Reading the Coens: "Hail, Caesar!"

The Coen brothers are not Christian artists, but they are masters of their craft. And, while they appear to pay close attention to every detail in their stories and use every subtlety to advance their story, like most postmodern artists, they avoid being too specific about the meaning in their films. So, even though I am bringing my own preconceptions to their work that sees things likely unintended by them, I celebrate truth wherever I find it.

Hail, Caesar! (2016)

“Bless me father, I have sinned. It’s been uh… 24 hours since my last confession.”

If there were any question that “Hail Caesar” was going to comment on religious issues, the way many other Coen Brother movies do, we get the answer in the opening shot. A crucifix at a Catholic church and a confessional booth. Eddie Mannix (based very loosely on a real man who was a “fixer” for Hollywood) runs a Hollywood studio, and his studio is filming a Biblical epic entitled, also, “Hail Caesar!” Eddie’s story and that of the film bleed together, as we notice when the opening narration of the film becomes the narration for the film within the film.


Eddie starts his day before dawn, putting out fires and solving a whole host of problems, but his official start is always a call to New York, to the studio head. Eddie is more than capable and professional, but he yields to the head, even when it suggests Hobie Doyle, a singing, stuntman cowboy for a serious, dramatic role. Eddie will make it work. He is not here to question what the studio (or life) sends his way, but to do his best with what he’s got. His job is his world, and both are lived out with religious devotion.

Eddie meets with religious leaders to hear their opinions on the film. He explains to them that they are aiming to make the best story of the Christ. They remind him that the Bible may have already done that. Eddie agrees, but reminds them that the pictures will likely be people’s reference point for the story going forward.

Meanwhile, the star of the biblical epic, Baird Whitlock, is kidnapped and held for ransom from the studio by a bunch of communists. This is not the only fire Eddie will be faced with today, just the biggest. In addition to the kidnapping and getting Hobie to work out in the costume drama, Eddie has to juggle an unmarried pregnant star and two journalists (twin sisters) sniffing around for controversy. But the biggest issue hounding Eddie is a job offer from Lockheed Corporation, a serious, important job. Not the silly, fantasy of the movie studio.

In the end, Hobie and Eddie manage to save Baird from the communists. Baird is almost taken in by their ideas, but Eddie sets him straight in the harshest of ways, slapping him around a bit:

“Shut up! You’re going to go out there and you’re going to finish “Hail, Caesar!” You’re going to give that speech at the feet of the penitent thief and you’re going to believe every word you say! You’re going to do it because you’re an actor and that’s what you do. Just like the director does what he does, and the writer and the script girl, and the guy who claps the slate. You’re going to do it because the picture has worth and you have worth if you serve the picture and you’re never going to forget that again!”

Eddie might could have been preaching to himself, but for good measure he heads to his routine, morning confession. There, considering the job offer, he asks the priest:

“If there is something… easy, is that wrong?”
“Easy?”
“Easy to do, and easy job—not a bad job, it’s not bad. But then there’s another job, that’s… not so easy. In fact it’s hard. Father, sometimes I don’t know if I can keep doing it. But it seems ‘right.’ I don’t know how to explain.”
“God wants us to do what is right.”

Eddie makes his choice. He will continue to manage the circus that is the studio. He will continue to tell stories. He will continue to fulfill his calling, as hard as it can be. And we get to see Baird as Autolochus deliver his speech in front of the cross to another soldier, Gracchus:

“On yesterday's march, punished by the dust of the road, I sought to drink rest at the well, before the slaves and my charge whose thirst was far greater than my own.”
“A Roman drinks before a slave.”
“This man was giving water to all. He saw no Roman and he saw no slave. He saw only men. Weak men and gave suckle. He saw suffering which he sought to ease. He saw sin and gave love.”
“Love, Autolochus?”
“He saw my own sin, Gracchus, and greed. But in his eyes, I saw no shadow of reproach. I saw only light. The light of God.”
“You mean, of the gods.”
“I do not, friend Gracchus. This Hebrew is a son of the one God, the God of this far-flung tribe. Why shouldn't God's anointed appear here, among these strange people to shoulder their sins. Here, Gracchus. In this, sun-drenched land. Why should he not take this form. The form of an ordinary man. A man bringing us not the old truths but a new one.”
“A new truth?”
“A truth beyond the truth that we can see. A truth beyond this world. A truth told not in words but in light. A truth that we could see if we have but... if we have but...”
“Cut!”

The word he was looking for was “faith.” So, the is lacking a little something. It is about calling and faith, but ultimately the silly, artificial, plastic, faith provided by Hollywood. Still, there is value in exploring right and wrong and calling in any context, no?