Coen Brothers Research Paper

The Coen brothers are two of the greatest filmmakers in the history of the American movie industry. Joel David Coen was born on November 29th, 1954 and Ethan Jesse Coen born on September 21st, 1957. The two brothers have worked together on creating an award winning sense of humor through the stories of their characters, most of whom are trapped in worlds that are often tinged, unforgiving, and daunting universes. Since 1984, the Coen brothers have directed more than 15 films of diverse genres ranging from adventure, romance, drama, gangster, thriller, horror, crime, apocalyptic, as well as comedy. They have been honored with 13 Academy Award nominations for directing, producing, writing, and editing. In addition, they have won four Oscar awards for their work in No Country for Old Men and Fargo. With Fargo, they won an award for the Best Original Screenplay and the No Country for Old Men won them awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture. The Coen brothers often produce, direct, and …show more content…
Ethan and Joel are always extremely conscious about the role that sound and music plays in their films, even from the earliest stages. The brothers have worked with T-Bone Burnett and Carter Burwell in a majority of their films, resulting in a close association of the musical styles used in the wide variety of movies that they produce. Carter Burwell was a Harvard graduate who majored in fine art with an emphasis on electronic music and animation. Burwell was introduced to the Coen brothers by Skip Lievsay, the man who was in charge of sound editing in the Coen's first film, Blood Simple (1984). Burwell’s dynamic approach to composition enabled him to cope with the unpredictable quirks that are common with the Coens film style, and this was fundamental to his partnership with the brothers (Robson,