The Hudsucker Proxy
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Movie Reviews of The Hudsucker Proxy
Movie Review: A Comedy of Invention
Summary: 5 Stars
That's the subtitle of this one-of-a-kind movie.
It never caught on because it has a goofy title and, possibly, because of the male lead's reputation as an actor.
Overlook those things - trust me.
You'll agree that this is one of the best movies ever made because of it's relentless celebration of the inventive drive that created America as we know it.
In 1958, Norville Barnes comes to New York from Muncie, Indiana and finds that the only job he can get with his Muncie BBA is in the mail room of Hudsucker Industries, a huge manufacturing giant. He does not know that, due to the recent suicide of Mr. Hudsucker himself, the board seeks a proxy - an empty suit to front for the company and convince investors that the company has no future. With the stock depressed after the board dumps its holdings, the company can be repurchased on the cheap, and the proxy can be dismissed.
If you have trouble following this, check out what is happening to Bill Frist and HCA/Humana - it's just like that.
The inspirational story, though, really rises around a few strongly-presented premises.
1. Business organization, while not long on empathy, is a brilliant invention itself.
2. Original ideas will ultimately somehow incubate in this country - and that's what makes us so great.
3. Nothing can take the place of persistence.
4. How these ideas "catch on" is fairly mysterious but incredibly powerful - see Malcolm Gladwell's great book, "The Tipping Point," for more info.
5. Nurturing creative, original people is essential to success.
I used this film's amazing visual imagery in teaching business strategy and Human Resources classes. The sequence in the middle of the movie, showing how a new toy goes from conception to manufacture and marketing, and then "tips" into raging success, is one of the most musically integrated, brilliant sequences ever put on film.
Maybe the Coens should rename it...
Movie Review: Lyrical and funny
Summary: 5 Stars
Though certainly not the best Coen brothers movie, "Hudsucker" is my personal favorite if only for the "aw shucks, ma'am" innocence of Robbins' character. Terrific performances from everyone in the cast - Tim Robbins as the wide-eyed optimist with a dream ("You know...for kids!"), Paul Newman, as the irascible, single-minded corporate tiger, Jennifer Jason-Leigh as the fast-talking "career gal" reporter, John Mahoney as her even faster-talking editor (their scenes together, among others, bring to mind another great newsroom comedy, "His Girl Friday"), Jim True as the elevator boy straight out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon, and Bill Cobbs as the wise old seer who sees all but says little. Even cameos delight in flash performances from Peter Gallagher as the Dean Martin-ish 'Vic Tenetta', crooning to adoring fans with drink in hand, to Anna Nicole Smith (yes, THAT Anna Nicole Smith) as sex kitten Za-Za. "Evil Dead" Director Sam Raimi makes an appearance in the brainstorming scene, but you'll only see his silhouette and hear his voice, and ED star Bruce Campbell gets his share of beatings from Leigh as her charming, but sexist newspaper buddy Smitty.Almost everything about this movie will make you smile or laugh, but the real star of the movie is the dialog, a throwback to the good old days of screwball comedies when smart and confident writing and delivery was a must. The DVD is good quality, but doesn't have any of the extra stuff - the Coens are obviously movie lovers who've been influenced by many different genres and styles, so an audio track from them would've been perfect - but you can't have everything. All in all, a delightful, lyrical morality tale that will whet your appetite for more Coen fare - and with gems out there like "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?", "Fargo", "The Big Lebowski", "Raising Arizona" and "Blood Simple", you won't have far to look.
Movie Review: a thingamajig that would bring everyone together
Summary: 5 Stars
A film by the Coen Brothers"The Hudsucker Proxy" is the fantastic story of Noville Barnes (Tim Robbins). Norville is just some poor shmoe looking for work, but he isn't qualified for anything and he has no work experience. He takes a job as a mailroom clerk at Hudsucker Industries. We're not sure what they do or what they make, but at a board meeting, we find out the company is posting record profits. When a man is done with his litany of the company's successes, the chairman, Mr Hudsucker himself, stands up on the long table, starts running, and commits suicide by jumping out the window and falling to his death.
What to do? The rest of the board needs to be able to purchase a controlling interest in Hudsucker stock, but the stock price is too high. The formulate a plan to temporarily drive down the stock prices by hiring as president of the company someone so incompetent that shareholders will be so scared that stock prices will plummet. The dimwit president: Norville Barnes. It is Sidney Mussburger (Paul Newman) who is pulling the strings behind the scenes to make all this happen; it is his master plan that sets all this in motion.
Amy Archer (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is the fast talking reporter who goes undercover to investigate Norville and find out why Hudsucker would have hired him as the president. "The Hudsucker Proxy" is funny in a smart, clever way, and is highly entertaining. The Coen Brothers do not make ordinary or conventional movies ("Intolerable Cruelty" aside), but they definitely make some of the top movies of any given year.
-Joe Sherry
Movie Review: One of my ten top cult movies of that year!
Summary: 5 Stars
There are films (and that' s one of them) that from the initials shots catch the immediate attention of the viewer, due a certain unsaid spell, where the plot and the way it' s told seduce even the most exigent spectator.
There is a visible surrealistic environment around this original modern fable, that focuses around a country bumpkin who suddenly becomes (by these unexpected destiny' tricks) an unwitting pawn, the non planned invited to ruin a thriving and fruitful corporation.
An eye-minded film recreated around the 50' s with febrile good taste, weird characters, flaming script and powerful imagination. One senses the magic Fellini` s touch along the film. An incredible journey through the infinite possibilities that arouse from a just simple question: what if. ?
The brothers Coen have somehow signified in USA what Terry Gilliam and the Monty Python in U.K, Fellini in Italy, Buñuel in Mexico and Spain or Philipe De Broca with King of hearts. Overflowing creativity, unusual proposals, use of the black humor until the last unimaginable frontiers, a sharp and smart change of the logical perspective through a dreadful alteration of the coordinates of the common sense, where the insane world simply has turned the eye-camera toward us, reminding us that admirable Shakespeare sentence: What's is the reason the nuts cannot wisely talk about the unwise things of the sensate people?
It's a treat!
Movie Review: Coen brothers' best--yes, you read that correctly
Summary: 5 Stars
The Coen brothers' warmest, smartest comedy--and I'm a huge fan of all their work (don't get me started on Miller's Crossing). Obviously, anyone who's seen and liked a Coen brothers film will like this, but if you're a Frank Capra fan you'll also like it.After despondent C.E.O. Werring Hudsucker (Charles Durning) throws himself off the 44th floor, the conniving V.P., Sidney J. Mussberger (Paul Newman at his shrewd best) and the rest of the Board have to move fast to steal the stock before it goes public. So they decide to crash the stock by promoting new mailmroom clerk and schmuck Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins, in yet another great performance) to President. Unfortunately for the Board, Barnes has a few tricks up his sleeve. Unfortunately for Barnes, Jennifer Jason Leigh's fast-talking reporter is hot on his trail
Dazzling cinematography from Roger Deakins, wonderful production design emulating the 50s and the 30s, and a rich, textured score by Carter Burwell and well-done special effects (in a Coen bros. movie??) all contribute to make this a wonderful, thoroughly entertaining film.
Think of Preston Sturges directing a Horatio Alger story crossed with Terry Gilliam and you'll have an inkling of how good this film is. Should have won Oscars in 1994 (along with Red & Quiz Show, and Pulp Fiction) instead of Gump, but them's the breaks. This film really needs to be in widescreen, so watch the DVD and not the pan-and-scan VHS.