If we set aside montage, visual storytelling and oversimplify the entire process— it can be said that the characters act as a means to further the story. Story progressions directly depend on their actions. But of course in a broader perspective, this simplified argument won’t hold much water. This is mostly true for character-driven stories.

Let’s imagine a character the coens created then. A man. He’s an eccentric, nerdy fellow. You know the type. An odd-ball in a party of friends and families. He finds himself separated from everyone, emotionally, psychologically. While he’s often the center of such parties due to his fame, he cannot find any connection to them. He’s a writer. A famous one as hinted before—’writing scripts for Hollywood films in the studio system era’ famous. He’s called Barton Fink.

The story is set in 1941. The second world war has already started to spread it’s fiery wings. Pearl Harbor hasn’t happened yet. America is still sitting on the fence. Barton Fink goes to Hollywood. His boss, a studio mogul, is not an easy man to deal with. With a swollen round face, plump neck and fingers he barks— ordering people around. People like that like being in charge. They won’t let you express your thoughts, suppress them if expressed and dominate you with their sheer will and impose their own agenda on you. Not something Fink was expecting before joining here. Managing the situation would be much harder than he thought.

Now that Fink doesn’t like to be meddled with or invade someone else’s solitary happiness, we can set him up in a quiet, cheap hotel where no one will bug him one way or the other. But Fink can’t write. Nothing is coming out of him. Nada. He’s restless, fidgety. Yet the deadline hangs over his neck like a guillotine blade.

Considering all things, it shouldn’t be too hard, eh?
However, this is a black comedy psycho-thriller by the Coen brothers and things won’t be as simplistic as they seem.

An imbecile tycoon as a boss, a shabby hotel, strange sounds from the adjacent rooms all night and the vampiric waves of mosquitos — the coens use all of these and their stylistic approach to create a nightmarish anarchy. This is not only a neo-noir, but also a freak show of a sort.

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Then there’s the plethora of metaphors. Second world war, the rise of fascist nazis and their collaborators, anti-semitism, and the captivity of art and artists by then studio system. I’ve seen Coens portraying the studio system in Hail, Caesar! Understandable.
Although Coens did not admit implying any messages. But guess what, the two main characters Barton Fink and J. P. Mayhew— both of them are based on real-life scriptwriters who were active during that period.

The lead character, Fink, was played by John Turturro. He has done a tremendous job! I wouldn’t believe Turturro could play a nerd character so well. Perhaps, the best performance of his life. John Goodman was great too in his own right.

Barton Fink won Palme D’or, best director and best actor at Cannes. I’d rank it also among the best works of the Coens.

Poster source