Raising Arizona

Combining influences from Tex Avery cartoons to Sam Raimi horror movies to 1940s B-movies, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen followed up the stylish film noir of their debut, Blood Simple (1984), with this frantic screwball comedy. H.I. "Hi" McDonnough (Nicholas Cage) is a philosophical but slightly dim ...more

Following their noir debut, Blood Simple (1984), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen turned their idiosyncratic, film-literate attentions to screwball comedy in Raising Arizona (1987). The Coens play the American Dream for farce, as non-violent hold-up man "Hi" (Nicolas Cage) and mug shot photographer Edwina (Holly Hunter) attempt parenthood through kidnapping. With nods to cartoon slapstick and The Road Warrior (1981), among others, and a script that mixes southwestern slang and polished locutions, the ...more