In my opinion, The Hudsucker Proxy is the closest the Coen brothers have come to creating a mission statement. It's a clever satire of the phoniness of the studio system's product that simultaneously seems to be celebrating it (or, perhaps, its ability to expose its own falseness). There's such a corporate cleanliness and symmetry to the film that one suspects the brothers' main target is assembly line, Hollywood-ized narrative itself. It's probably not coincidental that this film was the first Coen brothers film with a significant budget (over $30 million). The film's key sequence, and perhaps the key to understanding all of the Coens' work, is one in which a female reporter's (Jennifer Jason Leigh - channeling Katherine Hepburn and Rosalind Russell) investigations into what makes the Hudsucker Company tick take on a bold literal dimension. She meets Moses, a black custodian (a part that would feel racist if not for the film's satiric bent) that tends to the firm's oversized clock. The keeper of the machinery, he is the only person that understands the events as they transpire. He explains to Leigh's reporter the circularity of the situation and predicts the outcome of the events. The assertion here is that these characters act as they do because they've been programmed like machine parts to do so in order to achieve the film's desired outcome. In this film, which has been programmed so that the little guy will "win", he isn't even free to lose, since the story is ultimately being told by the big guys - complete with their biases, stereotypes, and rigid sense of class structure. They've been getting rich off of selling the little guy a simpleminded, counterfeit dream that he eats up time and again. Worse yet, many little guys are tricked into thinking the big guy's version of their dreams is actually their dream. When the film closes with Moses' narration, his knowledge of another, similar, story that took place on an even higher floor that this one did sounds like nothing less than a threat.

It's rare to see such directness in a Coen brothers production, as they usually seem somewhat aloof about their motives. This film seems to be the key to understanding their work as a whole. Every head whip and hand swing of Leigh's character has to be accompanied by a whooshing sound because that's the requirement of the genre taken to its full extreme. They pump up the falseness inherent in this sort of character stereotype until it reaches its breaking point. In some of their films, such as O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the bubble breaks revealing nothing profound underneath the facade. In their better films like this one, and The Big Lebowski, their best film, they manage to make that core of hollowness a reprimand to the ideals that the film's very specific time and place represent. Here, Hollywood's corporate perception of the American dream being a direct function of ingenuity and hard work seems to be the target. The inevitability of the story's outcome and the pre-destined happiness of its stars both feel like arbitrary rules a cruel game. And cruelly, at the film's end, there's little implication that the future holds anything but more of the same.


Terrific Premise and Acting; DVD flawed   August 24, 1999
 18 out of 19 found this review helpful

The movie's middle third is unbelievably funny, and Jennifer Jason Leigh is perfect. Buscemi shows up briefly during a scene at the Beatnik bar. The DVD isn't of great quality, though. The first hint comes from the fact that "Ethan" (as in "Coen") is spelled "Ethen" in the jewel case's blurb. As soon as you begin watching, you'll notice the graininess in the opening shots, and some jaggies during a pan from Tim Robbins on the ledge. The DVD is ok from then on, until you get to the dancing sequence with the white background. So, the disc is a hack job (maybe that explains the low price, too), but the movie is so well done you can overlook it for all but about 10 seconds.


A great less-popular Coen brothers film   January 9, 2001
 18 out of 21 found this review helpful

The Movie:

It's boffo, fab, the real deal and a steal at that. Norville Barnes (Robbins) plays a rube sucker (?) new to business in the big city who finds a job in the basement mailroom of Hudsucker Industries, Inc just as Waring Hudsucker, founder & CEO takes a swan-dive from the 44th floor (not counting the mezannine). In need of a dupe-CEO to depress the stock so they can suck up the Hud's shares, Executive Sid Mussberger (Newman) and the board install the Rube as CEO. But he's got a plan. You know, for kids! Amy Archer (Leigh) is the hard-nosed investigative reporter lookin' for a scoop.

The movie itself rolls along really well. You have to stay on your toes to catch some of the best rapid-fire dialogue since The Big Sleep. Leigh, whom I usually despise, is excellent. All the stars really play the hell out of their roles. The Coens' writing and direction is top-drawer. All this and it's clean enough to watch with the kids!

The DVD:

There is really nothing but the movie here - no cast filmography, nocommentary, nada, except french dubbing if you want that. This is an older-style 2-sided DVD with standard on one side and widescreen on the other, which I find annoying. Despite other complaints I didn't see any profound problems with the transfer, but then again I'm just a film-lover, not a home theater freak. If you love this movie it's a good addition.


A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME WOULD SMELL AS SWEET...   August 24, 2001
 18 out of 23 found this review helpful

Ok, ok, the title of the movie stinks and probably contributed to the movie hitting the basement, as soon as it was released. Still, it is a pretty clever and unusual movie. The premise is simple. The CEO and founder of a very successful, major corporation commits suicide. Consequently, his shares of the corporation must be sold publicly. To the dismay of the board of directors, this means that more than half the company will be owned by outsiders.

Corporate executive, Sidney Mussberger, wonderfully played by the ever handsome Paul Newman, devises a fiendish scheme to devalue the shares of the corporation. He will simply hire a numbskull and esconce him as the new CEO in order to drive the company temporarily into the ground, causing the value of the shares to plummet. The board of directors can then afford to buy the outstanding shares floating out there at rock bottom prices, retaining control of the corporation.

Sidney subsequently selects Norville Barnes, a dopey, but nice guy, played with cow eyed innocence by Tim Robbins, who works in the company mailroom, a place reminiscent of the movie Metropolis. Barnes happens to have an idea that he has been working on for years. When he shows a picture of a circle as representative of his idea, the viewer wonders just what the heck is so special about it. So does Sidney, who allows Barnes to execute his idea, believing him to be a total moron whose idea is just the thing to make the companies stock tank. This is where the Coen Brother's cleverness begins to kick in. When the viewer realizes what that circle actually is, the movie will be kicking into full gear. It is, at times, hilarious. See the film to find out just what Barnes has been working on for years. Sidney learns that the best laid plans often go awry.

Barnes becomes enamored of Amy Archer, a female reporter, who smells that something is not quite right at corporate headquarters. The role is played by Jennifer Jason Leigh in an over the top, highly stylized, uneven parody of Katherine Hepburn. Still, she makes this affectation work in the context of this film. In fact, the rat-a-tat-tat tempo of her delivery contributes to giving the film its feel of a bygone time. The action in the film purportedly takes place in the nineteen fifties, but the sets are nineteen thirties art nouveau in feel and style, as is the rapid fire delivery of some of the dialogue. This creates an odd, somewhat disconcerting, dissonanace, contributing to the film's overall quirkiness.

This is an underrated film that deserves a look by movie lovers everywhere. It has the makings of a cult classic.



Great movie, not-so-great DVD   February 18, 2000
 17 out of 17 found this review helpful

The Hudsucker Proxy is one of my favorite movies of all time. I won't go over what's so great about it because you can get all that just as well by reading the other reviews on this page.

I do want to address the quality of the DVD, however. While the DVD does offer both standard and widescreen mode (anamorphic, no less), it decidedly comes across as a sub-par job. The transfer is terrible, dark and grainy in places and completely washed-out in others (the dancing scene made me wonder if something was wrong with my player). The sound is in Dolby stereo rather than the 5.1 channel surround just about everything post-1990 is available in. Not to mention the complete lack of extras: no actor bios, commentary (which I would have really liked to have seen) -- not even a theatrical trailer. For a movie of this quality, I would have expected a lot more.

I love this movie, so I got it anyway and am happy with it (after all, it won't deteriorate like VHS). But don't expect a Matrix quality disk or anything.