RAISING ARIZONA

'''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 symbolism, visual gags, yodeling folk music, unconventional characters, flamboyant camera work, pathos 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

Plot synopsis

Cast

Production

Reception

Influences

Symbolism

Connections between H.I. and Smalls

Allusions to Childbirth

Soundtrack

Track listing

External links

Plot synopsis

Arizona petty criminal Herbert "H.I." or "Hi" McDonnough and policewoman Edwina "Ed" McDonnough meet after she takes the 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 desert mobile home, and Hi gets a job drilling sheet metal. After serious and ongoing attempts to have a baby, 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 unpainted furniture magnate Nathan Arizona Sr., Hi and Ed decide to kidnap one of the five babies. After a nearly disastrous false start, Hi successfully abducts Nathan Junior.
Hi and Ed return home, and are promptly visited by his inmate chums, Gale Snopes and his brother Evelle, who have just tunneled 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, tries to arrange a wife swap between the two couples, and Hi assaults him.
Now out of a job, Hi steals diapers and cash from a convenience store and is sucked into a wild chase around the local neighborhood with the police, a gun-toting store cashier, and a pack of dogs. Ed drives off without Hi, 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.
Having eavesdropped on this conversation, Gale and Evelle decide to betray Hi and take Junior themselves for the reward money. Gale and Hi's ensuing fight wrecks the mobile home before Hi is subdued and tied up. Gale and Evelle leave to rob a "hayseed" bank with Junior in tow. 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, who offers to find the child for twice the publicly-posted reward. Even though he considers police efforts to locate his son totally inadequate, Nathan Sr. refuses to partake of Smalls' services. Smalls 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 McDonnough mobile home, and finds a newspaper clipping concerning the targeted bank.
Gale and Evelle successfully rob the bank, but end up leaving Junior behind in the road. 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 in blue dye. Back at the bank, Smalls arrives and beats Ed and Hi to Junior, then mounts Junior's car seat on the front of his bike, and turns around to fight the couple. Ed grabs the baby and flees; Hi is able to fend 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 holds up his hand to reveal that he has pulled the pin from one the many working hand grenades which dangle from Smalls' jacket, after Hi discovers a Mr. Horsepower tattoo identical to his own on Smalls' chest, suggesting kinship between the two on some level. Smalls struggles unsuccessfully to drop the guns and get rid of the grenade, before being blown to pieces. One of these items is a set of bronzed baby shoes; as they lie amidst the rest of the flaming debris, the viewer can hear the cries of an infant.
Hi and Ed wearily 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 it was Utah...".

Cast

★ Nicolas Cage- H.I. McDonnough

★ Holly Hunter- Ed McDonnough

★ John Goodman- Gale Snopes

★ William Forsythe- Evelle Snopes

★ Frances McDormand- Dot

★ Randall 'Tex' Cobb- Leonard Smalls (The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse)

★ Trey Wilson- Nathan Arizona Sr.

★ Sam McMurray- Glen

★ T.J. Kuhn- Nathan Arizona Jr.

★ Lynne Dumin Kitei- Florence Arizona

★ Warren Keith- FBI Agent

Production

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, while the family picnic where H.I. punches Glen was filmed at the Lost Dutchman State Park in Apache Junction, Arizona.
The baby on the movie's international poster is Max Bemis, lead singer of the punk rock group Say Anything (band). His father designed the poster and used him as a model.

Reception

The film grossed $22,800,000 in the box office.

Influences

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. Goldwater was famously supported by Ronald Reagan; He at one point criticizes Reagan's economic plan. On the front bumper of the car Gale and Evelle use during the bank robbery there is a Mondale-Ferrarro sticker, the Democrats who ran against Reagan in 1984.
After Evelle and Gale break out of prison, they clean up in a gas station restroom where "P.O.E." and "O.P.E." are spraypainted on the walls, a reference to the film '', where it stood for both "Peace on Earth" and "Purity of Essence".
Leonard Smalls shares the name of Lennie Smalls, from John Steinbeck's novella ''Of Mice and Men''. Both are physically powerful men who damage things smaller and weaker then themselves, though only Leonard does so intentionally. Lennie wants to take care of rabbits, while Leonard kills one with a grenade.
The text of the second-to-last screen of credits, which shows acknowledgment of several Southwestern U.S. Native American tribes, is arranged in the shape of a large clay pottery jar, a craft piece historically made by such tribes.
When Hi 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 is likely to have been an inspiration for the title and setting of the Coen brothers' later film, ''The Hudsucker Proxy''. The idea of tracking a fugitive by the scent of his hair-pomade is reused in the Coens' 2000 film O Brother Where Art Thou?

Symbolism

Connections between H.I. and Smalls

There are three scenes of H.I. and Smalls 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 Smalls drags H.I. out from underneath a truck.

★ A scene where H.I. opens Smalls' shirt, revealing the same tattoo of Mr. Horsepower as he has on his own arm.

★ Smalls scoops up Nathan Jr. 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.

★ When H.I. pulls the pin from one of Smalls' many grenades, he apologizes "I'm sorry"

★ After Smalls is blown up, a pair of bronzed booties fall down with the debris, symbolizing a lost child.
Smalls may be 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 to his home. Some also believe the relationship to be one of Smalls being the father that abandoned H.I. Smalls also has a tattoo reading, "Mom Never Loved Me".

Allusions to Childbirth

Gale and Evelle's escape from prison resembles the birth of twins. Gale emerges from the ground head first and Evelle comes out breech.

Soundtrack

The score to ''Raising Arizona'' is written by Carter Burwell, the second of his collaborations with the Coen Brothers.
The sounds are a mix of organ, massed choir, banjo, whistling and yodeling.
Themes are borrowed from the "Goofing Off Suite", originally recorded by Pete Seeger in 1955, which includes an excerpt from the "Chorale" movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Symphony No. 9" and "Russian Folk Themes and Yodel". Musicians credited with playing the music for the film are Ben Freed on banjo, Mieczyslaw Litwinski on Jew's harp and guitar and yodeling by John R. Crowder.
Selections from Burwell's score to ''Raising Arizona'' were released on an album in 1987, along with selections from the Coen's previous (and first) feature film, ''Blood Simple''.

Track listing

#"Introduction - A Hole In The Ground" – 0:38
#"Way Out There (Main Title)" – 1:55
#"He Was Horrible" – 1:30
#"Just Business" – 1:17
#"The Letter" – 2:27
#"Hail Lenny" – 2:18
#"Raising Ukeleles" – 3:41
#"Dream Of The Future" – 2:31
#"Shopping Arizona" – 2:46
#"Return To The Nursery" – 1:35
#
★ The tracks from ''Raising Arizona'' comprise the first ten tracks on a 17-track CD that also features selections from the ''Blood Simple'' soundtrack.

External links

★ Coenesque: The Films of the Coen Brothers

★ You Know, For Kids! Raising Arizona page

★

★ Box Office Report: The Coen Brothers

★ Script

★ Symbolism and Imagery in ''Raising Arizona''