Comments on: Empire’s 20 Best Alternative Coen Characters

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:40:18 +0000

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.

By: JSparks

JSparks — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:22:46 +0000

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.

By: lachlan

lachlan — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:12:37 +0000

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