TYPE OF MATERIAL - SCREENPLAY NUMBER OF PAGES - 107 READER - CASEY LEWIS DATE - 3/6/12 CATEGORY - COMEDY

TITLE - RAISING ARIZONA AUTHOR - ETHAN COEN, JOEL COEN CIRCA - 1979; 1980S LOCATION - ARIZONA

LOG LINE - A childless ex-con and ex-cop get more than they bargained for after stealing a quintuplet from a famed Arizona family. SYNOPSIS An ex-con, HI, and police officer, ED, find themselves married after a mug shot romance in a Tempe, Arizona jail. After His last offense, the couple weds and moves into a desert trailer. Hi gets an honest job. They decide to expand the family. Failing at conception and adoption, their lustrous marriage dulls. Ed even resigns the force. Hope is restored when they learn that NATHAN ARIZONA and his wife, FLORENCE, have brought home quintuplets. Ed and Hi relieve the Arizonas of a baby; taking NATHAN JR. from the quints nursery, back to their trailer. Their first night as a family is interrupted by two escaped prisoners, GALE and EVELLE His jail friends, turned houseguests. Arizonas home crawls with FBI; miles out, police find the fugitives tunnel exit. A man-hunting BIKER is hot on the fugitives trail. His foreman, GALE, and his wife, DOT, come to see the baby. Their families go on a picnic, where Hi angrily breaks Gales nose. Hi stops for diapers on the way home. Ed peels out after realizing that the newly-jobless Hi is robbing the convenience store. A chase ensues with police hot on His trail. They follow him across yards, in a strangers truck, and through a house - losing him in a supermarket. At Arizonas store, the Biker offers to find the missing baby for a reward; the alternative, selling the baby on the black market. Back at home, Gale and Evelle offer Hi a stake in a bank heist. Glen shows as the men are set to leave, intent to expose Hi if he doesnt give up the baby the next day. Glen leaves, but Gale and Evelle steal the baby instead, leaving Hi. The fugitives rob a convenience store. They left the baby, and double back to collect him. Deciding to keep him, they rob the bank with toddler in tow. Blue paint explodes in their car after they peel out; they realize they left the baby again. The vehicle skids to a halt in the middle of the road, meeting Hi and Eds car. The couple drive toward the bank after realizing the baby was left there. The Biker snatches the baby a moment sooner, and blows up the couples car. After a struggle, Ed wrests the baby from the motorcycle and escapes. Hi manages to defeat the Biker in his pursuit of the baby. The couple returns the baby to his rightful home. Nathan catches them, but lets them go without fuss. His last thoughts depict a dream. It suggests that the baby grows up unscarred, and the couple grow old with a slew of grandchildren. ANALYSIS

TITLE RAISING ARIZONA READER CASEY LEWIS RECOMMENDATION - CONSIDER

Structurally, this screenplay is a fast, propelling read. The action description does incorporate a bevy of avoidable camera cues, but is also very vivid. Meeting each character is a unique experience, and all major characters have a clearly delineated voice in dialogue. Thematically, this screenplay is nothing short of offbeat, but quite a few things hold the piece together to make it work. The plot rests on a tidy three-act structure with much of the conflict coming out of something that was adequately set up through the course of the action. An initial example comes from the way we meet our protagonist and his partner in crime. In the first few pages of the screenplay, one of the plots biggest conflicts is set up. First, our view of Hi is as an incoming inmate, then our first glance of Ed as a starched, terse law enforcement officer. The fact that they fall for each other creates a dualistic relationship that will ultimately have them oscillating between right and wrong throughout the screenplay. His relationship with the law is also clearly defined in the beginning. He seems to have a penchant for robbing convenience stores, but also knows not to put live ammunition in his gun during robberies. Later in the story, Hi revisits his old habit of petty theft, which nearly endangers the secrecy of his greater crime stealing Nathan Arizonas quintuplet. One element of the screenplay that may need to be tread lightly is the Biker character Leonard Smalls. Smalls seems like a satirical nod to the hardened bounty hunter. Hes the character who seems to know more than everyone else, sooner than everyone else and has a seemingly insurmountable edge. Though Hi ultimately defeats the man-hunter with his own weapon, some of the imagery that surrounds this character is disorienting. Instead of bleeding blood when shot, Smalls bleeds fire. He also summons cheroots and weapons from (what we assume is) thin air. Is he the devil? Are we to suspect that hes a pseudo-supernatural character? Or is this frighteningly skilled, pitiless man something that His mind simply exaggerates? The fact that Smalls is ultimately killed ties up any notion that he isnt mortally fallible, but his overall concept seems farreaching when pitted against the rest of the ensemble. An element that does the screenplay service is the general sentiment that surrounds the baby. Ed and Hi steal the child with the notion of bringing him home as their son. When Glen threatens Hi with exposure, hes motivated by Dots desire to add another child to their brood. Gale and Evelle steal the child after learning its origin, but ultimately decide to keep him as their own. Most characters who come into contact with the baby remark on how good he is, and most characters who attempt to steal him dont do so for the posted reward. The motivations for wanting the baby also reveal the nature of the characters involved. Ed and Hi see the act as a relief to overburdened parents. Their action has a Robin Hood quality to it they take from the wealthy (in this case, the family with a surplus of infants) and give to the have-nots (themselves). Their desire for a complete family is sincere. Glen and Dot set up as being of ill-repute early on want the baby for their own family, but their motives have a far greater air of selfishness. Glen and Dot already have a brood of unruly children, but exude an air of vengeful entitlement when Glen demands the baby.

Gale and Evelle probably meant to take the baby for the reward, but their couple dynamic ultimately falls victim to the same malady wanting the baby for their quirky nuclear family. Though the existence and behavior of the baby are central to the story, the baby itself is an extremely minor character. The conflict doesnt arise over care for the baby itself, but over the wills of the adults involved in his kidnapping. The screenplay ultimately holds together well. His desire to be a better man for his family elevates him from merely being an ex-con. Though the kidnapping of a child is a serious offense, the resulting events force Hi to change for the better. Sure, he relapses into robbing a convenience store (and nearly accompanies Gale and Evelle in a bank robbery), but he begins to see the true error in reckless actions when a wife and baby are at stake. All told, his character was never a true villain. If anything, he was one of the only characters in the story whose actions wound up being in service to others be it Ed, the child, his friends, or the family with a baby surplus. He was the singular character who exemplified a true self-evolution over the course of a very original story.