The Coen Brothers are a pair of filmmakers that truly make pieces of art. Even though The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) was a major studio film, I do not feel like the Coen Brothers compromised all that much creatively or artistically, compared to their other films. The film is a screwball comedy that seems to model after Frank Capra’s screwball films. Visually, the film looked brilliant, especially the production design. As said in the film review by Todd McCarthy, “the Coens' approach, in large measure, consists of the fabulous and ornate elaboration of small details and moments; they make entire jaw-dropping sequences out of incidents that other directors would slide right by.” Yes, the Coen Brothers’ films are unpredictable, strange, and radical, but that is their style.
The main difference in style that I noticed was the change in the casting for this film. In their films, such as The Big Lebowski (1998) and Barton Fink (1991), the Coen Brothers consistently cast actors like John Goodman, John Turturro, and Steve Buscemi in the main roles. But for this major studio film they casted all different actors for the main parts including iconic actor, Paul Newman. This is one way they might have compromised their art by making a studio film. But I do not think anyone can completely answer this question. The Coen Brothers’ films are so unique and eccentric from one another, it becomes hard to determine if they are compromising or not.
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