Hail, Caesar! (2016)

A Hollywood fixer in the 1950s works to keep the studio's stars in line.

Directors:

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Writers:

Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Stars:

Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 13 wins & 43 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Josh Brolin	...	Eddie Mannix
George Clooney	...	Baird Whitlock
Alden Ehrenreich	...	Hobie Doyle
Ralph Fiennes	...	Laurence Laurentz
Scarlett Johansson	...	DeeAnna Moran
Tilda Swinton	...	Thora Thacker / Thessaly Thacker
Channing Tatum	...	Burt Gurney
Frances McDormand	...	C.C. Calhoun
Jonah Hill	...	Joe Silverman
Veronica Osorio	...	Carlotta Valdez
Heather Goldenhersh	...	Natalie - Secretary
Alison Pill	...	Mrs. Mannix
Max Baker	...	Head Communist Writer
Fisher Stevens	...	Communist Writer
Patrick Fischler	...	Communist Writer

Storyline

This movie follows a day in the life of Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), a Hollywood fixer for Capitol Pictures in the 1950s, who cleans up and solves problems for big names and stars in the industry. But when studio star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) disappears, Mannix has to deal with more than just the fix.

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Plot Keywords:

film within a film | communist conspiracy | screenwriter | western movie | studio system | 

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Taglines:

Lights. Camera. Abduction.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Music | Mystery

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some suggestive content and smoking

Did You Know?

Trivia

The photo that the Lockheed recruiter shows Eddie at his lunch meeting is correctly stated by the character to be a picture of the Bikini Atoll nuclear test. However, that exact photo was taken of an atomic (not thermonuclear) test called "Baker" from Operation Crossroads on July 1946, where the bomb was suspended underneath a landing craft and surrounded by ten other ships.

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Goofs

Hobie Doyle's Western movie called "Lazy Ol' Moon" has a copyright date of 1951, but claims to have been made in VistaVision, which has yet to be invented. In 1954 Paramount Pictures engineers created VistaVision which is a higher resolution widescreen variant of the 35mm motion picture film format, which allowed the same cinema print of the film to be shown in either the normal Academy ratio of 1:37 or could be soft matted into widescreen aspect ratios between 1.66 to 2.00:1.

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Quotes

Hobie Doyle: Would that it were so simple.
Laurence Laurentz: Would that it were so simple!
Hobie Doyle: Would that it were so simple.
Laurence Laurentz: Would that it were so simple!
Hobie Doyle: Would that it were so simple.
Laurence Laurentz: Would that it were so simple!

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Crazy Credits

The movie's title "Hail, Caesar!" appears onscreen as the title of the biblical epic that Eddie is watching in dailies.

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Connections

Referenced in PWN: Best of 2016: PWN #12 (2017)

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Soundtracks

Song of India
Written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Red Bone & Tommy Dorsey

User Reviews

Not for everyone, and maybe that's a good thing...

HAIL CAESAR! ("A Story of the Christ", as we are told in the title card) is one of those offbeat gems that I have no doubt grows in affection with repeated viewings. Folks here complain that it's not a laugh-a-minute farce, that it's not this, that it's not that...

Here's what it *is*: the film version of RADIO DAYS.

Just like Allen made a loving pastiche of radio at its height in the 1940s, so have the Coens done for film at the tail end of its Silver Screen era, when studios manipulated its contract players and worked the media to prevent the "unfortunate" aspects from being revealed to an audience that just wanted escapism fantasy. Josh Brolin is the tightly-wound studio "head of physical production", an enforcer who's being seduced by a potential job with Lockheed to oversee work on the atom bomb. Before he can come to a decision about whether or not take it, he has to deal with the sudden disappearance of the slightly disconnected-from-reality George Clooney (who looks like he's having a blast in this, especially in the final scene of his big budget sword-and-sandel Jesus epic). Along the way, we see the Coens' take on Esther Williams, Carmen Miranda, Gene Kelly, and a host of other stars from the era...

... and this is what makes the film so damn much fun. It's not about the story, it's about how the Coens are celebrating the films we have perhaps idealized a bit too much: Esther Williams' underwater ballets and Gene Kelly in NYC for 24 hours and Gary Cooper trying to play it in a toney, high-class period drama. There are so many references to the great films of the day that if you blink, you'll miss a few — they follow fast and furious and sometimes with little more than a sly wink. If you are an old time movie buff, you will love this film to tiny little bits. If not... well, you probably wont enjoy it all that much.

But then the Coens probably didn't make it for you, did they...

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [France]

Country:

USA UK Japan

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 February 2016 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hail, Caesar! A Tale of The Christ

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$22,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$11,355,225, 7 February 2016

Gross USA:

$30,498,085

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$63,647,656

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Working Title Films, Mike Zoss Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Datasat

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1