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The Man Who Wasn't There [Blu-ray]

Billy Bob Thornton (Actor), Frances McDormand (Actor), Joel Coen (Director, Writer) Rated:
R
Format: Blu-ray
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,169 ratings
IMDb7.5/10.0
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Genre Drama, Comedy, Art House & International
Format Blu-ray, Widescreen
Contributor Gregg Binkley, Joel Coen, Michael Badalucco, Frances McDormand, Scarlett Johansson, Jon Polito, Jack McGee, Tony Shalhoub, Katherine Borowitz, Lilyan Chauvin, Ethan Coen, Christopher Kriesa, Richard Jenkins, Brian Haley, Alan Fudge, Billy Bob Thornton, James Gandolfini, Roger Deakins See more
Initial release date 2015-09-08
Language English
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About Us

Universal Pictures is an American film studio, owned by Comcast through its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal, and is one of Hollywood's "Big Six" film studios. Its production studios are at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California. Distribution and other corporate offices are in New York City. Universal Studios is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Universal was founded in 1912 by the German Carl Laemmle (pronounced "LEM-lee"), Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, and Jules Brulatour.

Six of Universal Studios' films; Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), Despicable Me 2 (2013), Furious 7 (2015) and Jurassic World (2015) achieved box office records, with the first three (which were directed by Steven Spielberg) all becoming the highest-grossing film at the time of its initial release.

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NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, world-renowned theme parks, and a premium ad-supported streaming service. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.

Product Description

From the Academy Award®-winning Coen Brothers, The Man Who Wasn't There is a dark and twisted film noir set in a small 1949 California town. This is the story of a seemingly simple barber (Billy Bob Thornton), who turns to corruption and revenge to escape his achingly dull life. Blackmail is his opportunity to be more than a man that no one notices. But in the tradition of classic noir, nothing goes as planned and nothing is as it seems. As the barber's plot unravels, the delicious surprises, stunning revelations and just plain strange occurrences will disturb and delight you long after the film has ended. Settle in the chair and listen.


Bonus Content:

  • Deleted Scenes
  • The Making of The Man Who Wasn't There
  • Interview with Cinematographer Roger Deakins
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • TV Spots
  • Feature Commentary by Bill Bob Thornton and Joel and Ethan Coen
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Product details

  • Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 1.85:1
  • MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ R (Restricted)
  • Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 2.24 ounces
  • Item model number ‏ : ‎ 62166933
  • Director ‏ : ‎ Joel Coen
  • Media Format ‏ : ‎ Blu-ray, Widescreen
  • Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 57 minutes
  • Release date ‏ : ‎ September 8, 2015
  • Actors ‏ : ‎ Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco, James Gandolfini, Katherine Borowitz
  • Producers ‏ : ‎ Ethan Coen
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1)
  • Studio ‏ : ‎ Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00ZR3W3UK
  • Writers ‏ : ‎ Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
  • Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,169 ratings

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
1,169 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Dan
5.0 out of 5 stars A barber
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2024
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This is one of the best Coen Bros. movies. Billy Bob Thornton has the perfect demeanor to have taken on such a role. I place this as a definite top ten film.
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Bloodhound
5.0 out of 5 stars A Novel of Ideas, on Film
Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2016
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Judged strictly by the usual cinematic standards, "The Man Who Wasn't There" doesn't deserve five stars, but closer to three. However, like Stanley Kubrick's "2001," this isn't so much a drama as a novel of ideas on celluloid. The core idea here is the hollowness of modern bourgeois life. I confess that I don't much like that as a theme, and dozens of filmmakers--often European--have justified my skepticism. Almost all previous explorations of that territory have been by self-styled artistes, who use their films to spew their contempt for ordinary folk. Such efforts generally produce unwatchable results; in less skilled hands, this film, too, could easily have joined that inglorious tradition.

The Coens make it work because they eschew "art" in favor of superb craftsmanship. They put story and character above mere "messaging," weaving one of their usual complex film noir tales, in which just about everyone is guilty of something. But most of all, this film works because the Coens don't look down on their characters. I don't agree that bourgeois existence is necessarily hollow, but if we assume so for the sake of argument, then it's a common human problem for all to contemplate, not a self-evident justification for the elite to despise the masses.

Ed Crane, played with both intensity and restraint by Billy Bob Thornton, is the archetype "Man Who Wasn't There." A barber in Santa Rosa, CA, in the late 1940s, Ed is practically invisible: to his fellow citizens, his customers, his boss, and even to his wife. Ed talks very little, and doesn't like chattiness in others. He has a vague sense that he's supposed to be content with his life, an equally vague longing for something more, and nothing but will-o-the-wisps to satisfy that longing. Ed's actions and reflections throughout the film show that he is invisible even to himself. He learns that his wife is having an affair with her boss. He then blackmails the boss to get money for a shady investment, and ends up killing him in a subsequent fight. Next, he watches his wife get tried and executed for the killing he had committed; and finally he gets executed himself, for a different crime he didn't commit. Through it all, he neither shows nor feels any emotion--as if his own life is just a boring, black-and-white movie that has put him halfway to sleep.

But the Coens show us something more, which I confess I failed to appreciate seeing the film on its initial release. All of the major characters share Ed's emptiness of life; they differ from him only in that they manage to lie to themselves about it. Ed's wife, Doris (Frances McDormand), doesn't know why she married Ed; she gets neither sex nor financial support (her own salary supplies her needs) nor emotional sustenance from the relationship. Her boss, Big Dave (James Gandolfini), is in an equally loveless marriage with the heiress to the department store he runs. Like Ed, his only hope for a better life involves stealing and deceit: sleeping with Ed's wife; embezzling from the family business; claiming to be a combat hero of the Pacific campaign, whereas in fact he spent the war as an Army clerk in San Diego.

Big Dave's wife, Ann (Katherine Borowitz), is resigned to an empty existence. She believes that her husband withdrew from her because he was abducted by aliens, who must have done something to him before bringing him back to Earth. Local attorney Walter Abundas (Richard Jenkins)--the closest thing Ed has to a friend--is an unhappy, boozy widower whose hobby is genealogy: that is, he spends his time symbolically searching for his own identity. After Doris's execution, Ed tries to bond with Walter's gorgeous, high-school aged daughter, Birdy (Scarlett Johansson), on the pretext of helping her develop a career as a pianist. Ed takes Birdy to meet a world-famous piano teacher in San Francisco; the teacher says he can't help the girl because, while her technique is OK, she lacks the inner spirit of a true musician--she has nothing inside.

The task of voicing the movie's theme goes to Ed's pricey out-of-town attorney, Freddy Reidenschneider (Tony Shalhoub). At Ed's murder trial, Freddy tries to sow reasonable doubt with a meaningless bit of high-sounding schtick, loosely based on Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. He tells the jury they can't be sure what happened, because, with Ed, "the closer you look, the less you see." That's the nub of it: from a distance, Ed looks like any decent, respectable resident of Santa Rosa. But up close, he disappears. And so do the people around him.

It's a dangerous concept for a film: the main character is not a hero, nor even an anti-hero, but just a nullity. That's why, as I said, by the conventional rules of drama, the story just does not add up to anything. But, unlike 99 out of 100 movies that are supposed to "really make you think," this one does.
15 people found this helpful
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Wally Davies
4.0 out of 5 stars There's Something about Billy Bob...
Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2018
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“The Man Who Wasn’t There” is the Coen brothers most confounding film. While it shares the nihilistic themes of their most original work (“Barton Fink,” “Fargo”) it is mercilessly bleak and, save for a brief, bravura turn by Tony Shalhoub as a maniacal lawyer, almost wholly devoid of humor.
If James M. Cain had tried to write “The Stranger,” he might well have come up with this strange cocktail. The central conceit is that our taciturn protagonist’s existence is so insubstantial it manifests the quantum notion of superposition. (Heisenburg’s uncertainty principle even makes a cameo.) Filmed in color by the great Roger Deakins, who then desaturated and remastered the final stock into a terrifically crisp black-and-white print, the plot’s many twists and turns play out before the solemn rhythms of Beethoven.
As usual, The Coen’s language is gorgeous, and their screenplay contains some of their most thoughtful musings on life. The cast, featuring many of the Coen’s “regulars” (Shalhoub, Frances McDormond, Jon Polito, Michael Badalucco) are their usual sturdy selves.
And overall it is achingly close to perfection.
But.
As much as I may admire the script’s originality and wordcraft, its cinematography and ensemble work, Carter Burwell’s score, etc. I can not get past Billy Bob Thornton, inexplicably cast in the lead role of barber Ed Crane. Look, I am sure Mr. Thornton is a nice, intelligent guy. And some of his line readings are fine (his last speech, in particular, is perfectly delivered)….But to me, too often there is something ineffably off about his performance. It is too mannered, too self-aware; and in moments dangles perilously close to parody. The Coen brothers have such a grand repertoire of fine actors with whom they have worked, so many of whom would have been better suited to the laconic lead role circa 2001: John Goodman, John Turturro, Steve Buschemi, etc. What on earth convinced them to cast Mr. Thornton?
Sigh. Despite my misgivings about the lead, I greatly admire The Man Who Wasn’t There, and put it in my Top Three Coen Brothers’ works.
24 people found this helpful
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Jennifer
5.0 out of 5 stars hidden gem of a Coen bros movie
Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2024
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What more can I say other than you should watch it knowing as little as possible other than it is film noir... comparable to those made in the 40s and 50s. Just as with the Hudsucker Proxy and Miller's Crossing, the filmmakers pay homage to the films they obviously grew up with... amazing windows into another time.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Mrs C.A.Martin
5.0 out of 5 stars Looking forward to this………
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 17, 2022
Verified Purchase
Am looking forward to watching this. I’m sure it will be on a par with the Cohen Bros’ other work.
Bought as a birthday present, I’m saving it!!!!
More later!!……..
One person found this helpful
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Sheila Doak, Victoria, BC
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on November 24, 2017
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Good film thank kyou
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Lindsay Winn
5.0 out of 5 stars A Noir Classic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 20, 2010
Verified Purchase
It of course helps if you are a Coen Brothers fan, but this is a seriously impressive film - superb acting throughout . The plot involves a laconic barber who after blackmailing his wife's lover becomes embroiled in an unexpected turn of events .
Filmed in black and white, the film successfully evokes noir movies of the 1940s when the action happens; I say action but this is a very slow moving movie. Billy Bob Thornton is great as the barber. The film carries an interesting extra of Billy Bob Thornton and Ethan Coen narrating!
It is difficult to say how high up the list this is of greatest Coen brothers films, but I would reckon it must be pretty near the top along with Fargo, the Big Lebowski and Miller's Crossing.
Memorable!
4 people found this helpful
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Ascola
4.0 out of 5 stars Sprachlosigkeit
Reviewed in Germany on April 12, 2009
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Enthält "Spoiler" (nicht lesen, wenn Film noch nicht gesehen):

Als ich den Film sah, wusste ich nicht, dass er von den Coens ist. So sollte man immer Filme schauen, denn jede - auch positive - Voreingenommenheit entfällt.

Obwohl der Filmbeginn mit seinen Schwarz-Weiß-Bildern, der lakonischen Erzählweise aus dem Off und dem Kontrast des einerseits Gewöhnlichen, das zunächst geschildert wird, und der ästhetisierenden Art, wie dies geschieht, Interesse erzeugt, habe ich mich zu Beginn gelangweilt.

Der Film nimmt dann Fahrt auf, als Crane den Entschluss zur Erpressung fasst, um seinem Barber-Dasein zu entfliehen. Aber mangels Gelegenheit, Vorbildern und Fantasie kommt er bei seinen Zukunftsplanungen auf nichts anderes, als es von nun ab mit "Dry Cleaning" zu versuchen. Da er Big Dave erpresst (um das notwendige Startkapital zu bekommen), mit dem seine Frau eine Affäre hat, reagiert er zugleich zum ersten Mal auch auf diese Kränkung und auf seine gescheiterte Ehe.

Die Ereignisse geraten sofort außer Kontrolle, und Crane kann bis zum bitterbösen Ende des Films nie wieder ihrer Herr werden, nachdem er einmal aus seinem unerfüllten Dasein auszubrechen versuchte.

Am Ende sind drei (oder vier? was geschieht mit Cranes Frau?) Menschen tot. Das ist ein monströses Resultat vor dem Hintergrund der kleinbürgerlich-spießigen Vorstadt- und Nachkriegswelt, in der der Film spielt. Außer Big Dave sterben sie alle aufgrund von Missverständnissen, Fehlurteilen, gegenseitigen Fehleinschätzungen und -schlüssen. Auch Big Dave stirbt aus Versehen, genauer gesagt: aus Notwehr, also nicht geplant.

Die Coens lassen keinen der zunehmend verworrenen Handlungsfäden liegen und lösen alles am Ende auf. Ihre Lust daran, die Handlung bis zum konsequent rabenschwarzen Ende zu Ende zu treiben, wirkte auf mich nicht nur positiv. Es ist eher Stilistik, die immer weitere absurde Wendungen diktiert, und nicht Realismus, der bis zur Mitte des Films auch eine Option gewesen wäre (aber nicht machbar für die Coens).

Natürlich ist der Film auf seine Weise groß: Wir sehen, dass ein frustrierter Friseur, der sich nicht vermitteln kann, weil ihm auch niemand zuhört - diesen Kreislauf stellt der Film immer wieder dar - die Ereignisse nicht beeinflussen und auch nicht aufklären kann: sie überrollen ihn einfach. Alle anderen Beteiligten reden umso mehr, je weniger er sagt, aber niemand erkennt die Wahrheit, die nur der Barber Crane kennt. Sie stirbt fast mit ihm, aber er offenbart sie noch einem "Men's magazine". Was daraus wird, erfahren wir nicht. Am Ende macht Crane dennoch seinen Frieden mit dem Unausweichlichen, in der Hoffnung auf ein besseres Leben im nächsten. Das mildert nur wenig den grausamen Schluss, gerade auch in seiner ästhetischen Darstellungsweise.
10 people found this helpful
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Francois Marc
2.0 out of 5 stars version non sous-titrée
Reviewed in France on November 29, 2012
Verified Purchase
Je n'ai pas vu (ou ça n'était pas précisé de façon très visible) que cette version n'était qu'en anglais. J'en ai donc fait cadeau à un anglophone, qui était ravi, lui. Mais je suis resté sur ma faim.
2 people found this helpful
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