Empire magazine’s website has listed what they consider to be the the 20 best micro-part characters from the Coen brothers oeuvre. Here’s are those 20…
1. Loren Visser (M Emmet Walsh), Blood Simple
2. Dot (Frances McDormand), Raising Arizona
3. Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson), Raising Arizona
4. Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito), Miller’s Crossing
5. Tic Tac (Al Mancini), Miller’s Crossing
6. Jack Lipnick (Michael Lerner), Barton Fink
7. W.P. Mayhew (John Mahoney), Barton Fink
8. Waring Hudsucker (Charles Durning), The Hudsucker Proxy
9. Buzz (Jim True-Frost), The Hudsucker Proxy
10. Mike Yanagita (Steve Park), Fargo
11. Officer Lou (Bruce Lohene), Fargo
12. Marty (Jack Keller), The Big Lebowski
13. Penny Wharvey McGill (Holly Hunter), O Brother, Where Art Thou?
14. Freddy Reidenschneider (Tony Shalhoub), The Man Who Wasn’t There
15. Gus Petch (Cedric the Entertainer), Intolerable Cruelty
16. Wheezy Joe (Irwin Keyes), Intolerable Cruelty
17. Deputy Wendell (Garret Dillahunt), No Country For Old Men
18. Gas Station Proprietor (Gene Jones), No Country For Old Men
19. CIA Superior (J.K. Simmons), Burn After Reading
20. Sy Abelman (Fred Melamed), A Serious Man
Nice to see a couple of entries from Intolerable Cruelty which I still think is massively underrated suffering, as it does, from the weight of Coen quality prior to it.
What do you think? Has anyone been missed? Only ONE from The Big Lebowski? I would have Knox Harrington (David Thewlis) in there right away! And no Jesus Quintana (John Turturro), surely Jesus’ part is small enough to make this list? None from The Ladykillers? Let’s talk…
November 27th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
An interesting list. As I was watching A Serious Man last week, I realised that I could only think of 4 asian characters in all of their movies (Mike from Fargo, General from LadyKillers, father and son in A Serious Man) and all of them are quite horrible characters. Have I missed anyone? Surely the Coens aren’t racist but this does seem to be the trend in their movies.
I just remembered Wu. Again he’s not very sympathetic. After all, he peed on the Dude’s rug
November 28th, 2009 at 12:22 am
I think the most important side character from Fargo, or, for the purposes of this list, from any of the Coen’s films is Mr. Mohra (the bartender in the driveway who gives the tip to the cop about the guy goin crazy down there at the lake: “Mrs. Mohra, she told me to call it in, so I called it in… end of story.”) This is the quintessential Coen side-character for this list. In fact, remove Tic Tac and put in this guy. I got nothing against Tic Tac, but who needs Tic Tac. But Mohra– he’s just this climax of what Fargo is all about, that type of character, small town midwest god-fearing every day joe kind of guy, pushbrooming snow in his driveway while unceremoniously giving an important tip in catching the evil foreign element streaking through the film and butting against Mr. Mohra’s kind– who just shrugs through life content to traverse the elements of the little place he knows and has in the world.
Also, while she’s really more of a main character, Irma P. Hall as Marva Munson should be on this list. And I think Klaus von Espy, the Baron, is more in the spirit of the list than Gus Petch, who I love but doesn’t have that Weezy Joe sort of big hit impact while being a side character at the same time. Though I’d remove Buzz the elevator worker before removing Gus. Or Bruce Campbell as Smitty. But Irma as Marva is a hugely under the radar character that captures so much so innocently and purely, and should make this type of list despite the large amount of screentime her role has.
I like that Wendell from No Country is on the list, as well as the gas station proprieter from that list, Mike Yanagita and Loren Visser. I like the idea behind it– those are good ones. While I also think David Rasche should be thrown on there with JK Simmons in Burn After Reading. A two for one.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Hi Lachlan,
Interesting observation. However, I rather think that the General in The Ladykillers was a decent fella wasn’t he? Good at what he does (tunnelling) and not treating with the usual Coen contempt? I could be wrong of course…
Hi JSparks,
I too love, love, LOVE Mr. Mohra- he literally cracks me up! The whole “…well I don’t arrange that kinda thing…” part kills me!
Paul.