The Man Who Wasn't There [WS]

Director: Joel Coen, Joel Cohen Joel Coen

Overview

"The Coen Brothers old-fashioned noir The Man Who Wasn't There comes to DVD with a widescreen anamorphic transfer that preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The print is practically flawless, vividly recreating the striking cinematography of ace DP Roger Deakins. The English soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital 5.1, while a French soundtrack has been recorded in Dolby Digital Stereo. Spanish and French subtitles are accessible, and the English soundtrack is closed-captioned. Supplemental materials include a commentary track recorded by Joel and Ethan Coen along with lead actor Billy Bob Thornton. Notable for being the first ""regular"" commentary track the brothers have ever recorded (there is a hilarious fake commentary, believed by some to be the work of Ethan on the superb Blood Simple disc), their conversation is as quirky and entertaining as the films they have made. An interesting and informative almost hour-long interview with Roger Deakins explores his role in the creation of the finished film. Deleted scenes, a short making-of featurette, the theatrical trailer, and a still photo gallery round out this excellent package from USA Entertainment."

Product Details

Release Date:	10/01/2002
UPC:	0025192249624
Original Release:	2001
Rating:	R
Source:	STUDIO DISTRIBUTION SERVS LLC
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W, Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:56:00
Sales rank:	39,650

Special Features

Closed Caption;Commentary by Billy Bob Thornton and Joel and Ethan Coen; Making "The Man Who Wasn't There"; Interview with cinematographer Roger Deakins; Deleted material; Behind the scenes photo gallery; Filmographies; Theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Billy Bob Thornton	Ed
Frances McDormand	Doris
Michael Badalucco	Frank
James Gandolfini	Big Dave
Scarlett Johansson	Birdy Abundas
Katherine Borowitz	Ann Nirdlinger
Jon Polito	Creighton Toliver
Richard Jenkins	Walter Abundas
Tony Shalhoub	Freddy Riedenschneider
Christopher Kriesa	Persky
Brian Haley	Krebs
Jack McGee	Burns
Gregg Binkley	The New Man
Alan Fudge	Diedrickson
Lilyan Chauvin	Medium
Adam Alexi-Malle	Carcanogues
Ted Rooney	Bingo Caller
Abraham Benrubi	Young Man
Christian Ferrati	Child
Rhoda Gemingnani	Costanza
E.J. Callahan	Customer
Brooke Smith	Sobbing Prisoner
Ron Ross	Banker
Hallie Singleton	Waitress
Jon Donnelly	Gatto Eater
Dan Martin	Bailiff
Nicholas Lanier	Tony
Tom Dahlgren	Judge No. 1
Booth Colman	Judge No. 2
Stanley DeSantis	New Man's Customer
Peter Siragusa	Bartender
Christopher McDonald	Macadam Salesman
John Michael Higgins	Doctor
Rick Scarry	District Attorney
George Ives	Lloyd Garroway
Devin Cole Borisoff	Swimming Boy
Mary Bogue	Prisoner Visitor
Don Donati	Pie Contest Timer
Arthur Reeves	Flophouse Clerk
Carter Burwell	Composer
Rhoda Gemignani	Costanza
Dan Lorge	Bailiff

Technical Credits

Joel Coen

Joel Coen	Director,Screenwriter,Screenwriter,Producer
Ellen Chenoweth	Casting
Peter Chesney	Special Effects
Jery Hewitt	Stunts
Janek Sirrs	Special Effects
Eric Fellner	Executive Producer,Producer
Tim Bevan	Executive Producer,Producer
Joel Cohen	Director
Benjamin Cheah	Sound Effects
Jesse Ehredt	Sound Effects
Eugene Gearty	Sound Effects
Robert Graf	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen have often been dogged by accusations that they're content to use their prodigious talent to do nothing more than celebrate their own cleverness, and that for all the snappy dialogue and visual flair, their films amount to cynical jokes at the expense of the dull-witted characters who populate them. The Man Who Wasn't There features striking cinematography and meticulous set design, both of which perfectly invoke the aura of film noir. Whether or not it's just another empty stylistic exercise, a noir homage with none of the genre's moral ambiguity or political subversiveness, it's still one of the Coen brothers' most involving explorations of self-delusion, irony, and fate. Billy Bob Thornton's Ed Crane is a man so nondescript that neighbors are always forgetting his name and no one seems to recognize him when he's not wearing his barber's smock. As he embarks on his poorly planned blackmail scheme, he even comes to see his invisibility as a kind of freedom, that is until the consequences of his actions begin to mount. Much like he did in Sam Raimi's A Simple Plan, Thornton endows his character with a tragic dimension that gives the film a weight it might not otherwise possess. His prolonged silences and blank stares suggest a deep sadness that no one around him seems to see or care about. The film's central idea, that one impulsive action can set in motion a web of fate that ultimately ensnares the hero, not only pays tribute to pulp novelists like James M. Cain and Jim Thompson, it's also an implicit tribute to the German director Fritz Lang, whose American noirs often revolved around that very theme. Indeed, The Man Who Wasn't There includes a number of subtle references to Lang. Tony Shalhoub's blustery attorney Freddy Riedenschneider's name resembles that of a Lang character, and he repeatedly talks about "this German guy named Werner, or was it Fritz," while bathed in cinematographer Roger Deakins' gorgeous, high-contrast Langian light (this isn't the first reference to Lang in the Coen brothers' oeuvre; Blood Simple quotes an image from Lang's Ministry of Fear: bullets piercing a door, creating intense shafts of light in a darkened room). While the film follows a tragic trajectory, the Coens can't resist leavening it with oddball humor. Frances McDormand plays Doris Crane as a boozy, high-camp parody of those classic tough-talking noir heroines, and there are a couple of red herring subplots involving UFOs and a Lolita-esque neighborhood girl (Scarlett Johansson) in whose budding musical career Ed takes an interest. Amusing in themselves, these diversions do little to advance the plot, yet don't detract from the film's final impact, which tempers Ed's doom with a hint of transcendence.