The Hudsucker Proxy (1994/Warner Archive Blu-ray)
Video: A-
Audio: B+ Extras: C- Film: D
PLEASE NOTE: The Hudsucker Proxy Blu-ray is only available from
Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the
link below.
The Hudsucker Proxy,
released in 1994 (after some delays, despite Joel Silver actually backing the
film) and one of the first MOD Blu-Rays from Warner Archive, is the Coen Brothers'
fifth film, sandwiched between Barton Fink and the film that shot them
to superstardom, Fargo. Given its
place in the Coens' filmography, you'd think that Proxy would be some sort of
bridge connecting the opening phase of their career with the epic successes
that came after. But you'd be wrong. Proxy is a misstep, creatively and
narratively, that foreshadowed the worst of the Coens (Intolerable Cruelty,
The Ladykillers) rather than the genius responsible for The Big
Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou?
You can parse the film as many ways as you'd
like, but at its root the problem is in its conception. Proxy hit at the tail end of
Hollywood's odd Art Deco nostalgia trip, which included Dick Tracy in
1990 and The Rocketeer in 1991, and it desperately wants to be part of
that 1930s screwball tradition. It ensconces itself in the look and tradition
of those films, from the font in the opening credits to the set design to the
plot. Yet everything feels off.
Let's start with the plot, which is ripped right
out of the Capra playbook. A lovable
doofus, Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins), is elevated from Huducker Industries
mail room flunky to puppet boardroom president by the unscrupulous Sidney J.
Mussburger (Paul Newman). Hudsucker's
CEO just leapt out of the building, see, and Mussburger plans on installing
untested Norville as the end of the company to drive its stock into the ground,
buy up all the shares at rock bottom prices, then rebuild the company and make
a killing. But he doesn't count on
Norville being a savant (he invents the hula hoop, "you know, for
kids"), or that crack investigative reporter Amy Archer (Jennifer Jason
Leigh) will go from fast-talking, tough-as-nails skeptic bent on destroying
Norville to fast-talking, tough-as-nails believer dedicated to protecting him. As stories like this go, Norville gets too big
for his britches, falls on hard times, and is redeemed by rediscovering his
common humanity (thanks in no small part to the love of a strong woman).
Been there, done that. And that's not inherently a problem — in later
films, the Coens honed their ability to take tried and tested tropes and
rejuvenate them (see: Lebowski). But not so here. Proxy is so Capra-esque and so
screwball that it can't possibly stand on its own merit. It's as if the Coens
had so little confidence in the story that they fell back, hard, on reference
points. Unsurprisingly, the end product
feels like hackneyed, almost heartless pastiche. And since it seems like the Coens aren't into
the film, we can't get into it either.
They made a boring film, and at 111 minutes, Proxy feels
interminable. To pass the time, our minds
wander to all those other, better movies referenced here that we could be
watching (His Girl Friday, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith
Goes to Washington, and on and on).
Worse, though, is the mind-boggling aesthetic
incongruity of the film: It has all the
tenets of a movie made in the '30s, yet it's set in the late 1950s. From the sets to the costumes, everything has
a Deco feel — but not a worn out, Modernism-looms Deco. Everything feels new and large and imposing,
as if the city Hudsucker looms over was transported 20 years into the past at
the end of the war. (There are also
stray allusions to dystopian films like Brazil and a then-recent version
of Orwell’s 1984, especially in the early mailroom scenes, that just
throw everything out of whack.)
Then there are the performances. Leigh pulls her
best Rosalind Russell/Jean Arthur impression, but it comes off as stilted and
anachronistic, more grating than gratifying.
That goes for Robbins' hammy performance, too, which seems cranked to 11
to compensate for Norville's wooden character's two-dimensionality. Unsurprisingly, Newman is far and away the
best thing about the film. But
Mussburger is a straight-from-central-casting bad guy. All he's missing is a top hat and a few twirls
of a mustache to make his mwah-ha-ha villainy complete.
Suffice it to say, The Hudsucker Proxy is
not the Coens' finest hour. There is a prototypical quality to the film, in
that if you squint really, really hard you can see the beginnings of Lebowski,
O Brother, and A Serious Man. Proxy lacks the maturity and confidence
that have become ubiquitous with their work. They reached for it in Miller's Crossing
and Barton Fink and seized it for good in Fargo. Here, though,
they are way, way off course.
That said, Warner Archives' MOD Blu-Ray release
is excellent.
The DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo Master Audio lossless mix
(with Pro Logic surrounds, though this was a 5.1 theatrical release!) is deep
and rich, giving ample space for dialogue to coexist with a fairly robust
soundtrack and was the first Coen Brothers film issued theatrically in digital
sound. One scene, set inside the gears
and mechanics of a clock tower, has at least three primary sound elements
(dialogue, score, effects) that all work together with nothing getting lost or
overwhelmed.
The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital high-definition
transfer, meanwhile, is something to behold. Proxy isn't the most colorful film,
relying more on earth tones and muted corporate palettes, yet there's a
vibrancy to the film that comes through. The texture and depth of the film similarly
dazzles, giving the film a sheen not seen since its first screenings 20 years
ago.
And to get a sense of just how good the transfer
is, check out the trailer (the lone extra feature) included on the disc. It's grainy, beat up and clearly a couple
decades old. As trailers go it's nothing
special. But it does provide a nice
opportunity to compare what home video transfers were like in the VHS days with
what we have today – and just how lovingly The Hudsucker
Proxy was treated for this release.
To order The Hudsucker Proxy, go to this
link for it and many more great web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
- Dante A. Ciampaglia
