Great piece on two of the best filmmakers out there today. I haven't seen their latest yet, but the fact the these guys came out with Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, Oh Brother Where Art thou?, and Fargo, just to name four excellent movies that couldn't be more different from the other, is testament to their incredible talent. I can't choose one. Even Intolerable Cruelty had some great lines...

I can't believe nobody mentioned "Oh Brother Where art thou". It might be my favorite, but it is hard to pick.

Nobody mentioned the Big Lebowski??????

Oh. Never mind.

Miller's Crossing

I love almost all of their work, and so much depends on my mood, but can we pause for a moment and consider their great gangster movie? Gabriel Byrne, John Turturro, Marcia Gay Harden, Albert Finney, and Jon Polito each give great performances. Both harkening back to an era gone by and never sentimentalizing a cast of villains, the Coens created a movie that I think is as beautifully made, frame by frame, as any movie I've ever seen. I can understand why it might not be an easily identified favorite because it doesn't give you warm fuzzies or the cold shivers like some others, but that's no reason to give it the high hat. Look in your heart.

Also, I'm not usually so ornery, but will no one speak up for Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Robbins, Charles During, John Mahoney, and Paul Newman in The Hudsucker Proxy? I know it's hard to choose, and those who've weighed in have given good reasons. I guess I come down on not being able to pick just one and so take issue with anyone who does.

Selecting your favorite piece of art is counter intuitive to me, but if I had to choose one, it would be Miller's Crossing. Great film, cast, and storyline.

This Dudeist Priest will allow for no other opinion: Fargo is a great movie, but Lebowski is utterly sublime.

Every time I watch it, I overflow with mirth and delight. I marvel at what Jeff Bridges did with that role. Ineffable in his brilliance, he crafted a uniquely American antihero, or should I say, apathero.

What other movie could inspire a gathering of "achievers" who enjoy a giant severed toe cake delivered by Duff Goldman?

"Vagina."

Blood Simple, maybe Fargo if the accents weren't so exaggerated and the schtick was dialed down a little.

They make way to many mock humorous, pretentious films for my taste though. Like they have to dial up the *quirkiness* or whatever. Barton Fink anyone? There was a worthwhile idea for a movie in there.

Albert Finney with a tommy gun and scratchy recording of Danny Boy? One of the greatest scenes ever.

I swear this is a true story. My wife and I spent much of the late '90's trying to conceive. After years of constantly taking body temperature, taking time off work to drive to a fertility clinic (90 minutes from where we live) once a day during the 2 or 3 day window of opportunity every months, we finally just decided to give it up, save up our money and adopt. A few months later (this was late 1998), we rented The Big Lebowsky on VHS and, after watching the scene in which Maude Lebowski does some post-coital contortions to improve the chances of conception, we both jokingly complained that the fertility experts hadn't told us about that method. The next time we did the deed, my wife jokingly tried it afterward, but just that once (let's face it, the joke is only funny the first time). A few weeks later, we found out she was pregnant and, when we checked the dates, we realized that the conception must have happened that particular time. She never tried the "method" again, and we never conceived again (although we did adopt twice and have a beautiful family). Our daughter is ten now—too young to be told the story of course—but we still wonder if we should even explain this to her when she's older. After all, what kind of trauma could result from finding out that you owe your existence to a Coen brothers' movie.

Maybe we'll hear a similar story from other letter writers...

Which one isn't great, in its own way? Which one isn't memorable? The hats in Miller's Crossing. The dying private dick in Blood Simple. The murder of the wife in No Country. "Show the tattoo" in Raising Arizona. John Goodman in The Big Lebowski.

But my favorite? The one nobody has mentioned: The Hudsucker Proxy. Primo performances by so many in that cast. What a movie!

Best: The Big Lebowski

Worst: The Ladykillers (a travesty)

Since I read the book, I never saw No Country for Old Men. I do not consider it to be a Coen brothers film; it is not their story, not their dialogue.

Great to see so many Miller's Crossing fans. It's just beautifully shot and acted, and I can watch it over and over. Truly a gem. Too bad it didn't enjoy much commercial success.

"O, Brother Where Art Thou"? "The Big Lebowski"? "O, Brother Where Art Thou"? "The Big Lebowski"? "O, Brother Where Art Thou"? "The Big Lebowski"?

I dunno.

I do know that after seeing "The Big Lebowski", I named everything "The Dude" from my Oscar fish to my hard drive. Of course, after seeing "O, Brother Where Art Thou", "bona fide" became my commonest expression.

And I have to agree with previous poster, how could any article on the Coen brothers not, NOT mention "O, Brother Where Art Thou"? Sheer heresy! I mean that's not bona fide!

Dude!

G Ward, that is honestly the best letter I've seen contributed to the Salon Letters pages. Thank you for sharing!

"Dude" might be a little over the top, not to mention a dead giveaway and also the wrong gender-identification (although this is Salon, anything goes).

I cannot stomach the Coen brothers' sense of "humor," such as it is. It's grim, dark, disturbing, overly self-impressed, and not at all funny.

In fact, I've been burned by so many purported Coen "comedies" (often without knowing in advance that they were involved) that I now confirm there is no Coen on the credits *before* I will see a movie.