Page - 113 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/01

Review: Elijah Siegler, Coen | 113www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/1, 113–120 Christian Wessely Elijah Siegler, Coen. Framing Religion in Amoral Order Baylor University Press, 2016 I would hardly seem the most likely candidate to review a book on the Coen brothers. I have not seen all of their films, and the ones I saw … well, either I did not understand them or they are really as shallow as I thought them to be. With one exception: I did enjoy O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). And I like A Serious Man (2009). So, two exceptions. And, of course, True Grit (2010) – so, all in all three exceptions1 … come to think of it, there are more that have stuck in my mind in a positive way, obfuscated by Barton Fink (1991) or Burn After Reading (2008). Therefore, I was curious wheth- er Elijah Siegler’s edited collection would change my view on the Coens. Having goog- led for existing reviews of the book that might inspire me, I discovered that none are to be found online, apart from the usual flattery in four lines on the website of Baylor University Press, mostly phrases about the unrivalled quality of Siegler’s book. Turns out I have do all the work by myself. Given that I am not familiar with some of the films used to exemplify some of this book’s theses, I will be brief on some chapters and give more space to those that deal with the films I know. FORMAL ASPECTS Baylor University Press is well established in the fields of philosophy, religion, theol- ogy, and sociology. So far, they have scarcely published in the media field, although personally I found two of their books (Sacred Space, by Douglas E. Cowan, and Shows about Nothing, by Thomas S. Hibbs) particularly useful. The quality of the “hardware” of the book is as I expected: good paper, solid cover, skilled typeface (although dulled by some minor flaws such as the wrong headline on pp. 312f.). The binding, however, is not as good as it should be – the first pages in my copy came loose even before I had completed reading it (which might be linked to my habit of placing books face down overnight, though). Also, the quality of the (comparatively few) pictures is not really outstanding – it seems to me that they are optimised for a different paper type, that is, plain white and smooth. Some pictures even have a black framing, for 1 Similarities to a certain Spanish Inquisition are intended; cf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf_ Y4MbUCLY.