Video Review
by
Marilyn Robitaille |
 |
Last Updated 07/26/01
Email: robitai@our-town.com
Raising Arizona
Revisited
I've
often wondered about little kids who choose to watch the same video over and over. By the tenth or eleventh viewing, they're still
mesmerized, but now they can say the dialog along with the characters. I guess there's a kind of comfort in
familiarity. It feels good to know how things
will play out—especially, when the world around you isn't nearly so predictable. As a big person, I don't usually watch
the same video ten or eleven times. Oh, if
it's a movie like Life is Beautiful or
It's a Wonderful Life, I suppose I might shove it into the video player half that
many times over a decade. I was a little
surprised to discover that I'd come to put Raising Arizona, a relatively
lightweight movie compared to the other two titles, into a
"repeat-performance-worthy" category. It
appears that, depending on my mood, Raising Arizona might come to be the repeat
king.
This is a 1987 Ethan and Joel Cohen
brothers' film with all the earmarks of their genius.
The comedy has a slightly stylized feel derived by way of a quirky plot and
Nicholas Cage's and Holly Hunter's deadpan performances. Pitted together as unlikely
marriage partners as well as partners in crime, H.I. McDonnough (Cage) and Ed McDonnough
(Hunter) meet at the local police station (H.I.'s the ex-con; Ed's the cop). H.I.'s
disposition towards convenience store robbery stimulates their romance, and H.I. and Ed
tie the knot. Unfortunately, Ed's biological
clock ticks to the beat of an empty drum. It makes perfectly good sense that when
quintuplets are born to Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Arizona, they have more babies than they can
handle. Ed sends H.I. to steal one. He
returns with Junior, and Ed settles in as mother of their "family unit." She has high standards, so she's none too happy
when H.I.'s former prison friends arrive fresh from a prison break. Gale (John Goodman)
and Evelle (William Forsythe) seize the baby and the opportunity to make a few bucks. Between hilarious scenes of inept baby
handling, H.I. and Ed's agitation, and the intervention of the Arizona's hellish bounty
hunter, the pace never slows.
Raising Arizona's humor appeals
to me more and more the older I become and the more times I watch it. I punctuated this
year's viewing with knee slapping and snorting laughter. Maybe it's Cage and Hunter's
perfect chemistry; maybe it's the witty repartee between Gale and Evelle; maybe it's each
best scene's circumstances; maybe it's Nicolas Cage's haircut. Whatever the reason, Raising
Arizona hasn't lost a thing since 1987. And
it's getting better all the time.
Raising Arizona is available on video and DVD.
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