Movie Review: Barton Fink

I was sitting on the couch trying to figure out what movie to watch on Tuesday night. I had it down to watching Spike Lee's Crooklyn or the Coen Brothers' Barton Fink. I will give you a little background information about myself, just so you understand my decision.

I am a security guard. I have plenty of time. What I want to do is write. Specifically, I want to write movies. The catch is, right now, I have writer's block. I was sitting on the couch, with my wife, eating dinner. I asked her if she would watch a movie with me. I was feeling a bit down, due to the sad state that is my checking account balance. Movies always make me feel better. I asked her if she wanted to watch "Crooklyn" or "Barton Fink." She expressed that she really did not care one way or the other, so I chose "Barton Fink." Probably because ever since I watched it alone at my desk while working a night shift at the warehouse, I have thought about this very strange and unforgettable film. I have to admit that I did not really understand it, but I liked it a lot. I liked it enough that I wanted to watch it again so that maybe I would understand it the second time around.

The film opens with eerie music, not unlike other films by the Coen Brothers. Once the talking starts the viewer is treated to some very good dialogue, but the movie finally starts to take on a strange almost unsettling quality when Barton gets to the hotel in Los Angeles. The movie has a horror feel. It is very creepy. Barton (John Turturro) hears laughter, crying, voices, and sex, all through the walls of his hotel room. Not long after arriving, Barton makes a phone call about the noise. A few moments later we hear the phone in the other room ring and a voice is raised in an obviously aggravated tone. A few moments later someone walks over to Barton's door and knocks. Barton nervously answers the door and meets a sweaty and distraught John Goodman. His character is Charlie. After a couple tense seconds Charlie becomes friends with Barton and actually is the most likeable character in the whole film. As the film progresses, Barton clings to Charlie as he seems to be the only genuine friend he has in Hollywood. Later he meets a novelist now working as a screenwriter, but he discovers this man is a shadow of his former self and is a raging and abusive alcoholic. The woman he abuses is his mistress. Barton develops a crush on this doormat of a woman. He also meets a typical egomaniacal movie mogul and a fast talking producer, all of whom Barton has no connection with. Barton feels that they are out of touch and too self centered.

All these characters help spin the story, but the heart of the meaning of Barton Fink lies within the walls of the hotel and with the conversations between Charlie and Barton. As the movie progresses the wall paper in the hotel room peels and oozes as the temperature rises. At one point we get the feeling that this movie has a supernatural quality. Now I really hate to give anything away for those who haven't seen this movie so if you are reading this and you want to be surprised, STOP READING NOW BECAUSE THE FOLLOWING WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS. If you want to pick up where you left off after viewing the picture, go for it. Go to blockbuster now. Anyway, for those of you that have seen the movie, you know that Charlie turns out to be Karl Mundt, a serial killer who enjoys decapitating his victims. Several people in the film fall victim to Karl, including the author's mistress, the author himself, the two racist police detectives, and possibly Barton's family. The first time I watched this, I tried to understand it all, but I just could not. Too much of the events were supernatural for me to just assume it was all a case of the average serial killer. The main thing was that Mundt sets the hotel on fire magically and it does not burn down.

Also how did Mundt kill the mistress without Barton waking? Is Mundt the devil or maybe a demon of some sort? That might explain all the mentions of hell, heat, damn, and Jesus in his dialogue. Also, the name of the hotel itself, the Hotel Earle can be used to spell hell. Is the hotel hell? The slogan on the notepad on the desk is, "a day or a lifetime." When Barton fist checks in Chet the bellhop has to walk up from "under" the hotel. He comes up through a trap door and has a strange look. Yes, I know Steve Buscemi looks strange (he is awesome) but he has a weird dusty look to his uniform and something just isn't right about the whole thing. The other mystery in the film is, "What is in the box?" The most common response seems to be, "a severed head," "his soul," "it doesn't really matter because it is just a distraction and the filmmakers are laughing at you." That last one may be true. Maybe it is Barton's soul. Before the end Mundt tells him to keep the box that the box is his. Maybe Barton was able to keep his soul because he never sold it. He wrote the screenplay that he wanted to write. Even though in the end he was to be held under contract and basically told that his writing was crap. I can identify with that last part. Sometimes when you write something, you think it is the best thing ever. Then you watch another movie or some time passes and you wonder what you were thinking to begin with. You are embarrassed to let others read it because they might scoff at it. But Barton never sold out. He never followed a standard formula. He did not write a B-Picture. He kept his soul.

The film spoke to me the second time watching it, because I honestly have writer's block. From my point of view, "Barton Fink" is an allegory. It is a representation of the creative process told through characters that each have their own demons and sense of heaven and hell. Sure, it does represent frustrations from non creative people, but the film is from Barton's POV. The Coen's even used a couple POV shots. A good writer will have a connection with regular everyday people because they are regular everyday people. The film shows us how absurd and even how rude it is for the so called "creative elite" to put themselves up on a pedestal. We feel sorry for Charlie when Barton interrupts him. Granted, Barton is passionate about the regular working man, but he does not even take the time to listen to Charlie's story and he seems to be making the same mistake that the other creative people make. They just do not listen. Everyone can identify with that. It hurts to be interrupted and it hurts even more to feel like nobody gives a damn. The entertainment industry insiders are notorious for this. It is such a competitive field that people can be very hard to access. I have personally found that people trying to break into writing, acting, or filmmaking in general will sometimes act like this, as if they think it is the only way to get their ideas heard. The movie speaks of all this. It is not necessarily a morality tale, but if it has a moral, it is that people should listen. They should be passionate and never sale their soul for money or success, but they should always listen.