Raising Arizona, the 1987 comedy from Joel and Ethan Coen, is now on Hulu. The film, which ranks 31st on the American Film Institute’s “100 Years…100 Laughs” list and 45th on Bravo’s “100 Funniest Movies” list, stars Nicolas Cage in one of his most acclaimed performances. He starred in the film alongside Holly Hunter (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), John Goodman (The Big Lebowski), and Frances McDormand (Fargo) in the crime comedy, which sees Cage playing H.I. “Hi” McDunnough, an ex-convict who met his wife when she was working as a police officer and took his mugshot after his arrest.
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Coming off the dark, neo-noir Blood Simple, the Coens reportedly set out to make a movie with an upbeat worldview. The story centers on Hi trying to build a new life for himself and live within the confines of the law after getting out of prison. Unfortunately, that’s not in the cards.
Here’s the official synopsis for the movie: “An ex-con and an ex-cop meet, marry and long for a child of their own. When it is discovered that Hi is unable to have children they decide to snatch a baby. They try to keep their crime a secret, while friends, co-workers and a bounty hunter look to use the child for their own purposes.”
Actor Simon Pegg described the film as “a living, breathing Looney Tunes cartoon” during a BFI screening. Pegg’s friend and frequent collaborator Edgar Wright has previously said that Raising Arizona is his favorite film of all time. Likewise, Spike Lee put Raising Arizona on his list of essential films.
While the Coen brothers have become staples in Hollywood, for years this was their commercial high water mark. In 2000, 2000 Ethan Coen described Raising Arizona as “the last movie [we] made that made any significant amount of money.” In the time since that interview, the pair have directed commercial successes like 2007’s No Country For Old Men, 2008’s Burn After Reading, and 2010’s True Grit. They also directed 2018’s Netflix hit The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
