Hail Caesar! - The Myth of Hollywood
I have to preface that by admitting that I have enjoyed nearly all of the Coen Brothers’ movies, and their loose grip on some combination of truth, fiction and outright fantasy, combined with sarcasm and wit. They are a metaphor for Hollywood, which never saw a truth it could not twist or enhance. Why stick to truth when you can take the same event and write a better story? Hail Caesar centers around fictionalized events in the dubious career of Eddie Mannix. Mannix, played by Josh Brolin, was a notorious Hollywood “fixer”, a guy who watched over actors and directors who had a contract with “The Studio”. He ended sleazy affairs, quietly bailed misbehaving actors out of jail, arranged temporary marriages for pregnant stars, dragged directors out of bars and back onto the set, etc. Mannix himself was no paragon of virtue, being a devout catholic who could not divorce, he had numerous affairs, encouraged his wife to do the same and may have been involved in the death of Superman George Reeves, who had enraged Mannix by jilting Mannix’s wife, ending one of her affairs. Mannix has been a movie character before, in Hollywoodland, portrayed by Bob Hoskins, who has a cameo in this film.
The movie also centers on Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), a fictional actor who has a lead role in one of early “sword and sandal” epics, Hail Caesar, in 1951. A send up of Quo Vadis and Ben Hur, Caesar is one of those sanctimonious epics that explains Jesus to the movie world after titillating us with a couple hours of Roman decadence. Whitlock was to deliver an important line as a converted Roman legionnaire until he (the actor, that is) is drugged, kidnapped and held for ransom by “The Future”. The whole production is being held up because of this important scene. Whitlock’s kidnapping requires a “fixer”, the notorious Eddie Mannix, with a suitcase full of money. Along the way, we are brought along on other fixes by Mannix that takes us on a journey through the back lots of the studio. We encounter a pregnant Esther Williams-like starlet, a singing cowboy who channels Eddie “Cattle Call” Arnold or Roy Rogers, a scene involving the pre-Lucy version of Lucille Ball (the Queen of B Movies in her first career), temperamental directors, a Gene Kelly-like character doing a dance centered musical, a group of writers who really ARE soviet-style communists, unlike Dalton Trumbo…a whole list of the movie fixtures of that time. They are all related in this incestuous, scandalous version of 1951 Hollywood.
Josh Brolin stars as Mannix and does an excellent job of fleshing out that film-noir-like detective/strong arm character. George Clooney also excels as a clueless, but sincere, Whitlock who stumbles his way to Hollywood immortality. Ralph Fiennes, Scarlet Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum all are really enjoyable in their own twisted characters. Tatum gets to do some solid dancing too. The Coen Brothers do their usual job of keeping things light. Like their other movies, it’s not a movie that gets big laughs, but it’s a constant stream of witty, strange moments where you try to figure out whether this moment portrays something real, whether it’s complete fantasy or just who is being sent-up. I will have to see the movie again in order to catch all the references to old-timey Hollywood. I love the movies of that period. My only regret is that the Coen’s didn’t find a place to satirize Bogart too, but I guess they were out of time.
I’m giving this film a 4 star rating. Some other reviews have not been so kind, but, I enjoy that 40’s - 50’s period of movies, grew up on re-runs of sanctimonious Roman Empire/religion movies (I own the Blue Ray version of Ben Hur), enjoy the noir-detective thing and love the myth of Hollywood. It’s a fun way to enjoy a couple hours of the movie fantasy world.
