Synopsis
When Waring Hudsucker decides to leave his 44th floor office, 45 counting the mezzanine, via the window the other board members of Hudsucker Industries are left in a pickle. Upon Waring's death the company's shares are to be offered up to the public come January 1st. The problem is is that with the company never doing better the others can't afford to buy a controlling share. But Waring's right-hand man, Sydney J. Mussburger, has a plan. If they install an imbecile as a proxy chairman the company shall run itself into the ground, and the shares shall become affordable. Enter Norville Barnes, just off the bus from Muncey, Indiana. The quick promotion leads reporter Amy Archer to start sniffing about, looking for the real reason as to why Barnes was made chairman. But unforeseen to all, Barnes may have an invention that may well save the company.
Review
The Hudsucker Proxy, it's fair to say, is one of the Coen Brothers least loved films. Out of their 90's output, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, Fargo and The Big Lebowski, it's probably the last one you'd see crop up on best 90's films polls. Let's be honest, in that company it's easy to see why it could be overlooked. It's seen as a disaster, mainly because it represented the first time that a studio was willing to give the Coens real money to make a movie only for them to return a flop. But if this is the Coen's big money adventure then the name sums it up. They were always looking to make the film they wanted to make and to hell with profit.
So why is it unloved? Maybe it's the frenetic pace, the zany comedy, the rat-a-tat dialogue, or the fact that audiences are presented with a modern day fairy tale, and the leaps of faith that come with such a story. Or maybe people expected to get more of the same after the moodier affairs that were Miller's Crossing and Barton Fink. It's almost as if people had forgotten that they had also made the zany comedy Raising Arizona, or the only film where it's acceptable to like Nic Cage doing his "crazy" bit, so the idea of something like this coming from the Coens was a shock. Whatever the reason(s) it means that The Hudsucker Proxy is perhaps the most underrated of all the Coen's output. It doesn't deserve to be placed next to Intolerable Cruelty and the ill-advised Ladykillers remake as one of their worst. Hell it may even be the most underrated film of the entire 90's.
So what's so good about it then? On the surface we're in usual Coen territory. First and foremost this is a film about film. The Coens obviously love the Screwball Comedies of the 40's, with The Hudsucker proxy acting like a canvass for them to play with each feature of them. Then of course they twist it all into some make-believe fantasy a la It's A Wonderful Life. In essence it most closely resembles the Coen's "lost" film, known as various things but to me as Crimewave, Sam Raimi's second film that the Coen's co-wrote. It's no surprise that Raimi also shares a writing credit on this as well. When Hudsucker came out it was unlike most of the Coen's output to the point, and in fact that still remains true, so in a way it can be baffling for people used to the likes of Fargo or Miller's Crossing.
And there's a lot here that can only be described as baffling. This is a film that revels in its own artifice. It essentially screams at you "I am a film!" thanks to the set designs. Much like Expressionist cinema it looks like it's set in a film studio. The locations always seem to be slightly off somehow, often thanks to their size. This suits the rags-to-riches, oh look time stopped narrative, as it too is very unrealistic, the type of thing found in a film. And Hudsucker is very aware of this fact. Witness the scene where Amy attempts to con her way into Norville's life. She plays every tried and tested trick until she succeeds. But while she does this two taxi drivers sit and watch and we take on their point of view. Instead of hearing what Amy and Norville say we hear the taxi drivers pointing out that everything she is doing is a cliche, an old trick they've seen many-a-time before, probably in the movies. And of course pointing this out does not harm the film, as it is full of the cliches of the cinema it is looking to recreate, and the Coens are distinctly giddy about that fact. They clearly love these films, and this is their own warped entry into the canon.
Of course it's not all zany and whimsical. At the heart of Hudsucker Proxy lies a critique of big business and the press. Hudsucker Industries is a faceless organisation, in fact I'm not entirely sure what they actually do or make before Norville takes over, where the people at the top care only about the money they stand to make from their shares and everyone below are damned to increasing levels of monotony. All of the classic big business bugbears are tackled, from the endless beurocracy (Norville's induction to the mailroom, man that guy has a set of lungs on him), to the heartless treatment of the workers ( being docked for the minutes silence they hold for Waring Hudsucker) and the nature of making money (the rows and rows of bean counters doing their work under huge "WHAT WILL THIS COST?" signs). The press don't get off much lighter, criticised for the way that they dictate reality. Opinions of characters are formed by people in the film based entirely on how they are depicted in the papers. And the reporters and editors only want to further their careers, not tell people the truth. To further hammer home the idea that what you read may not be true, much of The Hudsucker Proxy's artificial story is shown through how the papers are reporting the events, as witnessed in many of the montages in the film.
So as I said, it's a baffling film. Baffling to those who know the Coens through their serious works, baffling in the way it looks, is played and it's narrative, with its juxtaposition of serious comments on the nature
The Top 100
Yeah, yeah, I know. I announced this as my first entry on April 28th and here I am finally publishing a review. "Lucky to make a top 5" you're probably saying. Well life got in the way, as I explained in a non-descript way here.
So anyway, I'd place Hudsucker Proxy above Grosse Point Blanke, but I know Ruud probably wouldn't. So it's over to him with his thoughts. And I promise to be quicker next time!
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