Honestly? Quite the positive working atmosphere. Subordinate gives his boss all the details without hiding things, even his own shortcomings or lack of information. Boss readily absorbs all the information, asks pertinent questions, acknowledges there is a problem without blaming the man who told him about it, lays out a working plan moving forward. I'm honestly a bit envious of this working atmosphere.
I think that is kind of the point the cohen's are going for here. There's a man with a family dead at the bottom of a lake and they just brush it off and casually cover up the murder. It's not because anyone failed to do their job or failed to do a relatively adequate job. Bureaucracy just swallowed him up and the miniscule impact his life had is the punchline.
Indeed. the only downside is the utterly incompetent and wildly irresponsibly stupid decision making. "Oh no, don't share any information about the most pertinent piece of physical evidence that we haven't even identified - burn that"
Shame the CIA has a track record for mass murder. Nice working atmosphere while they're funding right-wing paramilitary death squads to overthrow a democratically elected leader they cannot manipulate.. so, uh, yay?
@@Garrus1995 Actually, I just started one recently. Whether it's good or not I don't know yet, but it is fairly well paid. I was lucky enough to have skills which are applicable outside academia, I think CS people in general have the best options when quitting a PhD.
This is a great depiction of a very specific type of boss. Jaded, seen it all, blunt but generally amicable, has zero interest in power trips or hierarchy. Just wants things to go smoothly. Holds peoples' respect through sheer competence and his straightforward nature, treats everyone as an equal as long as they pull their weight.
I've had a few. Grizzled veterans that just don't want the boat rocked, and have seen so much that very little rocks theirs. Most of them were also very supportive of us in the trenches - we do the work, make sure the boat don't rock, so keeping us happy, making sure that we're secure, its in the best interest of everyone involved and they made sure to back us up when there was a pinch.
Deployed with one of these in charge as the Enlisted leader of my 30. Aside from being savvy at not letting us die, he definitely kept lots of us from killing ourselves by just being blunt fair and leaning towards justice for OUR plt
@@MOW262he's not jaded. By the end of the movie he ends up giving one guy his freedom rather than kill him, gives one lady surgies and takes care of his people. He seems like actual Cia people. Normal highly intelligent people who use empathy to see whats going on and doesnt assign blame.
I think my favourite part of this whole film is how almost every single character thinks they're in something so much bigger than the reality. Malkovitch's thinks his memoirs will be "explosive" but the Russians call it drivel. Brad Pitt's thinks a bunch of bank statement are encrypted intel, Clooney thinks a bumbling PI is a spook, Clooney AND the CIA think Pitt is a spook. I love it.
@rumination2399 well yeah sometimes people just feel like they need to do something important. Doesn't matter in how high a position they are, what they already accomplished, but unless they can come and find do something "big" then it's all meaningless to them
I loved this movie and couldn't understand why the critics were so hostile to it. To me, it's weirdly like Fargo - the story of how the actions of selfish-centred, greedy and stupid people destroy the lives of everyone around them. Despite the supposedly lighter tone, I actually think it's even more cynical and black-hearted than Fargo was. Some of the characters in Fargo have good hearts and kindness, the nearly all the characters in Burn After Reading are just horrible people.
"What's his clearance level?" "Three" I don't know why but i just love that part. Just makes it sound the way it's supposed to: completely unremarkable.
i love how the guy who brings the folder into the room goes from being worried that his boss is going to be mad at him to being worried that his boss has no clue what's going on
To be fair, i don't think anyone has any idea what is going on. Everyone is sleeping with everyone and someone ended up dead but it wasn't the people sleeping with each other?
reminds me of the time I had to tell my boss about finding a homeless dude at our work and the only thing she wanted to know is what happened to a set of keys she gave one of my coworkers 🤷♂
I love it. For all his pompousness, self importance, all those agency lingoisms, Osborne Cox's true significance in the intelligence community summed up in three words: "Okay, no biggie.""
I love the joy on Palmer's face when he's asked what Cox's clearance level is. He's nervous about this whole thing, and then he's like, "OH! Yeah, 3 unimportant."
Well he says they all seem to be sleeping with eachother and that's taboo so he doesn't want to know the details really. It's sort of important though since the sex might be the motive for a crime of passion.
@@AnnaLVajda Not really with the CIA or Intelligence Agencies in general, as far as sex being seen as a taboo. Realistically, taboos in general are not a thing with spy agencies. Any job where you might have to ride shotgun in a flatbed truck with a bunch of people in the back that will be sold at the next location and you do nothing about it, a little thing like some people having sex with each other is not going to phase you.
The little detail they completely nail is the ambient sounds of non-carpeted sectioned hallways with closed office doors. I worked in a secure intel facility exactly like this, and it is just so perfect. Working in a window-less office building will literally such your soul away.
Dress shoes that make that noise will typically have leather or wooden soles i believe. In my experience its fucking dumb because besides being noisy, they also have absolute no grip when the slightest bit of moisture covers the ground. Nevermind that they are unlikely to ever fit a healthy foot properly. Fashion and dress codes can be so dumb.
The best part is that next time you see him is at the end of the movie and he basically says none of this makes sense and we didn't learn anything. HA!
Imagine those guys coming home to their wives (I'm sure the Coen’s had a rather conventional set-up for them in mind): "Hi honey, how was work today?" "I don’t know."
Honestly Fifth house had the right of it. 99% of special forces and CIA, the spook types see their partner come home and they know not to ask rather they just accept "It was a day". It's much like the families of those in organized crime: The less you know, the less you can say if pushed for information. It's also easier on the conscience of your loved ones if you actually *DID* have to do something unpleasant in those super rare instances.
@@5thHouse They do. My sister was married to an NSA guy. She left him after too many instances of "I can't tell you who that woman is or how I know her".
This movie is actually an indirect documentary of government work. People have some romantic perception to it but most of the secrecy is actually not to let public know how incompetent and messed it is.
I'm impressed how well this film humanized the intelligence ops. They're not all-seeing gods or bumbling fools; they're just people trying to make sense of things with the tools available to them.
Everywhere the government is the same , humans are chaotic. peoples hands are tied in heirarchy and the chain goes on. big population equals to shitload of problems. The more diverse population the more hard it is to come to One decision. Furthermore there are corrupt people , but there are Good people too.
Join the police or military, and you'll find that out pretty quickly. In all fairness, upper-echelon law enforcement and military do a great job collecting and acting on intel...when it makes sense. ;-D
Its funny because its a split second of truth, why DID he do it? The guy was hiding in the closet - pretty sure you're allowed to shoot intruders like that.
@@jon8004 Coen Brothers have said in interviews they were not trying to make any political commentary or sincere observation in this movie. The main theme was just exploring stupidity in all its various forms. It reminds me a lot of their first movie, "Blood Simple," except played for laughs instead of thrills. In each, we have a scenario involving many characters both related and orthogonal, with each character getting a view of a part of what is actually going on but not all of it. Each character mentally fills in the rest of the picture incorrectly, in a way that reflects that character's persona, especially their flaws. They inevitably act on the assumptions they've gleaned from their respective incorrect pictures, propelling events to their eventual absurd and horrific conclusion.
This is Simmons finest role in my humble opinion. He is just so excellent as the high ranking govt diplomat who is pretty much utterly jaded, has no emotional investment in the job, yet has mastered the art of apathetic governance.
"Burn After Reading" is a better movie if you think about it just in the context of the JK Simmons scenes. The whole movie justifies the JK Simmons character who is relatively apathetic about all this because he deals with random BS as 95% of his job. The Coens have made a career out of "nothing really makes that much sense". A sentiment that I don't necessarily subscribe to, but it makes for funny films.
I've watched Fargo, No Country for Old Men, and Burn After Reading and I agree that one of the themes running through these Coen brothers films is that random stuff happens and we struggle in vain to make sense of it. What this movie layers on top of it is government bureaucracy. JK Simmons is of the mindset of "if it doesn't make sense, get it off my desk". Also, everyone in this movie makes the mistake of thinking they are smarter than they actually are. But in this brilliant scene they summarize that no one actually learned anything.
Yeah I agree that there is a randomness is a big exploration in Coen brother films but also a lot of the characters problems are self-made. For instance the main character in Burn after reading has a deluded sense of whats true in her life. I think there is some sort of sense in the worlds that they the cohen brothers create. It sort of combines with an idea that when people do something they don't know where it will lead to which is pretty true of life
There is internal character logic to all their films but there usually isn't much cosmic logic to their films, in other words they are like the opposite of poetic justice.
It hasn't been mentioned yet but I think the best example of this is in The Big Lebowski. It's not the short fused Vietnam veteran, nor the kidnapping nihilist, nor the phony Mr. Lebowski who wound up dead at the end of the film. It was Donny, just this nice guy who likes to go bowling with some of his more out their friends. Life doesn't always make narrative sense or satisfy our wants or desires. And most of the time people don't die in gun fights, they die from heart attacks or cancer or something else even more pedestrian.
People really dont realize how close this movie really hits them, all your money, ego, appearance all will disappear as easily as the importance of the protagonist in this movie does, all that remains is our relationships and the emotional impact that we had on others
I used to be a manager in a call center, and I had a guy on my team and this is exactly like all our interactions. He would come up to me for help and wouldn't be able to articulate what it was or what he needed.... His stories would be the most inane rambling nonsense and would always end with me saying "sure, if you think that's best let's roll with it. We'll see what happens. Kepp me posted."
That's how about 50% of management conversations go in my experience. Most of what a manager is tasked with by his employees is mundane stuff that they should already know the answer to (and usually do if they're worth their salt) but they need you to make the decision so they don't get in trouble. Most of what YOUR manager tasks you with is stuff that's completely mundane to him but he doesn't have the time to bother with.
@@thevoxdeus -- I was training someone to be a store manager one time, and after about six weeks, she looked at me with a really puzzled look on her face and said "so, um, ninety percent of what you've showed me so far is just common sense." "Yeah." "But, couldn't the workers just do this themselves?" "I suppose they could if they had common sense. The trouble is, it turns out common sense isn't." "But if we just taught them to have common sense, they could do almost all of this. We're completely unnecessary most of the time." "Well, not really. There are a lot of little details we take care of, and it's part of our job to make sure other people don't notice they're details that need taking care of. But if we're doing our jobs right, then kind of. Most of the time the workers don't need us. People know their jobs; they do them. We move around and make sure everything's getting done." "Then why do they pay us so much?" "You know that ten percent of the time when everything starts going wrong and you think it'll take a miracle to keep everything from turning straight to shit, and I show up and start bossing everyone around and tell you the magic answer? Then things get fixed, and I sigh and ask someone to go to Starbucks and get me a cup of coffee?" "Um, yeah." "That's what they're paying us for. That and taking the really abusive shit off people so they don't abuse the workers too badly. Mostly the ten percent, though." "...can I go back to being a cashier?" "No. I've already replaced you. You wanted to be in charge, so welcome to the club, boss. Now here's some money; go get me a cup of coffee." It took her weeks after that to get over being depressed about being promoted.
This is the greatest setup for the greatest punchline in the history of cinema. It's like the gods of Greek Mythology looking down from Olympus, and (speaking for the rest of us) saying: "well, this has gotten convoluted, let's see what happens next."
@@BatmanHQYT I remember watching him in Sledgehammer all those years ago and not understanding why he wasn't a major comedy star. His turn in In the Loop is absolutely brilliant as well.
It's the utter bafflement that really makes it great. I like to imagine that there's a missing scene with some KGB guys in the Russian Embassy who are just as confused.
+Chris Weidner Well the jokes it that whilst at one point in the cold war the Russians were seen as a threat / enemy at this point they were seen as an irrelevance. Now they're being manufactured into a threat instead of actually being one.
I like the part at 2:09 when his boss says “And this uh, analyst, ex-analyst, uh..”, and Palmer interjects “Cox”, gives a forced smile, then looks down and gently mouths something disparaging of Cox with disgust on his face for a brief moment. Very subtle and very well directed and acted.
My absolute favorite scene in the film. A smile crept on my face the second I saw JK Simmons' face behind that desk. Such a hilarious portrayal of the failures of bureaucracy to parse the stranger moments of life, as others here have already pointed out. Actually a really instrumental moment in the film, as it "zooms out" a bit and pokes at all the moving parts of the movie and how insane they are.
The 'zoom out' is actually meant to show how ridiculous all of the other characters are. They're deceiving and killing each other over something they perceive to be A Big Deal, but is actually completely trivial to the people who deal in truly important things. And so the latter only views the situation with bemusement. That's the joke. It's not "a hilarious portrayal of the failures of bureaucracy"... these two feds are almost the only characters in the movie which _aren't_ greedy, stupid, and venal.
@infernosgaming8942 fucking facts... legit an actual conversation: "Did you hear about Ted? Fucker walked into the dirnsas office and said he's the new director. Gen Alexander even out of this whole show for him before the guys from the farm came and got him"
I watched this years ago, and I've aged a bit since , obviously, but this is absolutely genius writing and acting from the Cohen brothers and the two actors , I never remembered it being this good and I thought I knew the scene off by heart
The brilliance of this movie is how the audience knows everything and the characters are clueless. Nobody knows what's going on or why anyone is doing anything.
@@RyanSmith-wo2pi Man these exchanges with Palmer and JKs character had me dying lol Just literally dont know what the hell is happening and tryna cover up everything, despite not knowing why they are covering it up 🤣🤣🤣
"the Russians???" - gets me everytime. A few scenes before that, Cox said this in the exact same manner. Kind of a running gag. Great movie, not a sacred masterpiece like "Lebowski" but still hilariously funny.
"So.. we.. don't really know what anyone is after." (1:59) Simmons delivers this line with perfection. It so neatly encapsulates what the Coen brothers have developed into an art form. An old friend and I once showed our friend the Big Lebowski. At the end she was like "Wait, I don't understand what this movie was supposed to be about" as she struggled to piece together some conclusion. We laughed and said "You're not supposed to figure anything out-the absurdity and confusion is the whole point!" She was like Simmons before he realizes in this movie's closing scene-and dimly begins to realize at 1:59-that there is no point in trying to make sense of things anymore. :D
Jesus i love simmons. But i think the other guy gets way too less credit. I literally LOVE what he does here haha. His looks all the time, and the awkwardness in his face
Every meeting I have ever been to in my life in terms of usefulness of information exchanged, understanding of current situation and plans going forward! And I don't even work in law or intelligence - can't even imagine how much head scratching and bullshitting goes on in their meetings.
This is so fucking brilliant, because it's taking away the trope of cutting away from the planning of the "other side". The villains don't get a lot of screen time, and this is also perfect exposition that makes sense in the world it is written for.
God I fucking love this video. I come back to it at least once every 6 months. I also wanted to point out that the actor playing Karl in Succession is so fucking funny in everything he does, he almost plays the same character their too.
I have no context to this movie, or what's going on, so this was interesting to watch as an introduction. With that being said: Obligatory "I need pictures of Spiderman. You're fired. No wait come back, you're fired. Get out."
I love how they drop in the fact that the boss has no idea who the codename was referencing, in regards to the spy at the Russian embassy. Quickly followed up by their surprise that anyone would bother bringing intel to the Russians. Noting that Russia is no longer a threat or priority to the CIA in this movie’s universe.
Was in a tradeschool class with a retired CIA analyst, he said this movie was funny because it actually was pretty spot on. Because everyone always knew something, but no one ever seemed to know what that something was, but they would know that something if they saw it. He described it to me like this. If you played darts with a blind fold, you might get lucky but youd probably miss your mark. ut if you put a computer, a motor, and some steering into that dart, you were gonna hit something, may not have been what you were trying to hit, but after a couple million dollars in fancy darts, you were gonna hit something that you were glad you hit.
There are the revered Coen brothers films, like “No Country For Old Men,” “Fargo,” “Raising Arizona.” And there are the underrated gems like “Hail Caesar,” “The Man Who Wasn’t There” and “Burn After Reading.”
Like physicians, I think intelligence agents get ALL their appetites for other people's salacious personal matters satisfied very early in their careers... after which it's simply tedious misery to hear any more of it than absolutely necessary. 🤣
I was 15 year old on a KLM flight coming back To the states and this was on the movies list. Just picked because I liked the title and Movie poster. Became one of my favs of all time, always recommend it to people.
Honestly? Quite the positive working atmosphere. Subordinate gives his boss all the details without hiding things, even his own shortcomings or lack of information. Boss readily absorbs all the information, asks pertinent questions, acknowledges there is a problem without blaming the man who told him about it, lays out a working plan moving forward. I'm honestly a bit envious of this working atmosphere.
Probably the best analysis of this scene I have read
on point
I think that is kind of the point the cohen's are going for here. There's a man with a family dead at the bottom of a lake and they just brush it off and casually cover up the murder. It's not because anyone failed to do their job or failed to do a relatively adequate job. Bureaucracy just swallowed him up and the miniscule impact his life had is the punchline.
Indeed. the only downside is the utterly incompetent and wildly irresponsibly stupid decision making. "Oh no, don't share any information about the most pertinent piece of physical evidence that we haven't even identified - burn that"
Shame the CIA has a track record for mass murder. Nice working atmosphere while they're funding right-wing paramilitary death squads to overthrow a democratically elected leader they cannot manipulate.. so, uh, yay?
As a failed PhD student, the "report back to me when it makes sense" part gave me flashbacks.
What were you trying to get a PhD in?
@@Garrus1995 computer science, formal methods
@@najtofnin2009 Intersting. I’m sure you were still able to land a good job without the PhD, yeah?
@@Garrus1995 Actually, I just started one recently. Whether it's good or not I don't know yet, but it is fairly well paid. I was lucky enough to have skills which are applicable outside academia, I think CS people in general have the best options when quitting a PhD.
@@Garrus1995 You don't need a phd in CS to get a good paying job in the field.
This is a great depiction of a very specific type of boss. Jaded, seen it all, blunt but generally amicable, has zero interest in power trips or hierarchy. Just wants things to go smoothly. Holds peoples' respect through sheer competence and his straightforward nature, treats everyone as an equal as long as they pull their weight.
I've had a few. Grizzled veterans that just don't want the boat rocked, and have seen so much that very little rocks theirs. Most of them were also very supportive of us in the trenches - we do the work, make sure the boat don't rock, so keeping us happy, making sure that we're secure, its in the best interest of everyone involved and they made sure to back us up when there was a pinch.
He is the boss I aspire to be.
Deployed with one of these in charge as the Enlisted leader of my 30.
Aside from being savvy at not letting us die, he definitely kept lots of us from killing ourselves by just being blunt fair and leaning towards justice for OUR plt
@@MOW262he's not jaded. By the end of the movie he ends up giving one guy his freedom rather than kill him, gives one lady surgies and takes care of his people.
He seems like actual Cia people. Normal highly intelligent people who use empathy to see whats going on and doesnt assign blame.
They also tend to protect their subordinates from the higher-ups. They’re the best
"Report back to me when uh...I don't know, when it makes sense" LOL These actors play this scene perfectly! Entire movie is a masterpiece :-)
Yes
😂
@Matthew lol true. Funny thought.
#Mightaswellcallitwhitejack
he wasn't very good at running the spy business so he later got a job conducting bands
I would love a half-hour sitcom that's just Rasche and Simmons dealing with something like this every week.
I’d fucc with that…
That could work
Actually it could just be the comedic look at real world events, dealt with rationally and free from media hysteria.
For some reason that idea makes me think of "Yes Minister". You might check it out.
@@paulmurgatroyd6372 I think you just 1/2 described Clarke and Dawe ruclips.net/video/3m5qxZm_JqM/видео.html
"They all seem to be sleeping with each other."
lighttakesthetree lol "Maybe Ozzy knows about him...."
Spare me.
and one dude's name was COX
Without regard to sex either.
Pretty gross.
@@thebullybuffalo 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I think my favourite part of this whole film is how almost every single character thinks they're in something so much bigger than the reality. Malkovitch's thinks his memoirs will be "explosive" but the Russians call it drivel. Brad Pitt's thinks a bunch of bank statement are encrypted intel, Clooney thinks a bumbling PI is a spook, Clooney AND the CIA think Pitt is a spook. I love it.
underrated movie for me... really not very popular but quite realistic I fear
Level 3, mo biggie
@rumination2399 well yeah sometimes people just feel like they need to do something important. Doesn't matter in how high a position they are, what they already accomplished, but unless they can come and find do something "big" then it's all meaningless to them
I loved this movie and couldn't understand why the critics were so hostile to it. To me, it's weirdly like Fargo - the story of how the actions of selfish-centred, greedy and stupid people destroy the lives of everyone around them.
Despite the supposedly lighter tone, I actually think it's even more cynical and black-hearted than Fargo was. Some of the characters in Fargo have good hearts and kindness, the nearly all the characters in Burn After Reading are just horrible people.
And a lonely insecure gym employee would rather have augment surgery instead of having free usage of gym equipment
"What's his clearance level?"
"Three"
I don't know why but i just love that part. Just makes it sound the way it's supposed to: completely unremarkable.
Yep, and the way the Director shrugs it off and says no biggie. Osbourne clearly was not as important as he thinks he was.
@@Mq6vL9Bu protip: if youre still an analyst and youre in your 50/60s... you're probably not very good at your job.
Palmer seems relieved he had the foresight to bust Cox down to a three before this all happened.
@@flapjaques He shows such a very subtle surprise and releave at 2:07 so well acted 😂😆 This whole scene is just deadpan comedy gold
flapjaques i took it as cox was level 3 before he was demoted
i love how the guy who brings the folder into the room goes from being worried that his boss is going to be mad at him to being worried that his boss has no clue what's going on
LOL, basically backs what 90-something % of the comments are about! But it is true. Sometimes, the Fat Cat government has no idea WTF it's doing...
To be fair, i don't think anyone has any idea what is going on.
Everyone is sleeping with everyone and someone ended up dead but it wasn't the people sleeping with each other?
reminds me of the time I had to tell my boss about finding a homeless dude at our work and the only thing she wanted to know is what happened to a set of keys she gave one of my coworkers 🤷♂
“That guy”? Please show appropriate respect when talking about Sledge Hammer.
To be fair the dude told a story that needed a large bulletin board with photos and color-coded string connecting everyone’s relationships.
I love it.
For all his pompousness, self importance, all those agency lingoisms, Osborne Cox's true significance in the intelligence community summed up in three words:
"Okay, no biggie.""
Yep, and then the higher clearance level guys seem less pompous. Just seems like cox was disliked on a personal level.
@@pretzelstick320 It was a crucifixion. What the fuck was Olsen doing there, anyway?
Oswald
@@pretzelstick320 the restrained contempt on Palmer's face at 2:09 says it all.
@@pretzelstick320they crucified him
"God no. Burn the body, get rid of it"
I wonder how many times that's been said in the offices of our government.
🤣😂
Today, or just in general?
Since 1963??? how much time you got?
They don't burn the body. Fake suicides, fake muggings, Put sick people in their homes.
@@slewone4905 Voice of experience speaking?
+ Novichok.
I love the joy on Palmer's face when he's asked what Cox's clearance level is. He's nervous about this whole thing, and then he's like, "OH! Yeah, 3 unimportant."
He's writing a Memoare!
It's the only thing he was completely sure of and he was excited to answer
Haha, no Q clearance? No problem. ^^
I like how Palmer is all stressed out about the whole situation and Simmons just doesn't give any fucks about it in the end.
Well he says they all seem to be sleeping with eachother and that's taboo so he doesn't want to know the details really. It's sort of important though since the sex might be the motive for a crime of passion.
@@AnnaLVajda Not really with the CIA or Intelligence Agencies in general, as far as sex being seen as a taboo. Realistically, taboos in general are not a thing with spy agencies. Any job where you might have to ride shotgun in a flatbed truck with a bunch of people in the back that will be sold at the next location and you do nothing about it, a little thing like some people having sex with each other is not going to phase you.
He also just seems really confused, probably nervous something else is going on beyond what it appears, but alas, no.
You can tell that Palmer was afraid that he was gonna get the business from the Director for his fuckup until the Director just brushed it off.
There were several procedures-
JK: PAY IT!!! 😂😂😂
The little detail they completely nail is the ambient sounds of non-carpeted sectioned hallways with closed office doors. I worked in a secure intel facility exactly like this, and it is just so perfect. Working in a window-less office building will literally such your soul away.
Really is that why you're talking about it here on RUclips?
And then there's the guy, you know the one, with the click-clack heel and toe tabs...
@@np494609 it's not top-secret that you've worked in intel, it's top-secret *what* you worked on in intel
S U C K *
Dress shoes that make that noise will typically have leather or wooden soles i believe.
In my experience its fucking dumb because besides being noisy, they also have absolute no grip when the slightest bit of moisture covers the ground. Nevermind that they are unlikely to ever fit a healthy foot properly.
Fashion and dress codes can be so dumb.
... Report back to me when um... I don't know.. When it makes sense..
That line is so awesome
The best part is that next time you see him is at the end of the movie and he basically says none of this makes sense and we didn't learn anything. HA!
"I guess we learned not to do it again...fucked if I know what it is we did."
This whole shit was nonsense at all 😂😂！
She umm, wants some surgery for...PAY IT!
Imagine those guys coming home to their wives (I'm sure the Coen’s had a rather conventional set-up for them in mind):
"Hi honey, how was work today?"
"I don’t know."
Spouses don't really care or ask in real life!
"I have no strong feelings one way or the other"
@@whispersmith "If I don't survive, Tell my wife "Hello""
Honestly Fifth house had the right of it. 99% of special forces and CIA, the spook types see their partner come home and they know not to ask rather they just accept "It was a day".
It's much like the families of those in organized crime: The less you know, the less you can say if pushed for information. It's also easier on the conscience of your loved ones if you actually *DID* have to do something unpleasant in those super rare instances.
@@5thHouse They do. My sister was married to an NSA guy. She left him after too many instances of "I can't tell you who that woman is or how I know her".
This movie is actually an indirect documentary of government work. People have some romantic perception to it but most of the secrecy is actually not to let public know how incompetent and messed it is.
Makes me think of the movie "Brazil"
And how fucked up people are working for
Thank you for Putin's personal message, Boris.
I would guess the world has gotten far too complicated for any bunch people in suits to know what's actually going on.
@@stefan1924 very good point
I'm impressed how well this film humanized the intelligence ops. They're not all-seeing gods or bumbling fools; they're just people trying to make sense of things with the tools available to them.
They also happen to be really good at ruining/ending people's lives and completely getting away with it
@@Name-ck9pv that is the job
Everywhere the government is the same , humans are chaotic.
peoples hands are tied in heirarchy and the chain goes on.
big population equals to shitload of problems. The more diverse population the more hard it is to come to One decision.
Furthermore there are corrupt people , but there are Good people too.
Join the police or military, and you'll find that out pretty quickly. In all fairness, upper-echelon law enforcement and military do a great job collecting and acting on intel...when it makes sense. ;-D
But also throwing coups and trafficking guns, drugs, and humans lol
JK Simmons is equally great at playing bumbling goofballs and terrifying villians, a true talent.
The real problem with JK Simmons is that, completely without trying, he automatically steals any scene that he is in.
@@balok63a40hes just got authoritative vibe
"He dumps a body in the Chesapeake Bay". J K Simmons "Well, what did he do THAT for"? Hilarious !
The real question here isn’t why the body, it’s why the Bay?
CIA throws someone off the rooftop. Local Police with budget cuts : Suicide the most probable cause of death. Investigations still ongoing.
Its funny because its a split second of truth, why DID he do it? The guy was hiding in the closet - pretty sure you're allowed to shoot intruders like that.
Which is a retarded question; obviously he did it to try and hide the body.
For Christssake, did anyone fish the body out??? And Russian? American??? 😂😂😂😂 *Dont know, scrubbed of ID* lmbooooooo
This scene summed up the entire movie....WTF is going on?
Still..excellent acting.
same with lebowski..not so supposed to all make sense..postmodernism
NancySarcay
@@jon8004 Coen Brothers have said in interviews they were not trying to make any political commentary or sincere observation in this movie. The main theme was just exploring stupidity in all its various forms.
It reminds me a lot of their first movie, "Blood Simple," except played for laughs instead of thrills. In each, we have a scenario involving many characters both related and orthogonal, with each character getting a view of a part of what is actually going on but not all of it. Each character mentally fills in the rest of the picture incorrectly, in a way that reflects that character's persona, especially their flaws. They inevitably act on the assumptions they've gleaned from their respective incorrect pictures, propelling events to their eventual absurd and horrific conclusion.
@@jon8004 damn bro u love this movie
@@tchoupitoulos aren't they the cohen sisters these days?
"Oh no. God no. We don't want those idiots bumbling around in this."
i rewatched that sentence a few times. I love how the different departments regard each other.
The Coen brothers have such an amazing talent for casting. Even the minor characters always give super strong performances.
This is Simmons finest role in my humble opinion. He is just so excellent as the high ranking govt diplomat who is pretty much utterly jaded, has no emotional investment in the job, yet has mastered the art of apathetic governance.
I loved him in The Accountant.
He's great, but man he killed it in whiplash too
He's legendary in everything he does
"Burn After Reading" is a better movie if you think about it just in the context of the JK Simmons scenes. The whole movie justifies the JK Simmons character who is relatively apathetic about all this because he deals with random BS as 95% of his job. The Coens have made a career out of "nothing really makes that much sense". A sentiment that I don't necessarily subscribe to, but it makes for funny films.
I've watched Fargo, No Country for Old Men, and Burn After Reading and I agree that one of the themes running through these Coen brothers films is that random stuff happens and we struggle in vain to make sense of it. What this movie layers on top of it is government bureaucracy. JK Simmons is of the mindset of "if it doesn't make sense, get it off my desk". Also, everyone in this movie makes the mistake of thinking they are smarter than they actually are. But in this brilliant scene they summarize that no one actually learned anything.
exactly, I love to go back to those raports ;d I've watched whole movie 2 times, but this scene and ender I've watched around 20 times :D
Yeah I agree that there is a randomness is a big exploration in Coen brother films but also a lot of the characters problems are self-made. For instance the main character in Burn after reading has a deluded sense of whats true in her life. I think there is some sort of sense in the worlds that they the cohen brothers create. It sort of combines with an idea that when people do something they don't know where it will lead to which is pretty true of life
There is internal character logic to all their films but there usually isn't much cosmic logic to their films, in other words they are like the opposite of poetic justice.
It hasn't been mentioned yet but I think the best example of this is in The Big Lebowski. It's not the short fused Vietnam veteran, nor the kidnapping nihilist, nor the phony Mr. Lebowski who wound up dead at the end of the film. It was Donny, just this nice guy who likes to go bowling with some of his more out their friends. Life doesn't always make narrative sense or satisfy our wants or desires. And most of the time people don't die in gun fights, they die from heart attacks or cancer or something else even more pedestrian.
People really dont realize how close this movie really hits them, all your money, ego, appearance all will disappear as easily as the importance of the protagonist in this movie does, all that remains is our relationships and the emotional impact that we had on others
That was a bit flowery. Really, it can just be summed up as "You are probably not nearly as important as you think you are."
@@Resi1ience why do you answer a comment i made 2 years ago
@@tincho827 probably because that's when they saw it.
The CIA director is like the audience, like why did he do that? this doesnt make sense, waiting for the guy to actually make a point hahaha.
It perfectly parodies other films where these guys are supposed to sum it all up and make it make sense. but they are just as clueless. xD
dats wat I love soooo much about this movie!!!!
afarmenian Bingo!
The audience knows exactly what's going on. We know why the situation unfolded and we know the characters' intentions, misguided as they may be.
Lol
"Report back to me, when, uh...it makes sense." One of the great lines of all time.
David Rasche doesn't get enough credit for this role.
The way he nervously stumbles his dialogue is hilariously natural.
I used to be a manager in a call center, and I had a guy on my team and this is exactly like all our interactions.
He would come up to me for help and wouldn't be able to articulate what it was or what he needed.... His stories would be the most inane rambling nonsense and would always end with me saying "sure, if you think that's best let's roll with it. We'll see what happens. Kepp me posted."
@@flennboyd6413 this actually sounds like a pretty good work relationship
That's how about 50% of management conversations go in my experience. Most of what a manager is tasked with by his employees is mundane stuff that they should already know the answer to (and usually do if they're worth their salt) but they need you to make the decision so they don't get in trouble. Most of what YOUR manager tasks you with is stuff that's completely mundane to him but he doesn't have the time to bother with.
Hahahaha
@@thevoxdeus yup, pretty much.
@@thevoxdeus -- I was training someone to be a store manager one time, and after about six weeks, she looked at me with a really puzzled look on her face and said "so, um, ninety percent of what you've showed me so far is just common sense."
"Yeah."
"But, couldn't the workers just do this themselves?"
"I suppose they could if they had common sense. The trouble is, it turns out common sense isn't."
"But if we just taught them to have common sense, they could do almost all of this. We're completely unnecessary most of the time."
"Well, not really. There are a lot of little details we take care of, and it's part of our job to make sure other people don't notice they're details that need taking care of. But if we're doing our jobs right, then kind of. Most of the time the workers don't need us. People know their jobs; they do them. We move around and make sure everything's getting done."
"Then why do they pay us so much?"
"You know that ten percent of the time when everything starts going wrong and you think it'll take a miracle to keep everything from turning straight to shit, and I show up and start bossing everyone around and tell you the magic answer? Then things get fixed, and I sigh and ask someone to go to Starbucks and get me a cup of coffee?"
"Um, yeah."
"That's what they're paying us for. That and taking the really abusive shit off people so they don't abuse the workers too badly. Mostly the ten percent, though."
"...can I go back to being a cashier?"
"No. I've already replaced you. You wanted to be in charge, so welcome to the club, boss. Now here's some money; go get me a cup of coffee."
It took her weeks after that to get over being depressed about being promoted.
This is the greatest setup for the greatest punchline in the history of cinema. It's like the gods of Greek Mythology looking down from Olympus, and (speaking for the rest of us) saying: "well, this has gotten convoluted, let's see what happens next."
Those footsteps are some real comfy ASMR shit.
Heavily agree; including the leather chair, the paper flipping, and the actors' cadence are all solid ASMR.
That is very much true.
The "institutional building" background hum is a slightly different pitch in every shot
Such an amazing scene. Superb script, directing and acting.
Exactly. Spot on.
Everything happened. Nothing happened. This is like Seinfeld with a higher security clearance.
I didn't study
Wow... David Rasche is friggin' masterful here!! His delivery is like a serious version of Bob Newhart. Love it.
He's a gifted comedic actor, he's quietly become the most hilarious part of Succession.
@@BatmanHQYT I remember watching him in Sledgehammer all those years ago and not understanding why he wasn't a major comedy star. His turn in In the Loop is absolutely brilliant as well.
...The Russians?
It's the utter bafflement that really makes it great.
I like to imagine that there's a missing scene with some KGB guys in the Russian Embassy who are just as confused.
luke raithel ...The Russians!
luke raithel Yea, the Russians, like now.
+Chris Weidner Well the jokes it that whilst at one point in the cold war the Russians were seen as a threat / enemy at this point they were seen as an irrelevance. Now they're being manufactured into a threat instead of actually being one.
Bingo.
I love stories about one f***-up after another.
The Observant Servant They should make a new genre called "fu**-up" movies. I'd watch the whole list
I like the part at 2:09 when his boss says “And this uh, analyst, ex-analyst, uh..”, and Palmer interjects “Cox”, gives a forced smile, then looks down and gently mouths something disparaging of Cox with disgust on his face for a brief moment. Very subtle and very well directed and acted.
“Report back to me…..when it starts making sense.” I laugh out loud every time I hear this.
It's the only line that's real
lol Almost like he was about to say "when u find out anything else" then realized they wouldnt know what to do if he DID find out anything else 😂😂😂😂
Such a good movie, these two guys really make it extra good.
My absolute favorite scene in the film. A smile crept on my face the second I saw JK Simmons' face behind that desk. Such a hilarious portrayal of the failures of bureaucracy to parse the stranger moments of life, as others here have already pointed out. Actually a really instrumental moment in the film, as it "zooms out" a bit and pokes at all the moving parts of the movie and how insane they are.
The 'zoom out' is actually meant to show how ridiculous all of the other characters are. They're deceiving and killing each other over something they perceive to be A Big Deal, but is actually completely trivial to the people who deal in truly important things. And so the latter only views the situation with bemusement. That's the joke. It's not "a hilarious portrayal of the failures of bureaucracy"... these two feds are almost the only characters in the movie which _aren't_ greedy, stupid, and venal.
@@CognizantCheddar It's both, Einstein.
@@mutoneonNah, bureaucracy isn't the problem here. These guys just don't have enough information to do anything.
As someone who used to work in that world:
This is the most accurate depiction of that world possible...
The "burn the body, get rid of it!! *yes sir*" part had me crying 😂😂😂😂
Too true, you see the most outlandish shit and it’s just another day in the office.
@infernosgaming8942 fucking facts... legit an actual conversation:
"Did you hear about Ted? Fucker walked into the dirnsas office and said he's the new director. Gen Alexander even out of this whole show for him before the guys from the farm came and got him"
"Report back to me, I don't know, when it makes sense." is hands down one of the best lines of any movie ever
JK Simmons makes every scene twice as good.
.
thrice
Especially in oz when he gives everyone the royal welcome
Who tf is JK Simmons? The turtle head guy in the dumbass insurance commercials?
@@gmmakesmehurl Who's JK Simmons? Umm, just the guy in the video, dumbass.
One of my favorite movies. The comedy is non-stop.
Absolutely love every second of this scene. Palmer's little quarter-second smile at the name "Cox" at 2:10 kills me
"burn the body, get rid of it"
brilliant!
I think I could watch anything with JK Simmons.😂
he went to my school, apparently a really wonderful person.
Liz C
I saw him just walking around Hollywood, he's a real "persons" person.
oh he actually walks???
Vern Schiilinger- the most evil man in history
J Jonah Jameson from Spiderman 2
Every actor in this was so all-in on every ridiculous scene it was amazing. So many outstanding performances
“Report back to me when it makes sense” that line sums up the whole film
What an absolutely brilliant film. Definitely one of my favorite movies from the past 20 years.
J.K. Simmons and David Rasche. Two of my favorite character actors. Fantastic stuff.
Two brilliant character actors seal this film perfectly.
"They all seem to be sleeping with each other..."
Okay.
All right, spare me.
I watched this years ago, and I've aged a bit since , obviously, but this is absolutely genius writing and acting from the Cohen brothers and the two actors , I never remembered it being this good and I thought I knew the scene off by heart
I appreciate it a lot more now than I did as a dumb 15-year-old kid. It is so accurate to how big bureacracies work.
J.K. Simmons is one helluva great character actor. Everything he does is gold, no matter how small.
I love how they sum up the whole movie in one awkward conversation...
The brilliance of this movie is how the audience knows everything and the characters are clueless. Nobody knows what's going on or why anyone is doing anything.
This is definitely the highlight of this movie .. very subtle and as enjoyable as when I first saw it many years ago :)
LOL "...well....what'd he do that for?!?"
"Dont know, sir..."
So much confusion!!! lol Love this movie!!
Lol
@@RyanSmith-wo2pi Man these exchanges with Palmer and JKs character had me dying lol Just literally dont know what the hell is happening and tryna cover up everything, despite not knowing why they are covering it up 🤣🤣🤣
"the Russians???" - gets me everytime. A few scenes before that, Cox said this in the exact same manner. Kind of a running gag.
Great movie, not a sacred masterpiece like "Lebowski" but still hilariously funny.
Yep, especially when he asked the second time lol "The Russians???🤔🤔" lol
What an underrated film this is - absolutely hilarious
"So.. we.. don't really know what anyone is after." (1:59)
Simmons delivers this line with perfection. It so neatly encapsulates what the Coen brothers have developed into an art form. An old friend and I once showed our friend the Big Lebowski. At the end she was like "Wait, I don't understand what this movie was supposed to be about" as she struggled to piece together some conclusion. We laughed and said "You're not supposed to figure anything out-the absurdity and confusion is the whole point!" She was like Simmons before he realizes in this movie's closing scene-and dimly begins to realize at 1:59-that there is no point in trying to make sense of things anymore. :D
I saw the whole movie. These guys together were the best parts of the movie.
Jesus i love simmons. But i think the other guy gets way too less credit. I literally LOVE what he does here haha. His looks all the time, and the awkwardness in his face
David Rasche. Definitely. Been a fan since Sledgehammer. That trademark wince.
@@MichaelWerneburg Love him in Succession and In the Loop - fantastic comedy/drama actor.
I can totally see this happening every day
This and the last scene with these 2 guys were the best part of this film :-)
What why why is this so entertaining so funny so watchable so perfect.
all the scenes of these two guys have such good acting and comedic timing. great cinema tbh
"Report back to me when...I dunno, when it makes sense." Brilliant, hilarious delivery!
I just love this movie!!! The characters, and so many smart lines from them. This goes to my TOP-10 movies easily!!!
Every meeting I have ever been to in my life in terms of usefulness of information exchanged, understanding of current situation and plans going forward!
And I don't even work in law or intelligence - can't even imagine how much head scratching and bullshitting goes on in their meetings.
This is so fucking brilliant, because it's taking away the trope of cutting away from the planning of the "other side". The villains don't get a lot of screen time, and this is also perfect exposition that makes sense in the world it is written for.
“Report back to me when uh…I don’t know..When it makes sense”😂
One of the best movies that barely anyone knows about it.
The way he says "dumps a body...in the Chesapeake Bay" is so damn hilarious
Still dont know exactly why but i can watch this movie again and again and again. Never gets old.
Same. It's like The Big Lebowski. Some movies just feel fresh every time you see them. Coen bros are masters of the craft.
God I fucking love this video. I come back to it at least once every 6 months. I also wanted to point out that the actor playing Karl in Succession is so fucking funny in everything he does, he almost plays the same character their too.
I have no context to this movie, or what's going on, so this was interesting to watch as an introduction.
With that being said: Obligatory "I need pictures of Spiderman. You're fired. No wait come back, you're fired. Get out."
I love how they drop in the fact that the boss has no idea who the codename was referencing, in regards to the spy at the Russian embassy. Quickly followed up by their surprise that anyone would bother bringing intel to the Russians. Noting that Russia is no longer a threat or priority to the CIA in this movie’s universe.
J.K Simmons is a national treasure
the timing of both those guys was absolutly perfect.
The editing in this movie is outstanding. Just amazing.
"The russians ?? .." X))))
yesss
XD
I would love to see JK Simmons reading Anthony Weiner case file.
One of the best comedies ever made.
Was in a tradeschool class with a retired CIA analyst, he said this movie was funny because it actually was pretty spot on. Because everyone always knew something, but no one ever seemed to know what that something was, but they would know that something if they saw it.
He described it to me like this. If you played darts with a blind fold, you might get lucky but youd probably miss your mark. ut if you put a computer, a motor, and some steering into that dart, you were gonna hit something, may not have been what you were trying to hit, but after a couple million dollars in fancy darts, you were gonna hit something that you were glad you hit.
“The Russians?” Cracks me up every time.
The Russians?
Sledgehammer and JK Simmons are so great.
YES! I'm so glad whenever anyone references Sledgehammer.
@@JohnChoidotOrg If only he'd said "Trust me, I know what I'm doing..."
Its a good enough movie, but the small bits with these two just raises everything so much!
There are the revered Coen brothers films, like “No Country For Old Men,” “Fargo,” “Raising Arizona.” And there are the underrated gems like “Hail Caesar,” “The Man Who Wasn’t There” and “Burn After Reading.”
"...Vince was not minor...!"
In the big lebowski dude just wanted his rug.... In this one linda just wanted surgery. Everything makes sense.
"They all seem to be sleeping with eachother"
"Alright, spare me"
Literally me at work
Like physicians, I think intelligence agents get ALL their appetites for other people's salacious personal matters satisfied very early in their careers... after which it's simply tedious misery to hear any more of it than absolutely necessary. 🤣
Just discovered this scene. Now i must get the whole movie!
I love this scene so much
Such a tiny little part, but it's one of my favorite parts JK Simmons completely crushes.
This movie is so freaking funny.
One of many great scenes in a phenomenal film.
I was 15 year old on a KLM flight coming back To the states and this was on the movies list. Just picked because I liked the title and Movie poster. Became one of my favs of all time, always recommend it to people.
I don’t know this actor’s name but he’s my favourite character in Succession. Every line he gets he just delivers so subtly but hilariously to me.
David Rasche or JK Simmons?
@@a.demifemiflapo5795 David Rasche.
@@TheRausing1 He's very good in Men In Black 3 even if it was a minor role lol
"I am currently having a panic attack" is my favorite line of his from Succession.