Raising Arizona (1987)

By 1987, Joel Coen had already announced himself as a filmmaker worth watching. His debut, Blood Simple, had shown a director with a sharp eye for tension and a willingness to play with genre convention. Raising Arizona, his second feature and the first of several comedies in his career, was a rather different proposition: looser, louder, and considerably more interested in laughs than in dread. Produced by Circle Films on a modest independent budget, it arrived at a moment when American independent cinema was beginning to find its feet, and it stuck out even in that company. Set against the bleached, dusty landscapes of the American Southwest, the film follows Hi McDunnough, a repeat offender with a weakness for convenience store robberies, and his wife Ed, a police officer who processed him so many times she eventually married him. Unable to have children of their own, the pair make the spectacularly ill-judged decision to take one of five newborn sons belonging to a local furniture magnate. What follows is, on paper, a straightforward crime caper; in practice, it is something considerably stranger.

The Coens wrote the screenplay themselves, and the film carries all the hallmarks of writers who are having a very good time indeed: dialogue that sits somewhere between hardboiled pulp and frontier tall tale, characters who feel plucked from some parallel-universe Americana, and a plot that keeps piling complications on top of complications with cheerful disregard for realism. Cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld (working with the brothers for the third time) gives the Arizona desert a heightened, almost cartoon quality, all hot light and deep shadow. Carter Burwell's score, mixing banjo-driven folk with jazzy punctuation, does a lot of the tonal heavy lifting. Nicolas Cage, at this point still building a reputation as one of the more unpredictable young actors in Hollywood, plays Hi with a physical commitment that sits somewhere between silent-film comedy and outright mania. Holly Hunter, already an established stage and screen presence, brings a coiled intensity to Ed that stops the film from drifting into pure farce. The supporting cast is equally well-chosen: John Goodman and William Forsythe as a pair of escaped convicts who complicate Hi and Ed's domestic arrangements are a genuine double act, all bulk and bluster, while Trey Wilson as the furniture tycoon Nathan Arizona gives the film one of its most grounded and quietly funny performances. For another side of Cage's screen persona from around this era, it is worth comparing the energy here with what he brings to Con Air, a rather different sort of crime film reviewed elsewhere on the site.

Raising Arizona has accumulated a devoted following over the decades, and it tends to sit near the top of any serious conversation about Coen brothers comedy, alongside later efforts like Burn After Reading, which shares some of the same taste for escalating chaos and flawed, self-defeating characters. The film polarised critics on release, with some finding the relentless stylisation exhausting rather than exhilarating. It is, by any measure, a busy film: busy visually, busy aurally, and busy with ideas. Whether that adds up to something satisfying or merely frenetic is very much a matter of personal temperament, and it is exactly that question which the review below addresses head-on.

Raising Arizona (1987) is pure Coen brothers madness. A wild, surreal, neon-soaked crime comedy that somehow blends slapstick, existential dread, and Southwestern folklore into something utterly unique. And at the center of it all is Nicolas Cage, in what might be his best role: Hi McDunnough, a bumbling ex-con with a heart too big for his brain, who kidnaps one of a set of quintuplets to give his wife Dolly (Holly Hunter) the family they can’t have. It’s ridiculous, heartfelt, and completely committed to its own bizarre logic. Cage is electric (equal parts cartoon criminal and lovable goofball) with his slicked-back hair, prison jumpsuit, and manic energy. Hunter matches him as the fiery, baby-obsessed cop-turned-housewife, and their chemistry is chaotic, tender, and hilarious. The film zips along on Carter Burwell’s jazzy score, stunning desert cinematography, and some of the most inventive visuals in 80s cinema. Every frame feels deliberate, from the dream sequences to the legendary high-speed chase with the shopping cart. The Coens balance absurdity and emotion perfectly, yes, it’s about baby theft, but it’s also about love, desperation, and the American dream gone feral. Not just the best Nicolas Cage film, but one of the greatest comedies of its era. A cult classic with soul, style, and more personality than ten normal movies. Wild, weird, and wonderful. One of those films that reminds you why you love cinema.

I find it hard to argue with much of that, honestly. This is one of those films I keep coming back to precisely because it refuses to settle down and be just one thing. The craft on display, from the cinematography to the performances to the way Burwell's score almost seems to be winking at you, is the work of people who are completely in control even when the film looks like it is spinning off its axis. That is a harder trick to pull off than it appears, and not every director who has tried something similar has managed it. If Raising Arizona passed you by first time around, or if you wrote it off as too peculiar, give it another go. It rewards the attention. Sometimes the weird ones are the ones worth keeping.

Rating: ★★★½  | Year: 1987  | Watched: 2025-10-21

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Trailer

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Joel Coen: Blood Simple (1984) · True Grit (2010) · Burn After Reading (2008) · Barton Fink (1991)
More with Nicolas Cage: Con Air (1997) · Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000)
More from the 1980s: Nightmare City (1980) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Style Wars (1983) · Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)