| Barton Fink | 
 enlarge | Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Actors: John Turturro, John Goodman, Judy Davis, Michael Lerner, John Mahoney
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $4.09
You Save: $5.89 (59%)
Buy New/Used from $4.08
Avg. Customer Rating:   (123 reviews)
Sales Rank: 2440
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 116 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.7
MPN: D2007381D
UPC: 024543073802
EAN: 0024543073802
ASIN: B00008RH3J
Release Date: May 20, 2003
Theatrical Release Date: August 21, 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Description
Set in Hollywood during the 1940's, "Barton Fink" is a comic satire about creative egos, flashy moguls, a travelling salesman and a nasty case of writer's block. Barton Fink (John Turturro) is a New York playwright lured to Hollywood to work as a screenwriter. It doesn't take long for Barton's life to erupt in complete chaos. His studio boss orders the serious-minded Barton to write a low budget wrestling movie. Deeply disappointed, Barton returns to his seedy hotel, types one sentence and then nothing. To make matters worse, he is continually interrupted by Charlie (John Goodman), a chatty travelling insurance salesman who lives next door. Eventually they become friends and Charlie tries to help Barton by teaching him the finer points of wrestling. As the clock ticks away and the temperature climbs, Barton becomes more desperate as his life spins out of control.
Amazon.com essential video
A darkly comic ride, this intense and original 1991 offering from the Coen brothers (Fargo, Blood Simple) gleefully attacks the Hollywood system and those who seek to sell out to it, portraying the writer's suffering as a loony vision of hell. John Turturro (Miller's Crossing, Jungle Fever) plays the title character, a pretentious left-wing writer from New York City who is brought to 1930s Hollywood to write a script for a wrestling movie for palooka actor Wallace Beery. Fink thinks the job is beneath him, but his desire for acceptance gets the better of him, and he suddenly finds himself holed up in a fleabag hotel in Los Angeles, where he is almost immediately afflicted with writer's block. Various distractions begin to enter his life, first in the form of a famous southern writer (John Mahoney) whom Fink idolizes, and then his neighbor in the hotel, a seemingly amiable salesman played by John Goodman (Sea of Love, Raising Arizona). The writer turns out to be a self-loathing drunk whose secretary (Judy Davis) is the one actually doing the writing. And the neighbor, the working-class hero who Fink made his reputation writing about, may have a horrifying secret of his own. Equal parts social commentary and hilarious farce, and winner of the Best Picture, Actor, and Director prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, Barton Fink is a visionary and original comic masterpiece not to be missed. --Robert Lane
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| Customer Reviews: Read 118 more reviews...
 Great!! September 26, 2008
Arrived fast and was in perfect condition. I really liked the movie!
Great purchase..
 Another good one from the Coen brothers September 9, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This 1991 film by the Coen brothers is a very dark comedy about the pitfalls of Hollywood.
Barton Fink (John Turturro) is a writer on Broadway that has claimed some success and is wanted by the "Hollywood" studios. He reluctantly goes west to try and achieve some more of his dream as a writer. Barton views himself as a great writer of the typical working man, but is contracted to write a script for a low budget wrestling movie. On the way he meets Charlie (John Goodman) an insurance salesman with a darkside and Audrey a girlfriend to a writer that Barton idolizes. Barton hits a writer's block and things don't go so good.
For those that love the Coen brothers films, like myself, this is another good movie, but not for everyone. If you like Fargo, Raising Arizona and No Country for Old Men, then you'd enjoy this one also.
 inchoate August 3, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a movie by a couple of artists who later learned to do much better. You can, however, see the beginnings of their genius in this film.
The plot concerns Barton Fink, an up-and-coming New York playwright whose recent successes attract the attention of a major Hollywood mogul. After signing a lucrative contract he finds himself holed up in a creepy Hollywood Hotel.
What's unfortunate about this movie is that many scenes which probably worked quite well on paper come off as somehow not right when you see them on the screen.
An example of this would be the scenes where Barton interacts with the hotel staff. This probably seemed a lot more clever in the script, but when you see the scenes you don't know what to make of them.
Perhaps the best aspects of this film are the scenes with the William Faulkner character, whose tenure in Hollywood was, in fact, as bizarre as it is depicted.
But in most of the rest of the movie, the directors seem to have ideas but not know what to do with them. For example using John Goodman as a satanic angel of death provides the odd chuckle, but it's hard to see what he's doing in this movie. I have thought that the main thrust of the film was to explore the angst and futility of a young, soulful writer trying to put his heart on the page in this business that simply didn't care. The fact that this movie turned into a murder mystery about half way through really ended up scuttling that.
The Coen brothers, of course, later proved themselves masters of creeping an audience out, and, at least in this department, they don't disappoint in this film. The problem is, unlike in their later films, the creepiness seems to be for no purpose and to go nowhere.
I believe the whole idea of a studio smooshing a passionate writer certainly held promise. But there is so much extraneous matter floating around this film that what could have been a thoughtful, meaningful pieces ends up being blunted in every way.
Tweaked 'til it screams... July 7, 2008
The genius of The Brothers Coen lies in their ability to examine American Culture and tweak it until it screams in transcendent agony, this fine film is no exception. John Turturro, John Goodman, Judy Davis, Steve Buscemi... Imagine their faces, throw in surreal camera-craft, blast them with the contrast of bright Hollywood sunlight and still, deep, dark shadow and you get the idea.
It's set in Hollywood circa the raid on Pearl Harbor. A young and somewhat successful playwright attempts to cope with the coke, booze & benny fueled craziness of the studio. Enter J. Goodman's character: a bona fide psycho, and watch the puzzi get *extra* fancy...
Great movie; why so few DVD features? June 12, 2008
I liked the still gallery, but there should have been more than that and the trailers. Ah, well...Still, this is a great movie and probably has not been seen by as many people as should have seen it by now. It's not a blockbuster; it's noir and a very dark comedy about a writer who hits a nasty writer's block and then gets caught up in a madman's reign of terror.
This is also a great commentary by the Coens about the nature of Hollywood, how a writer struggles in that town, anti-Semitism, fate, and a symbolically depressing and dangerous environment (portrayed through the dripping, peeling wallpaper, the constant whine of mosquitoes, and the dreary Hotel Earle).
John Goodman and John Turturro do excellent work here as the madman and the writer, respectively, showing us both their comedic and their tormented sides.
The ending, with the hallway in flames, is unforgettable; as is the mysterious package which I hope Barton never opens, since it may very likely contain body parts belonging to people he knew. Credit the Coens for not giving away the mystery.
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