Video: The Coen Brothers’ Art of The Minor Character

Scott Myers
Go Into The Story
Published in
2 min readJun 30, 2019

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An eight-minute video essay on the famous filmmaking sibling’s attention to detail for all of the characters they create.

Brandt in ‘The Big Lebowski,’ Mrs. Samsky in ‘A Serious Man,’ and Al Cody in ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’

In this video essay, Thomas Flight takes note of how Joel and Ethan Coen delight in creating memorable minor characters in their movies.

A quote from the video:

“Having these vibrant minor characters makes the film feel larger and more expansive… It makes the audience feels the place the Protagonist inhabits is living and breathing and larger than just the main character.”

This is all true and there’s another thing that gets communicated when a development executive reads a script with well-written secondary characters: The writer cares enough about their story and their craft that they extend that attention to detail to all of the script’s characters. As Thomas Flight says:

“The Coen brothers obviously care about these characters and put just as much effort into writing, directing, and casting them as they do their main characters.”

Takeaway: Look at the screenplay universe through a minor character’s eyes as if they were the Protagonist. Because you know what? They are the Protagonist in their story.

What’s your favorite minor character in a Coen brothers’ movie?

As followup reading, a 2016 Indiewire article: 12 Minor Coen Brothers Characters Who Deserve Their Own Film.

For more Thomas Flight video essays, go here.

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