theory lawyer talks about in the man who wasn't there

What are the critics saying about the man who wasn't there?

The website's critical consensus states, "Stylish but emotionally distant, The Man Who Wasn't There is a clever tribute to the film noir genre." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Billy Bob Thornton was highly praised in the role of Ed Crane.

Who are the actors in the man who wasn't there?

The Man Who Wasn't There is a 2001 crime film written, produced and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Billy Bob Thornton stars in the title role. Also featured are Tony Shalhoub, Scarlett Johansson, James Gandolfini, and Coen regulars Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco, Richard Jenkins and Jon Polito.

What kind of music is in the man who wasn't there?

The original soundtrack to The Man Who Wasn't There consists of classical music, mainly piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, interspersed with cues composed by Carter Burwell. The film is the ninth on which Burwell has collaborated with the Coen Brothers.

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Community Reviews

I found this a curiously one-note biography of Hemingway. Bradford's thesis seems to be that Hem was a pathological liar who couldn't tell the difference between real life and his fiction, that he 'perverted the truth so frequently and habitually that he all but erased his own existence' (loc.72).

What You Need To Know

THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE tells the story of Ed Crane, a quiet barber in Santa Rosa, Calif., who gets involved in blackmail, murder and suicide. Dissatisfied with his life, Ed blackmails his wife’s lover, Big Dave, to get money to invest with an entrepreneur named Tolliver.

More Detail

The Coen brothers have produced artistically successful movies. They have won many awards, including the Director’s prize at the Cannes Film Festival with BARTON FINK.

Storyline

1949, Santa Rosa, California. A laconic, chain-smoking barber with fallen arches tells a story of a man trying to escape a humdrum life. It's a tale of suspected adultery, blackmail, foul play, death, Sacramento city slickers, racial slurs, invented war heroics, shaved legs, a gamine piano player, aliens, and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.

Did you know

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen came up with the story while working on The Hudsucker Proxy (1994). While filming the scene in the barbershop, the Coens saw a prop poster of 1940s haircuts and began developing a story about the barber who cut the hair in the poster.

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By what name was The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) officially released in India in English?

Brief Synopsis

In the summer of 1949, a tale of passion, crime and punishment unfolds. Ed Crane is a barber in a small northern California town. Ed is dissatisfied with his life, but his wife Doris' infidelity presents Ed with an opportunity for blackmail that he thinks will help him to change it. However, Ed's sc

Film Details

World premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, France: 13 May 2001; Los Angeles and New York openings: 31 Oct 2001

Technical Specs

In 1949, Ed Crane works at a two-man barbershop owned by his brother-in-law, the loquacious Frank Raffo, in Santa Rosa, California. Ed does not consider himself a barber, just somebody who works as one, while his wife Doris works as a bookkeeper for Nirdlinger's department store.

What does Ed see before he is executed?

While waiting on death row, Ed writes his story to sell to a pulp magazine. Shortly before his execution, Ed sees a UFO outside the jailhouse. As Ed is electrocuted, he reflects on his fate, regretting none of his decisions and hoping to see Doris in the afterlife, both of them free of the mortal world's imperfections.

What did Dave do to pay Tolliver?

Dave embezzles money from his department store to pay the blackmail. However, Dave soon pieces together the scheme and beats Tolliver to death after he implicates Ed. Dave confronts Ed at the store and attempts to kill him, but Ed fatally stabs Dave with a cigar knife in self-defense .

What is the soundtrack to The Man Who Wasn't There?

The Man Who Wasn't There. (2001) Intolerable Cruelty. (2003) The original soundtrack to The Man Who Wasn't There consists of classical music, mainly piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, interspersed with cues composed by Carter Burwell. The film is the ninth on which Burwell has collaborated with the Coen Brothers.

What is the rating of The Man Who Wasn't There?

The Man Who Wasn't There has an approval rating of 81% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 160 reviews, and an average rating of 7.10/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Stylish but emotionally distant, The Man Who Wasn't There is a clever tribute to the film noir genre." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Who won the Best Director Award at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival?

Joel Coen won the Best Director Award at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, sharing it with David Lynch for his film Mulholland Drive. Roger Deakins was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography at the 74th Academy Awards, losing to Andrew Lesnie for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring .

Who played Ed Crane in the movie?

Billy Bob Thornton was highly praised in the role of Ed Crane. Richard Schickel for Time said that, "Affectlessness is not a quality much prized in movie protagonists, but Billy Bob Thornton, that splendid actor, does it perfectly as Ed Crane, a taciturn small-town barber, circa 1949.". Jonathan Rosenbaum for the Chicago Reader said ...

Who is Freddy Riedenschneider?

Ed is persuaded to hire Freddy Riedenschneider, a defense attorney from Sacra mento, who arrives and takes up residence in the most expensive hotel in town.