11. The Man Who Wasn't There
12. The Ladykillers
13. Intolerable Cruelty
14. Inside Llewyn Davis (Haven't seen)
15. Blood Simple (Haven't seen)
16. A Serious Man (Haven't seen)

[Glassunion]

4. "I've never been much of a Big Lebowski fan"

That's it... Pack your shit and go. You're dead to us.

[Orrex]

7. I always knew this day would come.

[kentauros]

6. I have never been able to sit through more than twenty minutes of Big Lebowski.

So, I guess I'm another Lounge heretic.

I won't make a list. Hudsucker Proxy is my favorite

[TexasBushwhacker]

10. You can watch BL and count the number of "fucks"

I think it rivals Scarface in that regard.

Fargo
Hudsucker Proxy
Raising Arizona
Burn After Reading
Blood Simple
The Man Who Wasn't There

[kentauros]

11. The problem with doing a game like that,

is that I found the beginning utterly and absolutely boring! And I've seen the Russian movie Solyaris, twice, and loved it. I kept waiting for BL to get funny as it was slated to be. Yes, I know the Coen humor is dry and subtle, but I just didn't see what all the hoopla was about.

"And you can quote me on that!"

[csziggy]

19. Just watching the F*cking Short Version

It saves time!

[Enthusiast]

21. That made me cry a whole bunch. I watched it twice but I had no idea there were so many fucks.

[csziggy]

22. What I find interesting is the almost rhythmic nature of the fucks

When they are all cut together. It's nearly musical!

[TexasBushwhacker]

23. You could have a BL drinking game

Take a swig of your White Russian every time they say fuck. You'd get fucked up in the first 30 minutes.

[Enthusiast]

24. Ain't that the truth! I think they set the record for fucks.

My wife and I both thought the Big Lebowski had a lot of fucks. But we had no idea it had that many fucks.

Another thing I noticed is, The Dude is nearly always toking on a joint. It's like he smokes dope instead of cigarettes.

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[Glorfindel]

13. I love that movie. I think it's seriously underrated.

[kentauros]

15. I agree!

Great soundtrack and a wonderful parody of another favorite movie: Koyaanisqatsi. That whole sequence of marketing and development is hilarious

[mockmonkey]

2. I'll give it a shot

1. Fargo
2. The Big Lebowski
3. O Brother Where Art Thou?
4. The Hudsucker Proxy
5. Blood Simple (This one reminds me of Fargo)
6. Raising Arizona
7. Miller's Crossing
8. No Country for Old Men
9. Burn After Reading
10. Barton Fink
11. Intolerable Cruelty
12. The Ladykillers
13. A Serious Man
14. The Man Who Wasn't There (I couldn't even tell you what this was about, Billy Bob was in it right?)
15. Inside Llewyn Davis (I haven't seen this one)
16. True Grit (I haven't seen this one)

Bonus: Crimewave (Written by the Coens and directed by Sam Raimi. It's low budget and silly but Paul L. Smith and Brion James make this a hoot as a pair of exterminators. Brion James even looks like a rat in it.)

[bigwillq]

3. I'll play

1. Fargo
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Raising Arizona
4. Barton Fink
5. Blood Simple
6. Miller's Crossing
7. O Brother Where Art Thou
8. A Serious Man
9. Inside Llewyn Davis
10. The Big Lebowski

Did not see
Burn After Reading
The Hudsucker Proxy
Intolerable Cruelty
The Man Who Wasn't There
The Ladykillers
True Grit

[Glassunion]

5. My order

1. The Big Lebowski
2. Fargo
3. O Brother Where Art Thou?
4. Raising Arizona
5. No Country for Old Men
6. True Grit
7. Intolerable Cruelty
8. Blood Simple
9. Burn After Reading
10. The Hudsucker Proxy


Have not seen the rest.

[begin_within]

8. #1. "The Man Who Wasn't There"

Their finest film by far.

#2. The first half only of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

...then, all the rest... blecch....

Last in any list... "The Big Lebowski" ... godawful dreck.

Sorry...

[TexasBushwhacker]

27. I liked The Man Who Wasn't There too

But all that cigarette smoke made me want to turn on a fan.

[NV Whino]

9. Haven't seen them all but

Fargo is number one.
The Hudsucker Proxy is two.

Hated, yeah hated, The Big Lubowski.

Most of them, except The Big Lubowski, are worth watching.

[Cheese Sandwich]

12. Why the hell would you even ask this!

Just kidding. I only know these 7 but I love these movies.

1. Raising Arizona
2. The Big Lebowski
3. O Brother Where Art Thou?
4. Barton Fink
5. Fargo
6. The Hudsucker Proxy
7. No Country for Old Men

Raising Arizona was really good when I was a young dude watched it several times.

Right around the time my family first got a VCR. Major influence for me.

[Phentex]

26. My list would be similar to yours but

I would add Blood Simple as it was one of the earliest ones I saw.

I still quote Raising Arizona on a regular basis and when my college aged son asked about it, I was thrilled to get him the CD as a gift.

[cemaphonic]

14. Nice thread! I love the Coens

1) Miller's Crossing - I love just about every thing about this movie. Great dialogue (even by Coen Bros standards), Twisty plot with some nice surprises, nice costumes and sets, and the best cinematography of their early movies.

2) The Big Lebowski - So many elements that reveal themselves on multiple viewings. Funny, Quotable. Bonus entertainment if you are familiar with The Big Sleep.

3) No Country For Old Men - Not as rewatchable as some of their films, but probably their most artistically successful.

4) O Brother, Where Art Thou? - Fun all the way through. Wonderful music.

5) Raising Arizona - Almost as funny as Lewbowski. Somehow manages to straddle the line between cynical and heartwarming perfectly. First example of their love of dropping references to classic movies in their films.

6) Fargo - I'm not as fond of this one as most people seem to be, but I can't argue that it is a very well-made film that synthesizes everything they had learned as filmmakers up to that point. I almost see it as a higher budget re-imagining of Blood Simple. It even has a callback roadside burial scene. Which brings us to...

7) Blood Simple - Rough around the edges, and has a few weak spots, but I love how well-constructed the plot is, and the way that most of the bad decisions made by the characters are due to incomplete information instead of plot-induced stupidity

8) A Serious Man - I feel like this should be higher in the list, but can't think of anything that I would bump down.

9) Barton Fink - This is a weird one for me. I love the individual elements, the Polanski-apartment-movie claustrophobia, the nods to Kubrick and Lynch and the general surreal atmosphere, the Faulkner clone, and Tutturo and Goodman are always good in Coen films. Somehow, it doesn't really gel together. (Probably as it was hastily written as a break from Miller's Crossing)

10) True Grit - Solid entertaining movie, but nothing that really stood out to me (except for the young actress - she was great)

11) The Man Who Wasn't There - Similar to Barton Fink, I love a lot of the individual elements of the movie, but it doesn't quite come together into a cohesive whole.

12)The Hudsucker Proxy - Looks great, and has some really strong elements, but a lot of scenes that don't really go anywhere. Of all of their movies where they mine Hollywood classics for inspiration, this one feels like they put the least of their own personal stamp.

13) Intolerable Cruelty - This was a preexisting project that they got attached to midway, and it shows. Just doesn't feel much like a Coen movie, just a generic rom-com with a couple oddball quirks and better-than-average dialogue.

14) Burn After Reading - I might need to give this one another chance, since a lot of people seem to think more highly of it. I liked the premise where everybody thought they were in a 70s spy movie except the actual CIA, but a lot of the jokes fell flat.

15) The Ladykillers - Inferior by far to the original and every other Coen Bros. movie. I think this was another project they got attached to midway. The two saving graces were that the 'musicians' were a medieval ensemble instead of a string quartet (complete with a sackbut joke) and the Poe expert's insane glee at the prospect of walling up the old woman alive.

For some reason, despite loving the Coens, and folk music, I still haven't seen Inside Llewyn Davis. Been meaning to for awhile.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

18. Inside Llewyn Davis is okay as a film in general, but I was hoping for more in terms of the Coens.

It's still worth at least a single watch.

I agree with a lot of your points. Definitely agree with your assessment of The Big Lebowski and multiple viewings. The first time I saw it (in theaters, where it bombed) I more or less shrugged. But I somehow watched it one or two more times and it suddenly hooked me in, to the point where my friends and I would watch and quote it religiously. And you do seem to catch new things every time. For example, I was watching it this weekend and it was the first time that I ever noticed that Maude had a large painting of scissors in her studio that would reappear later in the Dude's dream sequence.

I agree that The Ladykillers more or less fell flat. The one saving grace for me was Tom Hank's hammy performance in the lead, which he seems to channel again as Dr. Goose in Cloud Atlas (another one of my favorite movies).

[CBGLuthier]

16. Talking personal satisfaction and not objective or even subjective quality

1. Fargo
2. Millers Crossing
3. Raising Arizona
4. O Brother Where Art Thou?
5. A Serious Man
6. Blood Simple
7. Barton Fink
8. True Grit
9. Inside Llewyn Davis
10. The Man Who Wasn't There
11. No Country for Old Men
12. The Hudsucker Proxy
13. The Big Lebowski
14. Burn After Reading
15. Intolerable Cruelty
16. The Ladykillers

I think No Country for Old Men is Fargo minus every drop of humor. Too grim.
I need to see inside Llewyn Davis a few more times. Good movie but not as familiar with it as the others.
I always loved Millers Crossing for reasons I can not explain other than Albert Finney and John Cusack give their best.
Having read True Grit it is nice to see a much more faithful adaptation of the novel than the Henry Hathaway version which I kind of like also.
The Ladykillers just plain sucks. I love the Ealing Studio version and I am sure that colors my opinion but I can not think of anything that either the excellent cast or the filmmakers brought to the remake that was worth the film they exposed making it. Horrible misfire.

[mackerel]

17. They all good films but my mood changes

#1 Fargo - Always

[lovemydog]

20. I love them all too TC!

Here's my list:

1. No Country for Old Men
2. The Big Lebowski
3. Fargo
4. Blood Simple
5. O Brother
6. Barton Fink
7. Miller's Crossing
8. True Grit
9. Raising Arizona
10. Hudsucker Proxy
11. Inside Llewyn Davis
12. Burn After Reading
13. Intolerable Cruelty
14. The Ladykillers
15. A Serious Man
16. The Man Won Wasn't There

Every one gets even better on repeated viewings.

[Enthusiast]

25. I cannot pick an order.

My favorites in no specific order are:

Fargo
O, Brother
The Big Lebowski
Raising Arizona
Miller's Crossing