Plot Summary: In the 1950s a big Hollywood star is kidnapped and held for ransom by communists. Eddie Mannix, a fixer working for a studio, must deal with the problem, alongside the other chaos of Hollywood in the golden age.
Key Ideas from Readings: Popular actors and actresses, otherwise known as stars, had personas built for them and maintained by studios. Their personality and background perceived by the public could be used to market films. If a certain star was in a film, you knew what type of film it would be and the public would go to see the film just because a star was in it. Geraghty highlights the categories of celebrity, professional and performer. There are then different ways in which certain roles fit certain stars: perfect fit, selective fit and problematic fit.
Film Reflection: Joel and Ethan Coen’s Hail, Caesar! (2016) reflects these ideas. Hobbie Doyle (played by Alden Ehrenreich) has the persona of a cowboy and he very much accepts this persona and fits into it nicely. However, the studio tries to change his image in order to make him seem more sophisticated and he goes along with this, despite the new image not matching his personality at all. Similarly, DeeAnna Moran (played by Scarlett Johansson) his the image of a sweet and innocent young lady, but this is just a facade and couldn’t be further from the truth.
The idea of studios using stars to market films is present too. When Mannix meets the various religious men, they all reconsider their negative views on the film when they discover that Baird Whitlock (played by George Clooney) is playing the lead. The stars persona changes their minds because they think they know that Whitlock is a good man.
The Coen brothers casting choice also reflects theories about stars. Scarlett Johansson is a perfect fit for her role as she often plays sexualised characters. In fact, the discovery that Johansson’s character isn’t as sweet and innocent as you might expect happened in a film she did earlier for the Coen brothers called The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001). Tilda Swinton is a selective fit, because she has played a very wide range of roles, many of which were serious. However, she has been known to play more comical characters occasionally like in Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and she even played twins before in Joon-ho Bong’s Okja (2017). Finally Josh Brolin was a problematic fit, because he was primarily known for playing serious roles before this and so was surprising to see in a comical role.
Questions, Observations and Thoughts: Hail, Caesar! displays many aspects common to the films of Joel and Ethan Coen. It plays with the genre of crime with a constant sense of black humour while paying tribute to classic cinema. It features their existentialist and almost nihilist philosophy present in their films. One event leads to another and another until things spin madly out of control and nobody has any idea what is going on. There is no retribution or catharsis. Things just happen and nobody knows why.
It perhaps isn’t one of their better films. While it is by no means a bad film, it does come across as a lazy effort for Joel and Ethan Coen.
Hail, Caesar! (2016)
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