The films of the Coen brothers have become a contemporary cultural phenomenon. Highly acclaimed and commercially successful, over the years their movies have attracted increasingly larger audiences and spawned a subculture of dedicated fans. Shunning fame and celebrity, Ethan and Joel Coen remain maverick filmmakers, producing and directing independent films outside the Hollywood mainstream in a unique style combining classic genres like film noir with black comedy to tell off-beat stories about America and the American Dream. This study surveys Oscar-winning films, such as Fargo (1996) and No Country for Old Men (2007), as well as cult favorites, including O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and The Big Lebowski (1998). Beginning with Blood Simple (1984), it examines major themes and generic constructs and offers diverse approaches to the Coens' enigmatic films. Pointing to the pulp fiction of Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Raymond Chandler, the study appreciates the postmodern aesthetics of the Coens' intertextual creativity.

The films of the Coen brothers have become a contemporary cultural phenomenon. Highly acclaimed and commercially successful, over the years their movies have attracted increasingly larger audiences and spawned a subculture of dedicated fans. Shunning fame and celebrity, Ethan and Joel Coen remain maverick filmmakers, producing and directing independent films outside the Hollywood mainstream in a unique style combining classic genres like film noir with black comedy to tell off-beat stories about America and the American Dream. This study surveys Oscar-winning films, such as Fargo (1996) and No Country for Old Men (2007), as well as cult favorites, including O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and The Big Lebowski (1998). Beginning with Blood Simple (1984), it examines major themes and generic constructs and offers diverse approaches to the Coens' enigmatic films. Pointing to the pulp fiction of Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Raymond Chandler, the study appreciates the postmodern aesthetics of the Coens' intertextual creativity.

If you are buying this book hoping to make a million dollars, please put it back on the shelf. This book will not help you do so and when you read the chapter, "My Boss is a Sociopath," you will understand why.

This book helps you increase your annual sales commissions to $100,000, $200,000, $300,000 or more a year while maintaining balance in your life. Please keep your family, friends, and hobbies. You do not have to be a workaholic to earn this kind of money.

I own and operate a small independent insurance agency. So small that it is just one employee and I. Yet we earn more commission income than most insurance agencies operating with 10 employees. Over the last 12 years of operations, I developed a code of sales techniques that worked for me. Some of my "secrets" seem so obvious to me, it is hard to believe salespeople do not do these things out of plain common sense.

I do not care if you are a used car salesman or a medical sales representative for the largest medical supply company in the world. The common sense secrets in this book will help you all.