The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)
The Man Who Wasn't There is a 2001 neo-noir crime film written, directed, produced and co-edited by Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco, Richard Jenkins, Scarlett Johansson, Jon Polito, Tony Shalhoub, and James Gandolfini. The film is set in 1949 and tells the story of Ed Crane, a withdrawn barber who leads an ordinary life in a small California town with his wife, who he suspects is having an affair with her boss. Crane's situation changes when a stranger comes to the barbershop and offers him the opportunity to join him as a partner in a promising new business, in exchange for an investment of ten thousand dollars. Drawn to the idea, Crane plans to blackmail his wife's lover for the money.
The film is in black-and-white and employs voiceover narration, honoring classic film noir. It differs by including classical music, setting the plot in a small town, and featuring a protagonist from outside the criminal underworld. The Coens began developing the idea from a 1940s haircut poster they saw while filming The Hudsucker Proxy. The plot was influenced by James M. Cain's crime novels, primarily Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Mildred Pierce. Aesthetically, The Man Who Wasn't There was inspired by films from the 1940s and 1950s—including Shadow of a Doubt—along with science fiction films and documentaries of the period.
Filming took place on location in California. It was shot in color and later converted to black and white. The film premiered and participated in the official selection at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, where Joel Coen won the award for best director. Its theatrical response was lukewarm, although it was well-received by film critics, who praised Roger Deakins' cinematography and the performances, especially Thornton's. Media critics in The Guardian, the BBC, and The Austin Chronicle referred to it as one of the best films of the year. The National Board of Review included it among its top ten films of the year and awarded Thornton best actor. Deakins received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography and the film achieved multiple nominations and awards from other organizations.
Plot[edit]
In 1949 Santa Rosa, California, Ed Crane is married to Doris, a bookkeeper with a drinking problem, and works in a barbershop that is owned by his brother-in-law, Frank. A customer named Creighton Tolliver tells Ed that he is a businessman looking for investors to invest $10,000 in a new technology called dry cleaning. Ed decides to collect money by anonymously blackmailing Doris's boss, "Big Dave" Brewster, whom he suspects is having an affair with her. Brewster embezzles money from his department store to pay the blackmail. However, Brewster soon pieces together the scheme and beats Tolliver to death after he implicates Ed. Brewster confronts Ed at the store and attempts to kill him, but Ed fatally stabs Brewster with a cigar knife in self-defense.
After irregularities in the store's books are found, the police arrest Doris on the assumption that she embezzled the money and murdered Brewster. Ed is persuaded to hire Freddy Riedenschneider, a defense attorney from Sacramento, who arrives and takes up residence in the most expensive hotel in town. He proceeds to live lavishly on Doris's defense fund, which Frank obtained by mortgaging the barbershop. On the morning of the first trial day, Doris hangs herself in her cell. It is later revealed that she was pregnant when she hanged herself but had not had sex with Ed for years. Frank, now deeply in debt, begins drinking heavily. Ed regularly visits Rachel "Birdy" Abundas, a friend's teenage daughter, to hear her play the piano. Tormented by loneliness, he imagines helping her start a musical career and becoming her manager. The fantasy is crushed when a music teacher tells him that Birdy has no talent. On the way back from visiting the teacher, Birdy makes an incredibly direct pass at Ed, causing Ed to lose control of the car and crash.
Ed wakes up in a hospital bed where the police arrest him for murder. Tolliver's beaten body has been found with Ed's investment contract. The police speculate that Ed coerced Doris into embezzling the investment money, and killed Tolliver when he found out. Ed mortgages his house and hires Riedenschneider for his defense. During Riedenschneider's opening statement, Frank attacks Ed and a mistrial is declared. With no means left for his defense, Ed throws himself at the mercy of the court. The tactic fails, and the judge sentences him to death. While waiting on death row, Ed writes his story to sell to a pulp magazine. Shortly before his execution, Ed sees a UFO outside the jailhouse. As Ed is electrocuted, he reflects on his fate, regretting none of his decisions and hoping to see Doris in the afterlife, both of them free of the mortal world's imperfections.
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
The Coen brothers began writing the script in the mid-1990s, after filming The Big Lebowski. The brothers moved to Ireland — where Frances McDormand was working—to continue writing. The Coens sent the script to producers Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan of Working Title; they intended to start production in 1999, but taking advantage of the availability of George Clooney, they dedicated themselves to O Brother, Where Art Thou? Thereafter they continued with The Man Who Wasn't There. The project was financed independently by Working Title which raised an approximate budget of $20 million.
The Coens wrote the characters of Doris and Frank for McDormand and Michael Badalucco, respectively. The directors grabbed Thornton, an actor with whom they had not worked before, for the title role. He accepted the role before reading the script: "I knew that it would be good. There are certain people you know you can't go wrong with." The Coens convinced James Gandolfini to be the boss. Jon Polito and Tony Shalhoub, two other actors already known to the Coens, joined the cast, followed by Adam Alexi-Malle, Katherine Borowitz, Richard Jenkins, and Johansson. Jenkins initially declined the opportunity to star because he had been rejected from three previous productions of the Coens. However, the directors eventually chose him for the role. Bill Murray was considered for the role that would ultimately be Thornton's.
Filming[edit]
Filming began on June 26, 2000, in California and ended on September 1, after ten weeks. Deakins' cinematography was simple and traditional. Most of the shots were taken with the camera at eye level, with normal lenses and a long depth of field. Compared to older American film noir, Deakins used a wide range of grays and attempted to create low contrast without many strong shadows, using fewer and larger lights. He used contemporary technologies and wanted the film to reflect the era in which it was made: "We're not trying to make an old movie", said Deakins. It was filmed in 35 mm format in color and converted to black and white during post-production. This procedure was due, in part, to technical reasons since in recent decades the availability of black and white film rolls had become scarce. However, due to contractual and marketing requirements, it was released in color in some countries. "The film wasn't made to be seen in color", stated Joel Coen, mentioning that in color it would look "horribly out of place" due to grayscale neutralizing colors outside the time frame of the plot.
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
The Man Who Wasn't There grossed $7.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $11.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $18.9 million against its $20 million budget.[2] The film was the Coen Brothers' worst-performing film at the box office since The Hudsucker Proxy (1994). Some speculated that the poor returns were because the film is in black and white. In its opening weekend in the United States, it grossed $664,404 from thirty-nine theaters.
Critical response[edit]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 81% of 159 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Stylish but emotionally distant, The Man Who Wasn't There is a clever tribute to the film noir genre."[16] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 73 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[17]
Many critics praised the film for its technique and performances. Richard Schickel of Time wrote: "The ability to show no emotion isn't a highly prized quality in movie leads, but Thornton, that splendid actor, does it perfectly as Ed Crane, a taciturn small-town barber, circa 1949". Other critics also praised Thornton's leading role, such as Emanuel Levy, who opined that Thornton "beautifully absolves himself in a challenging role that demands more reaction than action" and added, "he comes across as a tormented Montgomery Clift". Variety wrote that the film's protagonist "sets new standards of opacity and passivity".
Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader noted: "Joel and Ethan Coen stay true to their penchant for bumbling, neo-noir heroes, and their firm belief that life normally turns out lavishly horrific." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times commented, "The film is effective and confident in its style, so loving and so intense that if you see it often, it will be like a party." In the same way, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone named it one of the best films of the year and expressed that it is "devilishly funny" and highlighted the photography and performances. Travers included The Man Who Wasn't There at number eight on his list of the ten best indie films of 2001. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian stated: "It's the best American film of the year" and Philip French, in another review for The Guardian, also claimed that it was the best film of the year up to that point. Likewise, Marc Savlov of Austin Chronicle announced that it was "the most beautiful film of the year" and added that "Billy Bob Thornton's performance represents a dazzling rough diamond". The BBC Critic Nev Pierce also described it as "one of the best films of the year" and added about its viewing that it was "a unique, peculiar, captivating experience."
Deakins's black-and-white photography was singled out by several critics. The Chicago Reader compared the photography to Federico Fellini's 8½ and reviewer Matthew Turner of View London commented that black and white "hasn't looked this splendid since the 1940s". Despite writing a lukewarm review, Todd McCarthy in Variety praised Deakins' work, Dennis Gassner's sets, and Mary Zophres' costumes to create a "superior representation of the post-war period in a small town". Concerning the rural setting, the historian José María Caparrós pointed out: "Few times has American cinema appeared in such a subtle and forceful way to testify the deep existential emptiness and the mediocrity of deep America". The film did not convince Michael Sragow of The Baltimore Sun, who said: "The Man Who Wasn't There is an intellectualized, stylized, completely empty period production. Despite its lavish, claustrophobically controlled black-and-white look, it packs the punch of a toy gun." Similarly, David Denby of The New Yorker called it a “dud academic exercise”.[18]