I have been trying to formulate this into an article myself but I only go as far as making some notes. Vanity Fair has done a much better job than I would have done with a fun article about the chronology of the Coen brothers’ movie output to date and observes that, while they love to trip through time and period, they are yet to make a movie set in the 1970’s. To wit;
1920’s – Miller’s Crossing
1930’s – O Brother, Where Art Thou?
1940’s – Barton Fink, The Man Who Wasn’t There
1950’s – The Hudsucker Proxy
1960’s – A Serious Man
1970’s -
1980’s – Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, No Country For Old Men
1990’s – Fargo, The Big Lebowski
2000’s – Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers (even though it feels older), Burn After Reading
Now, obviously some of these movies aren’t period movies at all but contemporary movies set during the time they were made. Interesting none the less.
What historic theme do you think they could tackle to fill this 1970’s-shaped void in their oevre? Watergate? The Beatles breaking up? The founding of Microsoft?












May 9th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Does Fargo really take place in the 90s? I’ve always wondered about his because it looks like they are, but it says that the story “took place” in 1987. This is confusing.
May 9th, 2010 at 8:39 pm
It looks like Fargo takes place in the 90s, but in the beginning, it says the events took place in 87.