BlacKkKlansman

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Spike Lee won an Oscar for adapting the screenplay for BlacKkKlansman (2018) based on the true story of Ron Stallworth. He was a Black policeman who, with the help of others, infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan during the time when African Americans were discovering Black pride and power in the civil rights movement. Even though the topic of the movie is serious, there is humor and satire in the film, and the story shows how Stallworth was caught between the radical agendas of the racist right and the black revolutionaries since he was part of the law-and-order system.

Lee, a former student and now sometime instructor at the prestigious Tisch film school at NYU, makes references here to movies that, although studied for their cinematic influences, portrayed racist subject matter. The film begins with a scene from Gone with the Wind, a multiple Oscar winner, that portrays slave-owning Southerners during the Civil War sympathetically and Blacks stereotypically.

There is then a shift to a speech by Dr. Kennebrew Beauregard (Alec Baldwin) ranting about how African Americans and Jewish people are ruining the United States for white Christian Protestants, turning the country into “a mongrel” nation. The film stresses how this twisted idea of “purity” is at the heart of segregation and the desire for ethnic cleansing, and how religion is warped to justify racism. The movie ridicules Beauregard by showing him make loud, strange noises as he clears his throat to record his tirade. Lee intercuts scenes during Beauregard’s speech from another film revered for its filmmaking breakthroughs, Birth of a Nation, depicting a white man in exaggerated blackface, accosting a white woman who prefers suicide to being touched by a Black man. Lee is stressing how the film industry was guilty of spreading the stereotype of the Black man as a sexual predator of white women.

The story then moves to Colorado Springs, CO, and Stallworth (John David Washington) enters the police station for an interview. The sign on the building says that “minorities are encouraged to apply.” Well, not until then. Chief Bridges (Robert John Burke) and an African American, Mr. Turrentine (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.), grill Ron, making sure he doesn’t have any negative issues regarding his past. Turrentine says he will be the first black officer on the force, the “Jackie Robinson” of that police department, which places a great deal of responsibility on Ron to be able to withstand bigoted remarks.

Ron gets the job, but he is put in the records section, hidden away from any meaningful work, which means he an ethnic token on the force. He expresses his discontent to Chief Bridges and Sergeant Trapp (Ken Garito), and wants to go undercover, but Bridges turns him down. The cops asking for files call each Black person they investigate a “toad.” Ron shows his resentment for the derogatory classification by saying there are no toads there, only “human beings.”

Bridges changes his mind and assigns Ron to go undercover. He uses him as a Black spy to infiltrate those associated with Black activist Stokely Carmichael, who changed his name to Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins). Bridges thinks Ture will create unrest among the African Americans in the city. So, Ron is in the compromising position of informing on those with the same racial background as his own.

Two detectives help him prepare for the assignment, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver, who received an Oscar nomination for supporting actor) and Jimmy Creek (Michael Buscemi, who reminds one of Steve). Ron meets the person who invited Ture, the President of the Colorado College Black Student Union, Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier), and tries to ingratiate himself to her to gather information. Ture gives an energized speech that urges black pride. Lee frames shots of Black persons which stress the beauty of Black people that does not conform to white ideas of what is attractive. He emphasizes how Black Americans were taught to hate their heritage and says when he was young and watched the white Tarzan beat up Africans, he cheered him on. He now realizes that he was taught to urge violence against himself. Ron hears the passion if the audience as they respond to the speech, and he gets caught up in the emotional moment. Ture says cops continue to shoot down black people in the streets and urges African Americans to retaliate. He says, “Power to all the people,” which includes those who are white and have been oppressed. After the speech, Ron, wanting to know if violence will occur, asks Ture if a race war is coming, and Ture urges Ron to arm himself because a revolution is approaching.

Ron meets Patrice later at a bar. She tells him that the cops pulled the car with Ture in it over. Instead of just narration, we see an impactful dramatization as racist slurs are heaped upon the passengers, and they are threatened to make sure Ture leaves town soon. In a briefing, Ron tries to mitigate the effect of Ture’s speech, calling it “rhetoric,” and Flip and Jimmy agree. When Ron says that Carmichael changed his name, Bridges says that he doesn’t care if he changed his name to Muhammad Ali, “that draft dodger.” Negative feelings toward Blacks exist in the police department here based on a belief that a leader of the African American community is not patriotic even though Ali was expressing the general anti-Vietnam War stance prevalent among whites.

Bridges transfers Ron to the “Intelligence” division. Here is the turning point of the story. Ron decides to call the KKK, asking for reading material. He gets a call back from Walter Breachway (Ryan Eggold). Ron improvises an exaggerated hate rant about hating Blacks and Jews, using ethnic slurs, which is funny as the other cops in the room listen in surprise. Ron tells Walter what he wants to hear, and Walter says that Ron is just the type of person they are looking for, which is humorous since we know that Ron is Black. Flip points out that Ron gave his real name, a major mistake, and the others laugh calling it the “amateur hour,” referencing a TV show back then. Ron goes with Trapp to see Bridges about using a white cop for a meeting with Walter. Bridges, again showing prejudicial views, says the KKK guy will know the difference between the way a white person and a Black person speak. Ron says some people can speak the “King’s English,” and others can talk “jive.” Luckily for Bridges, Ron is bilingual when it comes to this problem. Ron is following up on what Ture said about how white people believe that African Americans can’t do anything without white people helping them. However, in this case, although Ron can talk “white” on the phone, he needs a white man to pull off the investigation.

Flip is going to play white Ron, and the meeting between Ron, Flip, and Jimmy to rehearse is very funny. Flip talks about how all of his heroes are Black. (A similar scene occurs in Lee’s Do the Right Thing). So, Ron jokingly says Flip can now get his dream and play a white version of Black Ron. He wants him to sound somewhat like Ron. But he ironically makes Flip repeat words that a civil rights protester would say in “jive” to stress the differences in speech. Jimmy tells Flip to lose his “Jewish necklace,” and Flip corrects him saying it is “the Star of David.” Ron says he didn’t know Flip was Jewish. Flip interestingly responds by saying, “I don’t know, am I?” Flip reveals here that he hasn’t associated himself with his Jewish background, but that will change as he witnesses the antagonism against those of his background.

Instead of Walter, Flip, wearing a wire, meets with Felix Kendrickson (Jasper Paakonen), an unstable, nasty guy, who puts Flip in a tight spot when he sees someone (Ron) following his truck. He makes Flip load a shotgun, but luckily, he isn’t asked to use it. They meet Walter, the “Organization’s” chapter president, at a bar which advertises its stance with a Confederate Flag in its window. Walter has a personal axe to grind, saying he was shot by Black men who also assaulted his wife. They complain about how African Americans are all over the TV now, when it used to be just Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima. A man there, Ivanhoe (Paul Walter Houser) says he is okay with those Blacks because he likes rice and pancakes. He’s saying that if African Americans comply with subservient, Uncle Tom roles then it’s okay with the KKK. Ivanhoe implies that there are going to be “fireworks” soon, suggesting that bombings might occur. Walter plays down that talk because Ron (Flip) is new and Walter says they are nonviolent just like Martin Luther King, an ironic statement. Ivanhoe calls the last name of the civil rights leader “Coon,” to add to the derogatory attitude about Blacks and, thus, nonviolence. Felix is suspicious of Flip, suspecting that he is Jewish, and undercover because Flip asks many questions. Walter is more accepting. It is funny when Flip must fill in application forms and receives a membership card, and must pay dues, with robes and hoods costing extra. It’s as if he’s joining an organization that’s as safe as a local choir group.

Ron has dinner with Patrice, who keeps calling cops “pigs,” so, even though she doesn’t know it, she is calling Ron a pig. She notices he is quiet, and he admits that he doesn’t like using that word, and asks her if she thinks all policemen are racist killers. She then asks him if he is a “pig,” and he lies saying he is in construction and just wants to forget the politics. He gives her a necklace, and he is stepping outside of his assignment here because he is obviously interested in Patrice romantically.

Trapp says that the Grand Wizard of the KKK, David Duke (Topher Grace), is making the face of the Klan more appealing as he always wears a three-piece suit and is called the “national director,” instead of the intimidating traditional title. Even Felix said that nobody calls them the Klan, so as not to evoke the same scared response. The movie appears to be equating this past time with political leaders of today who look presentable but harbor hatred underneath their phony appearance. Trapp says to Ron that Duke is looking to get elected to public office by using hot button topics as “affirmative action, immigration, crime, tax reform” to sell hate. The film suggests that these issues provide cover for racists by hiding their bigotry. The hope, Trapp says, is that eventually the racists will get “somebody in the White House that embodies” that bigotry. Ron can’t believe that America would ever elect a man like Duke as President, but Trapp says he is naïve and should “wake up.” Director/writer Lee is obviously referring to how he views Donald Trump as the realization of this prophesy.

Flip goes to a meeting at Felix’s house, where his wife, Connie (Ashlie Atkinson) espouses as much racist talk as her husband. But Felix doesn’t like his macho standing being undermined by a woman, and dismisses her. Felix invites Flip downstairs where he has a gun called a “Jew killer,” and tells Walter he wants to make sure Flip is not Jewish. It is interesting that Walter says that there is no “Star of David” hanging from Flip’s neck, which is exactly what Jimmy warned him to remove. Felix waves a gun at Flip and wants him to take a lie detector test. Felix is unfortunately not alone when he says he believes the Holocaust didn’t happen and is just a Jewish conspiracy. Felix asks Flip if his penis was “circumstanced,” which is the type of malapropism that Archie Bunker would say on All in the Family. Just before Flip has to take the test, the eavesdropping Ron flings a rock through the house window to interrupt Felix’s plans. Connie sees the back of the fleeing Ron and shouts that a “lawn jockey” (they can’t seem to refrain from using ethnic slurs) was on their green lawn. Flip grabs the gun out of Felix’s hand and fires at Ron’s speeding car, calling out some racist names but preventing from Felix from shooting at the fleeing Ron.

Ron and Flip have a private talk where Flip expresses his fear that he was almost shot by Felix for what Flip considers some jerks setting sticks on fire (crosses) and playing dress up. He says that for Ron it’s a “crusade,” but for him it’s only a “job.” He says it shouldn’t be “personal.” For a white man it may not be, but for a Black person, how could it not be? Ron argues that Trip should be dedicated to the operation because he is Jewish, and the KKK hates him just as much as African Americans. The contemplative Ron says he has been “passing” as a WASP, suggesting he is like those Blacks who are light-skinned enough to pass for white and thus deny their own heritage. Ron says he will get Flip the KKK membership card so he can go to the cross burning that the KKK members were talking about. Flip walks out, unhappy about his role at this point, but not pulling out of the assignment.

Ron calls up the central number of the KKK to get his membership card. He actually gets David Duke on the phone, It is hysterical to hear Ron talking about how few white America heroes are left in the country, and saying “God bless white America.” 

Master Patrolman Landers (Frederick Weller) knocks into Ron and causes him to spill documents as he speaks condescendingly to Ron. Flip confirms that it was Landers who pulled over Ture and harassed him. So, Ron must deal with racism outside and inside the police department, the place that is supposed to protect all people from harm. Flip says Landers is a bad cop who killed a Black kid who, despite what Landers said, was unarmed. Jimmy says that they tolerate him because the police must stick together. Ron points out that another group feels the same way, suggesting that the police have some characteristics in common with the Klan.

The Klan members, with Flip, do target practice. Ron, tailing Flip, goes to the location afterwards, and the targets depict black people running. It is a chilling moment as Ron sees the violence inherent in the racism of the group.

Patrice tells Ron how films such as Coffy and Cleopatra Jones, released at that time, were fantasies about empowered black women, but that in real life, cops continued to kill Blacks. She also doesn’t like depictions in motion pictures that have Black men as pimps, saying it promulgates negative stereotypes. Lee, again referencing films, is making a comment about Black exploitation movies that let African Americans vicariously feel strength, but which drained the desire for power after the films were over. Ron, covertly referring to himself, says maybe an African American cop can change things from the inside. Patrice says that can’t happen because the system to too corrupt, and white people will not give up their power to dominate the society. Patrice says that Blacks in America, quoting W.E.B. Du Bois, live a double life as Blacks and Americans which creates an irreconcilable inner war. That is what Ron is experiencing.

Felix hasn’t given up on his suspicions about Flip. He looked up Ron’s name and went to the address associated with it. He finds Ron there with Patrice. Felix, Walter, and Ivanhoe confront Flip, who thinks quickly, and says his number is unlisted, and states another address as his own. Felix points out that Patrice was there, who has the reputation as a Black leader in the area. The investigation is safe for the moment, but the coincidence of a Black guy having the same name as Flip who is with a Black activist could lead to more questions.

Ron receives the KKK membership card and hands it to Flip. He admits that he grew up not even thinking about his Jewish heritage. He didn’t even have a Bar Mitzvah. Now that he sees the hatred of others because of his background up close, he has become preoccupied with “rituals and heritage.” He admits that he has been passing.

The night of a cross burning, Flip is with Ivanhoe, but Ron, monitoring the situation, has a number of police cars go by, so the Klan must cancel the plan. Ivanhoe asks Flip if he knows about C-4, so we know the Klan has been thinking about using explosives. Flip has found out that there are Klan members in the military, another instance of defenders of democracy being hypocrites as they wish to attack citizens of their own nation who do not share the same white complexion. In the background Duke’s civilized voice tries to convince others in a broadcast about what he sees as the moneyed Jewish conspiracy that bankrolls the ethnic cleansing of white European culture.

In a phone conversation between Duke and Ron, Duke says, all indications to the contrary, that the Klan doesn’t hate Blacks, but just feels that they want and should be with their own kind, a feeble attempt to justify segregation. He relates how he had a sort of “mammy” like Hattie McDaniel in Gone with the Wind. Here is another reference to film history, with the stress of how Blacks were portrayed as slaves. McDaniel received an Oscar for supporting actress, but could only do so by playing a stereotype. Ron talks about how as a boy he played with a black kid until the white kid’s father stopped him. Most likely, Ron is talking about a white child who played with him, but then the white boy’s father put a stop to it. Duke comments that Ron’s father was an admirable man, the opposite of what Ron is really saying. Duke admits to the need to have people who think like they do to be in public office. Duke says that America needs to find its greatness again, and there is no doubt that Lee is referencing the current MAGA movement.

Walter thinks the chapter needs new blood and he wants to make sure “loose cannon” Felix doesn’t become the leader. He wants of all people Ron to take over, ironically based on the phone conversations he has had with the real Ron. At a meeting Flip almost messes up when he says he must take care of his sick father in Dallas, although Ron had said El Paso on the phone. He recovers just in time. Felix and Ivanhoe are against the appointment of Flip, having met him only recently. Ron also has been talking to the approving Duke who is visiting to be present at Ron’s initiation. Ron pushes it by asking how does Duke know if he isn’t really talking to a Negro. Duke says he knows Ron isn’t Black by the way he talks. Obviously not an accurate system.

Felix calls Ron at the police station, because he used that direct number when he first called. The audience shares Ron’s uneasiness when hearing Felix’s voice talking to the real Ron Stallworth. He wants Ron to meet him at his house with others. Flip shows up and Felix, amid guns in his basement, says ominously that the war is coming the next weekend. Felix talks with his wife, Connie, about cleansing the country by killing Blacks and Jews. He ironically quotes King by saying, “Free at last, free at last,” and then the Bible by saying that good things come to those that wait. Connie says their actions could be the start of a ‘new Boston Tea Party.” The reference here is connecting the current Tea Party to the American Revolution one, but the meshing of racists with the conservative political movement throws scorn upon the current Tea Party.

Ron receives information from an intelligence worker who says that two of the Klan members work at NORAD, thus placing extremists in a Federal agency whose goal is to protect the citizens that they actually hate. He also tells Ron that explosives have been stolen from the Army that may be linked to the Klan. He is frightened for Patrice, and tells her to stay away from a protest. He confesses to her that he is an undercover detective working in an investigation of the KKK. Patrice is unforgiving and does not appreciate that he must keep his actions secret for them to be effective. He tells her, “Just because I don’t wear a black beret or a black leather jacket, black Ray Bans, screaming ‘Kill Whitey,’ that I don’t care about my people!” The film here shows that when people become radicalized, objectivity can be lost, and unfairness may result.

Bridges assigns Ron to protect the visiting Duke who has received death threats, an assignment that Flip says is dangerous (as well as ironic, since Duke is there for the Ron/Flip initiation), because Duke may recognize Ron’s voice. A fellow Klansman, Walker (Nicholas Turturro), who stole the C-4 from the Army, gives to Connie the explosives and a switch to detonate them. The target is Patrice and the Black Student Union, just as Ron thought. It is very strange to see Ron and Flip, who is supposed to be Ron, in the same place, and especially weird for a Black man to be Duke’s bodyguard. Apparently, Felix does not recognize Ron from when he went to his apartment, looking for Flip as Ron. It may be because Ron is wearing dark sunglasses. Or, maybe because in Felix’s warped mind, all Blacks look alike. Overheard is a Klansman saying, “Make America great again,” an obvious linking of white supremacists with the Donald Trump campaign slogan.

What follows are intercut scenes between a Black activist Jerome Turner (Harry Bellefonte), talking to the Black Union about judicial injustice against African Americans, relating how all-white juries sentence innocent people of color followed by mob torture, and Duke speaking to his fellow Klansmen about Christianity, espousing what is really a perversion of the religion. The Klan leader quotes a scientist who says that the white race is superior. The movie implies that prejudiced people cherry-pick the few bits of statements which are unsubstantiated by evidence and use them to support outrageous theories. Ron then must suffer through his name being initiated into the community of white supremacists. Turner states that Birth of a Nation brought about a “rebirth” of the KKK, where even President Woodrow Wilson showed the movie at the White House and praised it. As he says these words, the Klan watches the film, justifying Turner’s claim. Lee again is indicting the movie industry for its part in fueling racism. The Klan members chant “White Power” which contrasts with shouts by African Americans for “Black Power,” except the film suggests that whites have always had the power. Duke adds patriotism to try to legitimize the KKK by saying they put “America first,” which stresses a white dominance over the countries of color. The effect of these contrasting scenes condemns the Klan for their hatred which is propagated under the guise of professing Christian values.

Walker recognizes Flip, saying to Felix that his name isn’t Ron Stallworth, but is really Phillip Zimmerman. He arrested Walker in the past. Felix hears the name and is incensed that there is a Jew infiltrating their organization. Walker says it could be worse if Ron were Black (he uses the “n” word). Of course, Ron Stallworth is Black, and so the irony thickens.

Ron sees Connie drive off and he alerts the police department to be on the lookout for her car. At the KKK dinner, Felix introduces Flip to Walker and says they are acquainted, and he calls Flip by his real name. When Connie gets to the Black Union rally, she sees many cops there and calls Felix, who tells her to go to Plan B. Due to Connie’s situation, Felix, Walker, and Ivanhoe leave. Flip tells Duke that he was in prison with Walker, and there he had the nickname of Flip. He then excuses himself to evade further scrutiny. In the background are posters of President Richard Nixon with the words over his picture that read, “Now More Than Ever.” Quite an indictment of the former President, associating him with racist mentality.

Ron finds out at the rally that Patrice and Turner left, so he goes to Patrice’s place where Connie is there to deliver the bomb. He wrestles her to the ground. When white cops show up they automatically believe that the Black man is assaulting a white woman, and beat Ron, even though he tells them he is an undercover policeman. The scene stresses the prejudice that exists in the job against a fellow police officer just because of the color of his skin. In the background is a radio broadcast from Duke spouting his white power manifesto which adds to the feeling of hatred to the events depicted. Felix, Walker, and Ivanhoe drive up and Felix flips the switch to detonate the bomb. Luckily, Connie couldn’t fit the explosives inside the mailbox, so she places it in Patrice’s car after the latter arrives home. The bomb goes off right next to the KKK car, killing Felix, Walker, and Ivanhoe. Flip, probably hearing that the police are arriving at Patrice’s home, calls the racist white cops off of Ron.

Ron wears a wire at a restaurant where the racist cop Landers is and he gets him to reveal his threats of killing Blacks, saying it would have been better that they would have been killed instead of the KKK men. Bridges is there and arrests Landers. Despite these wins against racism, Bridges later says there are budget cuts, and he closes down the team’s work, saying there are no longer any “credible threats,” an obvious denial of the remaining KKK’s mission against anyone who is not a white Christian. He says that they must destroy all files relating to their operation, so as not to incite the public. What really is happening is a coverup so that there will be no fueling of outrage among the Black community.

Ron does get in one last shot at Duke as he calls him up and reveals that the Black cop guarding him was the real Ron Stallworth. He calls Duke a “racist, peckerwood, redneck, inchworm, needle-dick, motherfucker” before hanging up and stunning the clueless Duke. Ron subjects Duke to slurs the way that he as a Black man has had to endure.

Patrice tells Ron that she can’t be with him because it would be like sleeping with the enemy. She still can’t see him being a crusading Black man while working in what she considers a pervasive racist law enforcement system. Ron, most likely thinking she is being unfair, says he always wanted to be a cop and does not want to resign. There is a knock at the door and they both draw guns. Lee then employs a signature camera shot used in his other films that makes the two seem like they are gliding forward, their plight taking on an unreal, scary quality, as they approach a door that may have danger on the other side.

There is a cross-burning depicted, and then Lee gives us footage of the events of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017, where Nazis clashed with police. One Nazi ran over and killed Heather Heyer, to whom the film is dedicated. There are also shots of then President Trump saying how there were “very fine people” on both sides of the event, and of the real David Duke feeling encouraged by Trump’s election in 2016. Lee is not a subtle filmmaker when it comes to his themes, but, like Oliver Stone, is adept at presenting the images supporting his argument. This real footage is meant to show how Ron’s earlier statement about how the country would not elect a racist was as naïve as Trapp said it was.

The last image is that of an upside-down American flag, suggesting that the judicial idealism of the United States has been inverted, and injustice and hatred have the upper hand.

The next film is Closely Watched Trains.

Inside Llewyn Davis

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), written and directed by the Coen Brothers, focuses on the New York Greenwich Village coffeehouse folk music environment of the early 1960’s. The title is borrowed from an album by a folk singer of that time, Inside Dave Van Ronk. But this film is not just an homage to that time period. The Coens like to take a topic or genre and put their own imaginative stamp on it. This movie is a sort of mock epic that deals with an antihero looking for a home that is in the past, and so he is alienated from the present and ill-equipped to venture into the future. As Adam Nayman says in his book, The Coen Brothers (with the subtitle - This Book Really Ties the Films Together - humorously alluding to the Dude’s carpet in the Coens’ The Big Lebowski), this work contains “complex observations about ambition, artistry, and aloneness,” and the main character’s “various failures as a friend, lover, and performer.” We can have admiration for Davis’s talent and respect for the purity of his music, and even his disdain for those in the world that have desecrated art solely for commercial gain. But we also judge him for his selfishness and animosity towards others.

The story begins at the Gaslight Cafe in 1961. Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac, in a breakout acting role, who is a good singer and guitar player, too) strums his guitar and sings the old folk song “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me.” It is about a man who is sentenced to death, but because Davis sings it, the words take on significance as they relate to his character. The words “Poor boy” repeat often and it talks about traveling “around this world.” It mirrors Davis’s self-pitying concerning his failures and his journey to find the right place for him. But he is never satisfied, so he keeps wandering. The song’s subject has resigned himself to death, an escape from a cruel world, but even that does not give him solace because he can’t abide the thought of being stagnant in the grave for so long. So, he can’t rest in peace, which seems to be Davis’s destiny. After the applause he says they must have heard the song before, and adds “If it was never new, and it never gets old, then it’s a folk song.” That line sums up Davis’s outlook, which is that the classic songs are timeless, but it also doesn’t leave room for invention.

We find out from a short conversation between Davis and the club owner, Pappi (Max Casella) that Davis had a partner, Mike, which we later discover committed suicide. Pappi tells him there is a “friend” outside asking for him. The man, mostly in the shadows, beats Davis up for heckling his wife during her performance. Davis is a smart-ass even as he is hit by the man, which shows his self-destructive tendencies. It also hints at his elitist attitude about folk music which leads to his scornful behavior toward others who do not meet Davis’s standards. The title of the film sounds like a journalistic expose, but it also suggests that Davis lives “inside” himself, with no real connection with others.

Before he leaves the apartment, Davis plays a track from an album entitled “If We Had Wings,” which he made with Mike which shows aspirations, a desire to reach elevated goals, that, in the duo’s case, weren’t achieved (a possible reference to the Greek myth about Icarus?). There is a shot of the cat that belongs to Mitch (Ethan Phillips) and Lillian Gorfein (Robin Bartlett). Davis has slept at their apartment. We find out much later that the cat’s name is Ulysses, so we have the connection to Homer’s epic (which the Coens also reference as their source for O Brother, Where Art Thou, another mock epic tale). The cat jumps onto Davis and stares at him, and in a way, they are symbolically the same in this story. Ulysses gets locked out of the apartment after he escapes when Davis leaves and the door locks behind them. Like the Greek hero, they are both travelers, trying to find their homes. In fact when Davis leaves a message for Mitch, he says “Llewyn has the cat,” but the woman on the other end of the phone call believes he said, “Llewyn is the cat.” Davis even looks furry, with shaggy hair, beard and mustache. The Coens have said that dogs want to please others, while cats mainly want to please themselves (a generalization with exceptions, since I had a loving cat as a companion), but their statement solidifies Davis as a loner.

Davis finds the cat and takes Ulysses with him to the apartment of Jim (Justin Timberlake) and Jean (Carey Mulligan). (“Jim and Jean” were the names of an actual folk music duo). They are not home, but Davis knows the super, Nunzio (Ricardo Cordero), who lets him enter their apartment through a fire escape window. So Davis enters with, and like, a cat, climbing into the place. He visits old Mel (Jerry Grayson), his manager, and Mel’s assistant, old Ginny (Sylvia Kauders). It figures that they are elderly, because Davis gravitates toward what is old as he lives in the musical past. He says he didn’t get an advance on his solo album, and needs some royalties, since he has no place to live and doesn't even have a winter coat. He wasn’t successful as a duo with Mike, and he isn’t selling any albums on his own. Mel offers his coat, which Davis rightly guesses is just a “bluff” offer, but when he tries to take the coat, Mel reluctantly offers him forty dollars, which shows how these people are on the fringes of earning a living.

Davis goes back to the apartment where an upset Jean questions him about the cat and is not thrilled with his wanting to stay there for the night. Troy Nelson (Stark Sands) is also there. He is wearing an Army outfit but is staying that night at Jean’s place because he is doing a gig at the Gaslight (he is modeled after folk singer Tom Paxton). His speech is very deliberate, as he pronounces each word distinctly. He is also very accommodating and nice (which is the opposite of Davis), saying that he knows of Davis’s music and has heard good things about him, which Davis rightly doubts. Jean hands Davis a slip of paper that informs him that she is pregnant. They are not the best at communicating orally.

As Troy performs at the club, Jim joins Davis and kisses Jean, showing that he has replaced Davis as her lover. Davis asks Jim what he thinks of Troy, and Jim says he is a wonderful artist. Davis is unconvinced and offers the question, “Does he have a higher purpose?” implying Troy needs to have those “wings,” noted in his album with Mike, to soar as an artist. Davis asks Jim to loan him some money for an abortion because he impregnated another woman (apparently the cat-like Davis may be getting women pregnant as he jumps from one place to another). Davis doesn’t want Jean to know, but Jim says that he can’t get the money without her knowing about it. Davis’s selfish nature uses women for his gratification and then can’t meet his responsibilities as a parent or lover, and has the audacity to ask for abortion money for another woman from the man whose partner he may also have impregnated. 

Davis’s narcissism assumes that Troy is asking him to perform at the end of his solo set, but it is the duo of Jim and Jean he invites to come up on stage. The three of them sing “Five Hundred Miles,” which talks about being far “away from home,” and the audience joins in with the chorus, surprising Davis. It’s as if they are all commenting on Davis’s state of living in temporal and physical exile. In fact Jean looks right at Davis who realizes that the song seems to say that he can’t return to what was between them. But, the crowd singing along also shows people connecting with the performers, something Davis has not been able to establish. 

The next morning Troy is up early, in his Army fatigues, eating cereal. Davis had been relegated to sleeping on the floor, representative of his station in life. Davis asks Troy sarcastically if he is next going to “plug” himself in, like a robot, and follow the commands of his superiors. But Troy is not interested in being a “killing machine,” which is what Davis stereotypes him to be. Troy says he doesn’t even like war toys, and only admires the discipline of the Army. He also has no interest in making a career out of the military. Troy surprises Davis by saying that when his hitch is over the record producer Bud Grossman is interested in representing him, who he describes as a “wonderful” man who is “supportive.” From Davis’s perspective, which is the one we are placed in, people do seem a bit lame in their comments and indiscriminate in their praise. Davis is also envious because he had Mel send his latest recording to Grossman and there hasn’t been any response.

Davis is a careless person who makes mistakes and then tries to clean up his messes without much success. Here he opens the apartment window and allows Ulysses to escape. He runs after him but the cat is gone, which metaphorically means that Davis is also lost in trying to find direction in his life. On a walk with Jean she cements this view of Davis when she angrily says, “everything turns to shit,” that he touches, “like King Midas’s idiot brother.” She is not sure who the father of her child would be, so she has decided to get an abortion because she does not want to have Davis’s baby, and only wants one with Jim. She makes Davis promise to arrange and pay for the procedure. She says he should do all women a favor and wrap himself in condoms and duct tape. He does make a point when he says, “it takes two to tango,” but she is not willing to take any responsibility here. He wants her to leave her window open in case the cat comes back, which she says makes little sense since Ulysses hasn’t lived at her place. Davis says he really feels badly about losing the cat, and she indicates the misalignment of his priorities when she says, “That's what you feel bad about?”

Davis has to keep moving on as he is not welcome anywhere. Now he goes to his sister, Joy (Jeanine Serralles). He selfishly asks about money from the sale of his parents’ home which is meant for them, not him. She suggests that he could rejoin the Merchant Marines, which to him is only “existing.” Joy is upset that he lumps his relatives’ lives in the “just existing” category, which means they are inferior to him. (As to being in the Merchant Marines, being “at sea” usually means someone is lost, and living on a ship is just another way of wandering in the absence of a fixed home in which to reside). He demonstrates his bitterness about his lack of success when he sarcastically says he can’t hang around because the Ed Sullivan Show wants him back for rehearsals and a “champagne reception.” Even though he relishes the classic songs of the past, Davis does not want the box of stuff Joy retrieved from their childhood home. He says that his early recording of a song should not be exposed because it would ruin his “mystique” as a folk artist. He seems to still have aspirations about his career, even though it seems to be dead in the water.

Davis lies to the kind Mitch, saying the cat is at Jim and Jean’s place and he’ll bring it back. Mitch says that Jim has a recording gig for him. Davis goes to the studio and Jim introduces him to Al Cody (Adam Driver in an early role). They are to be the John Glenn Singers, doing a novelty song, “Please, Mr. Kennedy,” about being sent into outer space. It is a silly, commercially oriented recording, well below Davis’s standards, and he is taken aback that Jim wrote this bit of fluff. But Davis needs the cash. The song humorously protests being forced to “blast - off” in a spaceship, but even here we have the theme of traveling or escaping. Davis singing the words gives voice to his plight of being condemned to constantly wander.

The homeless Davis receives his mail at Mel’s, but nobody is sending him any, as Ginny tells him, emphasizing his alienation. Mel and she were cleaning out stuff, and Ginny gives Davis a box filled with copies of his album with Mike. Davis carries it around with him, like an anchor weighing him down to his past failures. He now moves to another couch to sleep on, which is at Cody’s place (or as Jean asks later, “Who won the lottery tonight?”). He finds a similar box at the apartment, only it contains Cody’s album. It appears that less than successful artists have numerous copies of unsold works. 

Jean brings him the small amount of stuff he left at her place. It’s as if everyone he has been associated with is getting rid of his belongings as they attempt to evict him from their lives. She asks him if he even thinks about the future, which is so difficult for him to deal with personally that he asks if she means “flying cars? Hotels on the moon?” He is elitist when he says it’s “careerist,” and it’s “square,” (uncool), and “a little sad” to try to use music as a “blueprint” to plan the future. She tells him “you don’t want to go anywhere. And that’s why all the same shit is gonna keep happening to you, because you want it to.” Her description nails his inability to move forward in his life, and it points to how his snobbish rejection of other artists makes him a masochist as he wallows in his self-imposed misery, which is more than “a little sad.” 

He runs off during their discussion because he sees a cat that looks like Ulysses, and he grabs the animal. He goes to Cody’s place with “Ulysses,” and Cody tells him that there are musicians who are going to Chicago and will give him a ride if he shares paying for gas. Davis doesn’t have any plans to leave New York, but then again, producer Bud Grossman is in Chicago. 

Davis finds out from the doctor (Steve Routman) that he doesn’t owe him any money for Jean’s abortion because another woman he had sex with, Diane, did not terminate her pregnancy. She never told him, and the doctor couldn’t reach Davis to give him a refund since Davis has no permanent address or phone. Davis did not consider that his actions may have consequences beyond his scope, and he has a child out there, and his only knowledge of the offspring is that he is about two years old.

Davis brings the cat to the Gorfeins’ place, and Mitch invites him to dinner. Marty Green (Alex Karpovsky) and Janet Fung (Helen Hong) are also there. There is some upper-class intellectual condescending turning of the tables here as Marty calls Davis “Mitch and Lillian’s folk song friend.” Joe Flom (Bradley Mott) is also among the guests. He is a classical keyboardist, who also teaches piano, which adds to the snobbish feel of the room. Feeling a sense of belittlement, Davis jokingly asks if they have heard of the piano teacher who taught him when he was young, but the overly serious Flom doesn’t get the joke. Lillian asks him to play a song, and Davis’s first response is an ungracious complaint that he’s not a “trained poodle.” But she says that she asked because “singing was a joyous expression of the soul.” But there doesn't seem to be much joy in anything that Davis does. He takes Mitch’s guitar and begins to perform “Five Hundred Miles,” which is a song he sang with Mike. The feelings of hurt surrounding the loss of his partner is evident as Davis becomes angry when Lillian starts to harmonize with him. He lashes out saying he sings for a living, not as part of some “parlor” entertainment. (Nayman points out the “tension between the Platonic idealism” of Lillian’s words about music and Davis’s “bottom-line rejoinder that its main function” is to pay the bills). Davis yells that he wouldn’t ask Mitch to present a history lecture if Davis invited him to dinner (which of course Davis never does, not having money or a place to serve the meal). The upset Lillian runs out, but returns, saying the cat he brought to them isn’t Ulysses. It’s not even a male. She screams at Davis, “Where’s it’s scrotum?” Since the cat has been identified with Davis, the film is metaphorically accusing Davis of acting like a psychologically emasculated man, despite being able to get women pregnant physically.

Davis takes the symbolically castrated feline version of Ulysses with him, and hits the road again when he rides with the two men that Cody mentioned to Chicago. One is the almost wordless young Johnny Five (Garrett Hedlund), Cody’s friend, and the other is the overly talkative musician Roland Turner (John Goodman), looking like he is one of the Walking Dead, needing two canes to navigate. Turner can out-sarcasm Davis. He is pompous and condescending to the extreme (a look at where Davis is headed?). Davis tells Turner that the name Llewyn is Welsh, and Turner says that he once had Welsh Rarebit that made him severely ill, and wondered if everything from Wales has the same effect. Turner asks about the cat, and Davis says it isn’t his, he just didn’t know what to do with it. Turner savagely comments “did you bring your dick with you, too.” It is a funny line, but also echoes the inference of Davis’s impotence as a worthy man. 

Davis plays his guitar and sings in the car. Turner is asleep in the back and Johnny looks like he just wants Davis to shut up. So these two are the only captive audience he has at the moment, which isn’t saying much. While Davis drives, Turner talks about how the jazz he plays is so much more sophisticated than folk music. When he finds out that Davis’s partner, Mike, killed himself by jumping off of the George Washington Bridge, Turner is nasty about the kind of music they played as he says he can’t blame him for killing himself if he had to sing “Jimmy Crack Corn” every night. Davis can’t take the abuse any longer and asks if one of the canes will go all the way up Turner’s “ass,’ or will some of it stick out. Turner just spouts harmless threats about how badly he could hurt Davis if he wanted to. Davis asks for a cigarette from Johnny, who says he’s out, but then lights one up along the way. What a joy ride. 

When Johnny finally does talk a little, he recites enigmatic poetry and comments about a play he was in getting closed by the police. We feel some sympathy for him because he’s another damaged, failed artist. In a bathroom at a rest stop, Davis reads some graffiti that asks the pertinent question, not only for him, but for all of us, “What are you doing?” Davis doesn’t look like he has a clue, but then again, the movie may be asking, who does? In another stall, Turner overdoses on heroin, but Johnny says he’ll be okay, which doesn’t sound reassuring. The two men load Turner in the car and drive off. 

They snooze in the car, but a cop stops and says they can’t sleep on the side of the road. Johnny is belligerent and resists the policeman when he asks him to step out of the car. The cop handcuffs Johnny and drives him away. Davis does what he has done in the past. He leaves. Turner is passed out in the back of the car and most likely needs medical attention. Davis looks at the cat who stares back at him, as if wondering if Davis will take her along. He selfishly closes the door on the animal, and in a way slams it shut on himself in terms of a chance at redemption. 

Davis continues his odyssey alone, which fits his antisocial personality, to Chicago and the Gate of Horn theater to find Bud Grossman (F. Murray Abraham). The character is based on Albert Grossman, who helped folk singers become popular. For the purposes of the movie the name Grossman fits in well since it suggests how much money he can “gross” from the music of others. Nayman points out that the name of his club, which is what the real venue was actually called, appropriately fits in with the movie, since it refers to Homer’s The Odyssey. In that epic poem, there were two gates to pass through, one of ivory and one of polished horn. It was a test, and those that were able to pass through the Gate of Horn successfully had something “true” to give to others. 

Grossman says he never received a copy of Davis’s album, which is entitled Inside Llewyn Davis, which suggests revealing the man’s inner soul in songs. We have come to learn, however, that it mirrors the protagonist’s preoccupation with himself and his pursuit of a “higher purpose” that he noted earlier. Grossman asks him to play a song from “inside” him. Typically, Davis plays an old standard, “The Death of Queen Jane.” It is a sad and moving tale of a royal death during childbirth, and is personal, as Nayman points out, since it may suggest that Davis is thinking about the living child and the aborted ones he will never see. But it may also suggest Davis will die before he sees his “children,” that is, his rendition of songs, thrive. Grossman’s cold, capitalistic response is, “I don’t see a lot of money here.” Davis mentions Troy Nelson, and Grossman says he’s good because he connects with people, a quality we know Davis does not possess. Grossman suggests that if Davis stays out of the sun and looks more pale and trims his beard to a goatee, he may fit in with a trio that features two men and a woman, because Davis is not a front man (this could be a reference to the folk legends Peter, Paul, and Mary). Grossman asks if Davis is good with harmonizing. He admits that he once had a partner, and Grossman says he should get back together with him. Of course that is a past that can’t be brought back to the present, which sums up Davis’s life, along with the fact that harmonizing means bonding with another, which Davis has failed to do. 

Davis is on his own once more, hitchhiking in the howling cold of an unforgiving winter. He gets a ride with a young man (Jason Shelton) who he shares the driving with. Davis sees a sign for Akron, Ohio, which is where his son now lives with his mother, Diane. Davis looks like he may stop, but, again, does not make the effort to reach out to another, even if it’s his one child. As it snows, the thumping of the wipers sounds like loud heart beats, menacingly ticking out Davis’s life. It’s dark and the road seems as if it is heading nowhere, also reflecting Davis’s world. A cat that looks like Ulysses crosses the road in front of the car, and Davis slams on the brakes. He sees some blood on the front bumper, and catches a glimpse of a cat behind him limping off the road. He does not try to help the animal. Is it symbolic of his own selfishness which can lead to self-destructiveness? 

Davis decides to give up on his music career and escape back into the Merchant Marines. He visits his father, Hugh (Stan Carp) in a nursing home, and the man seems almost unaware of his son’s presence. As before, there is no appearance of a connection being made. Davis tells him he is shipping out because he wants “to try something new. I mean something old.” These words illustrate his inability to move forward. He sings “The Shoals of Herring,” a lovely song about simple fishermen, which his dad used to like. But, the scene is similar to the one where Davis auditioned for Grossman. It looks as if he has touched his father emotionally by the look on the old man’s face. Instead, we learn he was defecating in his pants. Nayman says the responses of Grossman and the father are “figurative blows to Llewyn’s ego.” 

Davis, like many of the Coens’ characters, suffers existential angst, questioning the point of existence. As Kent Jones says in his essay, “The Sound of Music,” Davis is trying to figure out where he fits in. Jones says that because Mike killed himself, Davis is asking since, “I was once one of two, am I now a half or a whole?” When he returns to his sister’s place, he voices his frustration that what life has to offer in the end is the humiliation that his father now experiences, helplessly soiling himself. 

Davis needs his sailing licenses to ship out, but he again was being irresponsible as he did not want the box that Joy offered him that contained his stuff, including his record albums and the license, which she threw away. Jean allows him to dump his other belongings at her apartment so he doesn’t have to lug them around. She says that he can play a gig at the Gaslight Cafe and make a little cash. He says he is done with performing, but he shows some gratitude for a change, thanking her for trying to help him. He then says he loves her, which is a big gesture on his part, but she isn’t buying it, given who he is, and says, “Come on.” 

He doesn’t have the cash to apply for new licenses. So he decides to play the Gaslight for the money. He goes to the club the night before his gig. There is an Irish quartet singing, and when the owner, Pappi, asks if he likes them, Davis is dismissive as usual, saying he likes their “sweaters.” The crude Pappi isn’t really a lover of folk music as an art form, and wonders if it will pay the rent much longer. He says the audience comes to see Jim and Jean because they want to have sex with them. He then admits that he had sex with Jean, and almost brags that he coerces young female performers to have sex with him if they want to perform at the club. The next act is an older woman named Elizabeth Hobby (Nancy Blake) who actually represents the authenticity that Davis admires. But Davis is drunk and angry at Pappi’s confession, and he ironically mercilessly heckles the genuine Elizabeth. He is thrown out, saying how he hates folk music, which is like admitting he hates himself for striving for that purity he seeks that has become a daunting quest.

The feeling of repetition is evident in Davis’s life as he calls Mitch to stay at the Gorfeins’ place once more for a couple of nights. Mitch again welcomes Davis in, saying his wife is making something to eat, as he did before, and there are dinner guests, as usual. And, Davis is identified, as before, as the folksinger friend. There is talk about the goofy song, “Please, Mr. Kennedy” becoming a hit, but Davis’s artistic dismissal of the song and his need for cash because he is not commercially viable, caused him to take upfront money in lieu of royalties. Another self-imposed missed opportunity. Both Mitch and his wife, Lillian, are forgiving of Davis’s prior nasty outburst, understanding about the loss of Mike. The cat appears, and they tell him that he returned home. The feline Ulysses at least found his way home, as did Homer’s hero. The next morning duplicates the earlier one with Ulysses waking up Davis by sitting on his chest. This time when Davis leaves he makes sure that the cat does not escape. He is at least able to keep Ulysses, if not himself, from straying from the place where he belongs. (To drive home the theme of trying to return home, Davis walks by a movie theater that has the poster for The Incredible Journey, a movie about animals trying to get back home).

What Jean said earlier about “the same shit is gonna keep happening” to Davis comes true in an almost surrealistic manner. Davis is back at the Gaslight Cafe, singing “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me,” as he did at the beginning of the movie. He even says the same line about folk songs being old but timeless. He then performs the song “If I Had Wings” which was the title track of his album with Mike. It contains the line “fare thee well” in it, like other old folk songs during the film. But he must do it solo now, which adds a raw, sad quality to it, stressing his isolation and unrealized lofty dream of gaining success as a folksinger. 

As with the Gorfeins, Pappi is forgiving of Davis’s drunken heckling of the night before. He says Davis has a friend outside asking for him. Deja vu, right? But this time, before he goes into the alley, a new folksinger is on stage. We hear Bob Dylan using the “fare thee well” line but incorporating it into the new song, “Farewell.” Unlike Davis, Dylan was able to use the old form of the folk song and create something totally new, showing the ability to move beyond the past into the here and now and pave the way on the road to the future.

Behind the club is yet another man in the shadows who is the husband of the woman Davis verbally assaulted the prior night. The exchange is the same as Davis is again sarcastic and he suffers a beating as before. The man says he and his wife are getting out of New York. Nayman notes that when the husband drives off in a cab the man is able to do what Davis can’t, which is to actually go away and start over. The last line of the film which Davis utters is “Au revoir,” which means goodbye, but also “until we meet again.” For Davis, his vicious cycle will keep repeating itself. But the Coens are more like Dylan (who came from Minnesota and is Jewish, like the Coens), as they explore an old place and time, and genre, and transform those elements to fit into their own, new vision. 

The next film is Wild Strawberries.