Critical Synopsis: Barton Fink

(editor's note: as promised - just before I have to turn it in...)


After exploring variations on neo-noir, cartoonishly violent screwball comedy, and the “gangster” film, Joel and Ethan Coen set their sights on Hollywood for their fourth film, Barton Fink. While the story – about a socially conscious playwright chewed up by the Hollywood studio system – is not unique in cinematic lore, the Coen Brothers bring a unique spin to this cautionary tale.

Barton Fink (John Turturro) is a “serious” playwright in the Clifford Odets / proto-Arthur Miller vein living in New York City. A “man of the people,” Fink’s subject matter is the exclusive domain of dock workers and fishmongers, and his latest play makes Barton a cause-celeb in Hollywood. Against his better judgments, Fink arrives in Hollywood on the payroll of Capital Pictures, run by “the smartest kike in town,” Jack Lipnick (Michael Lerner).

Assigned to write a “Wallace Beery wrestling picture”, Fink comes down with a serious case of writers block. His troubles are compounded by choosing to live with the common people of The Hotel Earle, a seemingly deserted building populated only by Fink, his neighbor Charlie Meadows (John Goodman), and Chet (Steve Buscemi), the shoe shining desk clerk.

The Earle itself is a juxtaposition of various cinematic references by the Coen Brothers. The ominous sound design and seemingly endless hallways are reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, and the interminably poorly lit rooms and lobbies resemble nothing so much as the apartment of Henry Spencer in David Lynch’s Eraserhead. Peeling wallpaper in Fink’s room, both comical and disturbingly viscous with glue remind audiences of the gooey and porous film of David Cronenberg.

Fink’s story alternates between The Earle and Hollywood proper, although one is never less surreal than the other. Barton falls under the mentorship of W.P. Mayhew, a Faulkner-ian writer so disgusted with his plight that alcohol is his only refuge. His assistant / lover, Audrey Taylor (Judy Davis) becomes the object of Barton’s obsession, as well as a thwarted muse to the both of them. His inability to produce a simple “wrestling picture” raises the ire of both Lipnick and his producer, Ben Geisler (Tony Shalhoub).

The target for Joel and Ethan Coen is not merely Hollywood. For a “man of the people”, Barton Fink is curiously disinterested in the stories Charlie has to tell. Meadows, a jovial insurance salesman, is also not who he seems. After his sexual liaison with Audrey ends fatally, Fink discovers that Charlie Meadows is actually Karl Mundt, a serial killer with a proclivity for decapitation. As Mundt, Goodman becomes an outlandish caricature of absolute evil the Coens frequently use in their films; at one point, he literally brings hell into the Earle as fire follows Karl down the hallway.

But Mundt will not kill Barton Fink. Fink “doesn’t listen”, and so he is consigned to live next to Karl for eternity. Fittingly, his “wrestling picture”, a rip-off of the play we’re introduced to Fink through, has also enraged Lipnick to the point that Fink is doomed to live out his contract in perpetuity, continually writing scripts that Capital Pictures will never make. Alone with Audrey’s head in a box, Barton Fink is left in the eternal purgatory of Los Angeles.