ENGLISH 3283/4933
Note that the final exam will be administered via Blackboard at 4:00 pm on Saturday, January 9. The exam will be open book: you may consult your notes, the on-line reading assignments, or other recorded materials, though you may not consult other people.
Instructor:
Prof. M. Keith Booker
234 Kimpel Hall, 575-7248
e-mail: kbooker@uark.edu
Textbooks Required:
On-line textbook supplied free of charge. This syllabus provides links to the relevant sections.
Description:
The purpose of this course will be to provide a broad introduction to the films of the Coen Brothers, with a special emphasis on the intersection between those films and American cultural history.
Course Resources for Remote Delivery
Online video lectures: Available on YouTube, linked to the schedule below.
Online textbook: Linked to the schedule below. Each reading assignment covers an entire class. Students may wish to read all of an assignment at once. However, the assignments are separated into sections on individual films. Students might prefer to read the section on each film immediately after viewing that film. Note that the Works Cited and Films Cited lists for all of the reading assignments can be found here.
Facebook Group for Class Discussions: Click here.
Individual films: Available for inexpensive rental on Amazon Prime Video, as well as other platforms. Several films, as indicated in the schedule below, are available for free viewing with a Netflix membership. One film (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) is available only on Netflix.
Essays, exams, and other major requirements:
Due to the brevity of the intersession period, there will be no formal essay assignment for this course. Instead, students should participate in informal discussions of the films on the syllabus. Responses to each film can be provided as comments on a prompt for each film that will be posted by the instructor. Each comment will receive a grade of 1-5, depending on the substance of the comment. Maximum credit given for all comments will be 20 points. These discussions will be conducted primarily during the scheduled class period, beginning at noon each day and continuing until the discussion is concluded. Students may post comments at other times as well, but the most productive discussions will probably need to be synchronous.
In addition, each student will present, via the class Facebook group, a review of a film that is related to the films of the Coen Brothers, chosen from the list included at the end of this syllabus. Be creative. You should include a writeup of your assessment of the film, but you may also post other materials on the Facebook page, such as links to other reviews, YouTube videos, and so on. Reviews may be posted all at once or in installments, but must be completed by the end of the day on Friday, January 8.
Grades and Grading
Film review: 30%
Class Participation, via Facebook discussions: 20%
Final exam: 50%
Course Schedule:
Note: the schedule given below indicates the days on which live written discussions will be conducted via Facebook. Otherwise students are free to view the films and read the assignments at their own convenience, with the stipulation that the final exam will be administered on January 9, so all work should be completed by that date. (It might be useful to watch some of the films in advance, given the compressed schedule of the intersession. Note that, for completeness, I have included all of the feature films of the Coen Brothers in the on-line textbook However, in order to lighten the load a bit, I am omitting The Ladykillers and Burn After Reading from the formal course. They will not be covered on the final exam, though I have included discussions of them in the on-line textbook for those who are interested.
Day 1: Saturday, January 2, 2021
Introduction and Film Noir
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- For this class, begin by reading the on-line introduction to the films of the Coen Brothers.
2. View the introductory lecture for Blood Simple.
3. Watch Blood Simple (Amazon).
4. View the introductory lecture for The Man Who Wasn’t There.
5. Watch The Man Who Wasn’t There (Amazon).
6. Read the on-line assignment for this class.
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Day 2: Sunday, January 3
Hard-Boiled Fiction
1. View the introductory lecture for Miller’s Crossing.
2. Watch Miller’s Crossing (Amazon).
3. View the introductory lecture for The Big Lebowski.
4. Watch The Big Lebowski (Amazon).
5. Read the on-line assignment for this class.
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Day 3: Monday, January 4
Hollywood on Film
1. View the introductory lecture for Barton Fink.
2. Watch Barton Fink (Amazon).
3. View the introductory lecture for Hail, Caesar!.
4. Watch Hail, Caesar! (Netflix).
5. Read the on-line assignment for this class.
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Day 4, Tuesday, January 5
Screwball Comedy
1. View the introductory lecture for The Hudsucker Proxy.
2. Watch The Hudsucker Proxy (Amazon).
3. View the introductory lecture for Intolerable Cruelty.
4. Watch Intolerable Cruelty (Amazon).
5. Read the on-line assignment for this class.
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Day 5: Wednesday, January 6
Suburban Black Comedy
1. View the introductory lecture for Fargo.
2. Watch Fargo (Netflix).
3. View the introductory lecture for A Serious Man.
4. Watch A Serious Man (Netflix).
5. Read the on-line assignment for this class.
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Day 6: Thursday, January 7
American Music
1. View the introductory lecture for O Brother, Where Art Thou?.
2. Watch O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Amazon).
3. View the introductory lecture for Inside Llewyn Davis.
4. Watch Inside Llewyn Davis (Amazon).
5. Read the on-line assignment for this class.
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Day 7: Friday, January 8
The Western
1. View the introductory lecture for No Country for Old Men.
2. Watch No Country for Old Men (Amazon).
3. View the introductory lecture for True Grit.
4. Watch True Grit (Amazon).
5. View the introductory lecture for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
6. Watch The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Netflix).
7. Read the on-line assignment for this class.
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Day 8: Saturday, January 9
Anarchic Comedy
1. View the introductory lecture for Raising Arizona.
2. Watch Raising Arizona (Amazon).
3. Read the on-line assignment for this class. This assignment also includes discussions of The Ladykillers and Burn After Reading, for your information. These films, however, will not be covered on the final exam and are not formally part of the course.
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On-line final exam for all students. 4:00 pm.
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Films for Film Reviews
Choose a film from the following list. Reviews should give a capsule summary of the film, a critical assessment of the film, and a discussion of the ways in which the film intersects with the films of the Coen Brothers. Reviews should be posted on the class Facebook page. Be innovative: multimedia presentations spread over several days are encouraged. [Names in brackets indicate the student assigned to that film. Please choose a film not already assigned.]
The Big Sleep (1946) [Moghadam]
Bridge of Spies (2015) [Allen]
Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976) [Maxfield]
Chinatown (1974) [Sanders]
Dazed and Confused (1993) [Flory]
Double Indemnity (1944) [Fulmer]
For a Few Dollars More (1965) [Synan]
His Girl Friday (1940) [Novotny]
It Happened One Night (1934)
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971) [Hart]
Monkey Business (1952) [Fox]
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) [Heflin]
Mulholland Drive (2001) [Perry]
Murder, My Sweet (1944) [Jennings]
The Player (1992) [Buckner]
The Searchers (1956) [Vera]
Singin’ in the Rain (1952) [Bowers]
Stagecoach (1939) [Carrell]
Suburbicon (2017) [Haught]
Sullivan’s Travels (1941) [Schlie]
True Grit (1969) [Williams]
Wagon Master (1950) [Dunn]
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