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The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, James Gandolfini, and Scarlett Johansson. Cinematography by Roger Deakins. Edited by Roderick Jaynes and Tricia Cooke. Produced by Ethan Coen. Written by Joel and Ethan Coen. Directed by Joel Coen
Ed Crane (played by Billy Bob Thornton) works in a barber shop but doesn’t consider himself much of a barber. He just cuts the hair, doesn’t talk much, and smokes a lot. His wife, Doris (played by Frances McDormand), yearns for more than the hand she has been dealt and finds her doorway to adventure by having an affair with her boss, Big Dave Brewster (played by James Gandolfini).
Ed finds out about the affair but doesn’t really care much. He just sits and smokes. But things get interesting for Ed when he is offered the opportunity to co-invest in a new clothing care technology: dry cleaning. To acquire the necessary funds to get in on this wave of the future, he decides to blackmail his wife’s lover. But Big Dave has been murdered and Doris looks like the prime suspect. With a lot on his mind, Ed has a smoke.
The Man Who Wasn’t There is set in Santa Clara, California in 1949; just a couple years after the end of World War II. It is filmed in black and white, which was a new and challenging technique for the Coens. The idea for the film was started in the late eighties when they were filming The Hudsucker Proxy.
One of the props in that film was a poster that depicted popular haircuts of the time. The Coens started kicking around an idea for a film about a barber. From that a story started to develop and more than a decade later they shot the picture. Who other than the Coen brothers would develop a movie from a poster with haircuts on it?
It’s pretty easy to say that The Man Who Wasn’t There film is Hitchcockian, and in a way it is, but there’s more Coen brothers in there than there is Alfred Hitchcock. The Coens also seem to use James M. Cain and Raymond Chandler, two of their favorite crime authors, as inspiration as they did in Blood Simple and Miller’s Crossing, but again this project wreaks more of the Coens than anyone else. One could rightfully say that The Man Who Wasn’t There is a testament to Joel and Ethan Coen’s established style.
It’s inspired by many, but ultimately is a Coen movie. It is dark and grim, like good noir should be, but has an underling sense of humor that is subtle enough to miss if you’re not paying attention. It may not be the best film in the Coen brother’s resume, but it is surely one their most unique projects.
Budget: $20,000,000
Total US Gross: $7,494,849
Genre: Film Noir
Runtime: 116 Minutes
US Release Date: 11/2/01
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Awards: Academy Awards: Nominated for best cinematography. Golden Globes: Nominated for best actor, best screenplay, and best dramatic picture. Cannes Film Festival: Won for best director. Nominated for the Golden Palm. Writers Guild of America: Nominated for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.
Tagline: The Last Thing On His Mind Is Murder.
Quote: “Me, I don't talk much... I just cut the hair.”
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