Raising Arizona

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Raising Arizona
Directed by Joel Coen
Produced by Ethan Coen
Written by Ethan Coen
Joel Coen
Starring Nicolas Cage
Holly Hunter
William Forsythe
John Goodman
Frances McDormand
Randall 'Tex' Cobb
Music by Carter Burwell
Cinematography Barry Sonnenfeld
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) 6 March 1987
Running time 94 min.
Language English
Budget $6,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Raising Arizona is a 1987 Coen Brothers comedy film starring Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, William Forsythe, John Goodman, Frances McDormand, and Randall "Tex" Cobb. Not a blockbuster at the time of its release, it has since achieved the status of a cult film. Typical Coen Brothers fare, the movie is replete with pseudo-symbolism, visual gags, yodeling folk music, unconventional characters, flamboyant camera work, and idiosyncratic dialogue. The movie ranked number 31 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Laughs and number 45 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".

Contents

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Arizona petty criminal H.I. (Hi) McDonnough (Cage) and police photographer Edwina (Ed) McDonnough (Hunter) meet after she takes the jail mugshots of the recidivist Hi during his many trips through her station. They fall in love and get married, and Hi promises to reform.

They move into a mobile home, and Hi gets a job drilling sheet metal. After serious and ongoing attempts at procreation, Ed discovers that she is infertile. The couple cannot adopt because of Hi's criminal record. Upon learning of the birth of the "Arizona Quints", sons of locally-famous furniture store magnate Nathan Arizona Sr. (Trey Wilson), Hi and Ed decide to kidnap one of the five babies. Hi successfully sneaks into the babies' room, but when he tries to steal one of them from their joint crib, the babies end up escaping and crawling off in all different directions, nearly leading to his being discovered by Mrs. Arizona. Hi escapes back to the car telling Ed that it was an impossible mission. She refuses to let him into the car unless he goes back and gets a baby. He re-enters the house and abducts Nathan Junior (T. J. Kuhn).

Hi's new family life goes well until he is visited by his former inmate chums Gale (John Goodman) and Evelle (William Forsythe), who have just tunneled their way out of prison. Under the two brothers' influence, Hi threatens to revert to his felonious ways, leading him to believe that Ed and he are not well suited for each other. Their problems are only worsened when Hi's supervisor, Glen (Sam McMurray), tries to arrange a wife swap between the two of them, and Hi assaults him.

Now out of a job, Hi steals diapers from a convenience store and is sucked into a wild chase around the local neighborhood with the police, gun-toting cashiers and a pack of dogs. Ed drives off without Hi because she has had enough of his criminal ways, but finally relents and picks him up, leading to a tense ride home.

Back at the McDonnough residence, Glen stops by and reveals that he has discovered Nathan Junior's true identity and gives Hi an ultimatum: give up the baby to be raised by Glen and his wife, or Glen will turn Hi in for the reward money. He also demands that Hi pay his medical bills from Hi's previous assault. During this conversation, Gale and Evelle are eavesdropping in the background.

Gale and Evelle decide to betray Hi and take Junior for the reward money. Gale and Hi's ensuing fight wrecks most of Hi's mobile home before Hi is defeated and tied to a chair. Gale and Evelle leave to rob a "hayseed" bank with Junior. When Ed comes home, she finds the battered and bound Hi and learns that the baby is gone. Despite their disintegrating relationship, Ed and Hi arm themselves and set out to retrieve their child together.

Meanwhile, Nathan Arizona Sr. is approached by the menacing and heavily armed biker/bounty hunter Leonard Smalls (Randall 'Tex' Cobb) who offers to find the child for a hefty fee. Even though he considers police efforts to locate his son totally inadequate, Nathan Sr. refuses to partake of Leonard's services. Leonard decides to recover the child anyway and sell him on the black market, as was done to himself when he was a baby. He begins tracking Gale and Evelle, using the scent of the brothers' hair pomade. He breaks into the deserted and trashed McDonnough mobile home, and finds a newspaper clipping concerning the targeted bank, which the brothers had shown earlier to Hi.

Gale and Evelle successfully rob the bank, but end up leaving Junior on the road where their car was parked. Their miseries are compounded when one of the bank's anti-theft dye canisters explodes in their loot sack, coating them and the interior of their car. Back at the bank, Smalls has arrived. Right before Ed and Hi can reclaim the baby, Smalls beats them to it, mounts Junior's car seat on the front of his bike, and turns around to fight the couple. Ed goes for the baby while Hi distracts Smalls. Ed runs off with Nathan Jr. while Hi and Smalls have it out: Hi is able to hold Smalls off for a short time, but then the biker begins to methodically brutalize him. He has thrown Hi to the ground and drawn his matched pair of shotguns to finish the job, when Hi shows him that he has pulled the pin from one the many hand grenades which dangle from Small's jacket. Unable to drop the guns and get rid of the grenade in time, the flatfooted Smalls is blown to pieces. One of these pieces is a burnt set of baby shoes; as they lay amidst the rest of the flaming debris, the viewer can hear the cries of an infant.

Hi and Ed sneak Nathan Jr. back into his home. As they are putting him back in his crib, Nathan Sr. confronts them, learns why they took his son, and is understanding. When they say that they are breaking up, he advises them to not act rashly; perhaps someday medical science will catch up with them, just as it did with him and his own beloved wife. Hi and Ed go to sleep in the same bed, and Hi dreams: Gale and Evelle return themselves to prison. Nathan Jr. grows up happy and prosperous. Glen gets what's coming to him. And maybe, just maybe, Hi and Ed will remain married for many years to come, have lots of children, and live together in a better place. "Maybe Utah." The credits roll with a rendition of Bob Nolan's folksong Way Out There and a bluegrass version of Beethoven's 9th Symphony Ode to Joy.

[edit] Symbolism

There are three scenes of H.I. and the Lone Biker bounty hunter that imply they are alike:

  • A shot where H.I. pulls a baby out from underneath the crib and a scene (shot at the same angle) where the Lone Biker drags H.I. out from underneath the car.
  • A scene where H.I. opens the Lone Biker's shirt, revealing the same tattoo of Mr. Horsepower as he has on his own arm.
  • The Lone Biker picks up the baby from the center of the road in roughly the same way that H.I. had previously picked up the diapers after the convenience store robbery.

The Lone Biker is either a symbol of H.I.'s own evil and bad attributes, or of what baby Nathan will become if H.I. does not return him.

Much of the symbolism suggests a connection between Leonard Smalls and H.I.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Quotes

  • H.I.: I'll be taking these Huggies, and whatever cash you got.
  • H.I.: The doctor explained that her insides were a rocky place, where my seed could find no purchase.
  • H.I.: Now, I don't know where you come down on the incarceration question, whether it's for rehabilition or revenge. But I was beginning to think, revenge is the only argument that makes any sense.

[edit] Trivia

Grossed $22,800,000 in the box office.

In several scenes, including when H.I. meets with the parole board, a portrait of Barry Goldwater is visible in the background. Goldwater ran for President in 1964 as a Republican and was a U.S. Senator from Arizona for many years. He is considered one of the most famous people in Arizona history.

A running gag in the early parts of the film has many people replying to answers with the line, "Okay then"

The police station scenes were filmed at the Tempe, Arizona police station on 5th Street next to Sun Devil Stadium on the Arizona State University campus.

The family picnic where H.I. punches Glen was filmed at the Lost Dutchman State Park in Apache Junction, Arizona.

When H.I. McDonnough goes to work in a factory, his chatty co-worker (a cameo by M. Emmet Walsh) can be seen wearing a jumpsuit with the label, "Hudsucker Industries", which may have been an inspiration for the title of the Coen brothers' later film, The Hudsucker Proxy.

The line "you warthog from hell" comes from the Flannery O'Connor short story "Revelation", where a young lady yells at the main character "Go back to hell where you belong, you old wart hog."

At the end of the film Glen runs afoul of a highway patrolman named Kowalski; Frances McDormand appeared in the play A Streetcar Named Desire as Stella Kowalski.

After Evelle and Gale break out of prison, they clean up in a gas station restroom with "P.O.E." and "O.P.E." spraypainted on the walls, a reference to the film Dr. Strangelove, where it stood for both "Peace on Earth" and "Purity of Essence".

The actor who played a Teenage Nathan Jr. playing football in Hi's dream at the end was killed in real-life in a drive-by shooting a few years after the movie's release. [citation needed]

[edit] External links


Movies by Joel and Ethan Coen
Blood Simple • Raising Arizona • Miller's Crossing • Barton Fink • The Hudsucker Proxy • Fargo • The Big Lebowski • O Brother, Where Art Thou? • The Man Who Wasn't There • Intolerable Cruelty • The Ladykillers • No Country for Old Men
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