The Man Who Wasn't There
by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
List Price:
Our Price: $9.99
You Save: $4.99 (33%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $4.25 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Billy Bob Thornton, Ethan Coen, Frances McDormand, Joel Coen, Michael BadaluccoDirector: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Brand: Universal
Producer: Ethan Coen
Writer: Ethan Coen
Producer: Joel Coen
Writer: Joel Coen
Producer: Eric Fellner
Producer: John Cameron
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); French (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 116 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-10-01
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of The Man Who Wasn't There
DVD Review: Good cast and cinematography but:
Summary: 1 Stars
In the Special Presentations, the Coen Brothers refer to The Big Sleep and Double Indemnity. I haven't seen all of their films, but this doesn't measure up to Raymond Chandler. Chandler's stories are more fantasy and fun. This one should be on the Chill Horror channel.
It's also a remake of Raising Arizona without the fun part. Not repeating yourself in art is difficult; but with the Coen's status, I guess they can do it if they want.
Based on the reviews, apparently there are a lot of viewers who feel good when they feel bad.
DVD Review: The Movie That Wasn't There
Summary: 2 Stars
While this film is sort of interesting, and has an art house cinematic visual appeal, it lacks the usual compelling plot progression that makes most Coen brothers' films so much fun. Thronton lives up (down?) to the title of his role, and James Gandolfini, Tony Shalhoub, and Jon Polito all briefly shine in their respective parts, but the apathy of Billy Bob's character seems to infect the whole process. Can't recommend it.DVD Review: NOIRVILLE
Summary: 4 Stars
If the title of this 2001 Coen Brothers effort strikes you as vaguely familiar (echoing as it does titles like THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO LITTLE or even, perhaps, THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS), you'll find much else in the film that hearkens back to earlier eras, most particularly to the film noir works of the `40s and `50s. The question--as with other efforts by the Brothers--is to what extent is this movie a kind of post-modern tribute or "valentine" to an earlier genre and to what extent is it an actual EXAMPLE of same (tricked out in po-mo sensibility perhaps).
Some will no doubt worry that the film is all style over substance. Or has style BECOME substance? I think it's going to shake out differently for different viewers. I sometimes go to film with friends who are visual artists and have been surprised on occasion by their "reads" on films that I felt were ALL style. Essentially, their take is, "What's so wrong with that? It's a visual medium, and can be appreciated on that level alone."
Well, as a former lit student, I had (or so I thought) somewhat different criteria: plot, character, setting: all that unities stuff. For a visual medium like film, the sheer look of it kind of gets lumped in (vaguely) with setting. But over the years, I've begun to change my tune or at least to admit to myself that there are plenty of great looking films out there that captivate me by their look, their sound and overall mood. THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE is certainly one.
All of which is to say is that I personally didn't mind the film's occasional longueurs. I didn't want Billy Bob Thornton's deadpan character to liven up--even though there are plenty of moments when he could have (moments when his deadened sensibility could conceivably come to life: especially after having actually FOUGHT for his life). Those possibilities were there and they could have been argued for: but that's not what the Coens felt was right for the film they were making. And I would agree with them.
The presence of Frances McDormand in any Coen Brothers film is always welcome (she's always terrific), but I suppose it can have its drawbacks. Some viewers will be tempted (even more) to compare this film to FARGO, say, a film in which her character wasn't just quirky, but also sweet, smart, down to earth -- and pretty the embodiment of the life force itself. In this muted film, she is as commanding a presence as one can hope for. But that doesn't save her. And for some, it won't be enough to save the film. No one gets to bring any sunshine to this beautifully crafted black-and-white film. In Noirville, actually, that's pretty much as it should be.
DVD Review: A 40's movie reborn?
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie is a tribute to Hollywood of the 40's with Billy Bob Thornton doing a good cigarette smoking Bogart imitation.
This movie is reality through a strange surreal lens in which nothing goes as you think it might or should. Even the teen age girl behaves beyond the usual parameters? The acting is great and the plot is dead and I mean, dead, on.By the end you think enough already, put him out of his misery!
DVD Review: Overlooked Gem!
Summary: 5 Stars
A fan of the Coen brothers might overlook this one but it's among their best. The film is engaging and striking at every turn. It's full of surprises and every actor, including Scarlett, turns in excellent performances. It is easily among Billy Bob Thornton's best, and James Gandolfini is great as always.
For direction and photography I believe this film to be among the Coen's top two and much better than Fargo. But it's okay if nobody rushes out to buy it and it remains unknown. It leaves something for the rest of us to wonder over, as an underground cult film.
Description of The Man Who Wasn't There
A dissatisfied barber in the 1940s decides to blackmail his wifes lover in order to get startup capital for a new dry cleaning business. The scheme begins to unravel and in the end everyone gets whats coming to them. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 01/06/2004 Starring: Billy Bob Thornton Brian Haley Run time: 116 minutes Rating: R Director: Joel CoenFor all of its late-1940s cold war paranoia, pulp fiction dialogue, and frenzied greed, Joel and Ethan Coen's The Man Who Wasn't There is their most cool and collected film since Blood Simple. An unassuming barber with a scheming wife (Frances McDormand) and a serious smoking habit, Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) is an onlooker to his own life, a ghostly presence set against a silver-toned film noir backdrop. Only when he decides to alter his fate by blackmailing his wife's lover (James Gandolfini) in order to invest with a traveling salesman (Jon Polito) touting the wave of the future--dry cleaning--do we begin to hear the full extent of Ed's understated, existential lament. As his lawyer (Tony Shalhoub) says in Ed's defense at his eventual trial for murder, "He is modern man." Thornton's deadpan eloquence and cinematographer Roger Deakins's precision lighting offer the perfect counterbalance to the requisite one-liners, plot twists, and false endings that have come to characterize recent Coen brothers films. Almost in spite of the obsessive cultural references (flying saucers, Nabokov's Lolita, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle), Ed Crane steps neatly from the fray as one of cinema's most memorably disenchanted characters. --Fionn Meade
General DVDs
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Bestsellers in General DVDs
Role ModelsUniversal; Release date: 2009-03-10; DVD
Best price: $12.98
Price in other shops:
Jeff Dunham: Spark of InsanityDUNHAM,JEFF; Release date: 2007-09-18; DVD
Best price: $7.89
Price in other shops:
Enchanted AprilRelease date: 2009-05-05; DVD
Best price: $19.98
Price in other shops:
Last Chance HarveyRelease date: 2009-05-05; DVD
Best price: $10.93
Price in other shops:
Hotel for Dogs (Widescreen Edition)Paramount; Release date: 2009-04-28; DVD
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops:
Beverly Hills ChihuahuaRelease date: 2009-03-03; DVD
Best price: $10.99
Price in other shops:
Bedtime StoriesRelease date: 2009-04-07; DVD
Best price: $7.89
Price in other shops:
Bride WarsTwentieth Century Fox; Release date: 2009-04-28; DVD
Best price: $8.80
Price in other shops:
Bolt (Single-Disc Edition)Release date: 2009-03-24; DVD
Best price: $10.49
Price in other shops:
Marley and Me (Single-Disc Edition)Twentieth Century Fox; Release date: 2009-03-31; DVD
Best price: $10.55
Price in other shops:
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
The Ladykillers (Widescreen Edition)Release date: 2004-09-07; DVD
Best price: $4.25
Price in other shops:
Blood SimpleRelease date: 2008-09-16; DVD
Best price: $7.40
Price in other shops:
No Country for Old MenRelease date: 2008-03-11; DVD
Best price: $5.59
Price in other shops:
O Brother, Where Art Thou?CLOONEY,GEORGE; Release date: 2001-06-12; DVD
Best price: $6.97
Price in other shops:
Intolerable Cruelty (Widescreen Edition)Universal; Release date: 2004-02-10; DVD
Best price: $1.17
Price in other shops:
The Big Lebowski - 10th Anniversary EditionUniversal; Release date: 2008-09-09; DVD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
The Coen Brothers Movie Collection (Fargo / Miller's Crossing / Barton Fink / Raising Arizona / Blood Simple)Unknown; Release date: 2007-11-06; DVD
Best price: $21.94
Price in other shops:
Barton FinkTwentieth Century Fox; Release date: 2003-05-20; DVD
Best price: $4.44
Price in other shops:
Miller's CrossingTWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2003-05-20; DVD
Best price: $4.25
Price in other shops:
The Hudsucker ProxyWarner Brothers; Release date: 1999-05-18; DVD
Best price: $6.63
Price in other shops: