History Film / HailCaesar

* TheBeard: The studio mandates a date between Hobie Doyle and Carlotta Valdez -- while both are straight, they've never even met before, and the studio is trying to cook up a phony romance story. In a subversion, Hobie and Carlotta genuinely hit it off really well and enjoy a surprisingly sweet date [[spoiler:at least until Hobie catches sight of Gurney carrying the ransom money and has to make his excuses and rush off after him.]]

* JerkassGods: In the scene with the clergymen, two of the pastors insist that the Jewish {{God}} is unmerciful and has no love, which the rabbi responds to by saying:

* WTHCastingAgency: In-universe -- Hobie Doyle, career cowboy (both in real life and in the pictures) in a period drawing-room drama.

* HistoricalInJoke: The antagonists are [[spoiler:Hollywood screenwriters who are sneaking subversive communist messages into their films]], referencing [[spoiler:the vast Communist spy network in Hollywood at the time.]] It also calls to mind the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike numerous]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike Writer's Guild]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007–08_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike strikes]] since 1960.

* StockholmSyndrome: During his time as a captive of the Future, Baird Whitlock finds himself sympathising with their Communist viewpoints. When he is rescued, [[spoiler:Mannix has to quash Baird's new political leanings so that he can finish making ''Hail, Caesar!'']].

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[{{Tagline}} Lights. Camera. Abduction.]]'']]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Tagline}} Lights. Camera. Abduction.]]]]

* ExcitedShowTitle: The film (and the Biblical epic within the film) has an exclamation as its title, and accordingly the title ends with an exclamation point.

* HistoricalInJoke: The antagonists are [[spoiler:Hollywood screenwriters who are sneaking subversive communist messages into their films]], playing straight the exaggerated RedScare fears of the [=McCarthy=] era. It also calls to mind the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike numerous]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike Writer's Guild]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007–08_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike strikes]] since 1960.

** Tilda Swinton plays twin gossip columnists Thora and Thessaly Thacker, who are parodies of the real Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. The Thacker sisters' wardrobes, particularly their hats, are based on Hopper's taste in clothes.

Eddie Mannix (Creator/JoshBrolin) is a fixer for the Hollywood studio [[Film/BartonFink Capitol Pictures]] in the 1950s who's getting tired of juggling the eclectic personalities that his business attracts. He's considering taking an offer to work for an aviation company, but before he can accept or deny the offer, Mannix still has to do his job for at least one more day. So, within twenty-seven hours, Mannix must deal with a teen heartthrob's conflict with his Shakespearian director, an A-List actress's out-of-wedlock pregnancy, and a Communist plot to kidnap the star of ''Hail, Caesar! A Tale of the Christ'', all while fending off gossip columnists and quitting smoking.

[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMqeoW3XRa0 Watch the first trailer here.]] Its cast includes the aforementioned Josh Brolin, Creator/GeorgeClooney, Creator/ScarlettJohansson, Creator/RalphFiennes, Creator/JonahHill, Creator/AldenEhrenreich, Creator/ChanningTatum, and Creator/TildaSwinton in various roles.

** Scarlett Johansson plays an actress who has to [[MySecretPregnancy hide her pregnancy]] while filming a very physical role. She had just come off ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' where she had hidden her pregnancy for real.

* AffectionateParody: Of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood with its stars and studio-controlled gossip, elaborate musicals, and over-the-top epic films.

* AntiquatedLinguistics: The dialogue in ''Merrily We Dance'', much to Hobie's discomfiture. The scene in the cab with Creator/JackHuston and Agyness Deyn is dripping with it.
-->'''Cad in Cab''': It seems I left my valise in your foyer.[[note]]Translation: It seems I left my suitcase in your hall.[[/note]]

** The film is set in 1951, but The Future describes their donation of the ransom money as their "modest donation to the Comintern", though the organization was publicly dissolved in 1943 by the Soviet Union, its founder ([[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII as a concession to the anti-Communist western Allies]]). Maybe they meant the Cominform?

** This isn't the first Coens film set in the Golden Age of Hollywood.
** The Coens are Jewish and typically insert some Jewishness into the narrative of their films. They're clearly having fun with the scene where the rabbi pointedly offers his perspective on a Christian story.
* TheBeard: The studio mandates a date between Hobie Doyle and Carlotta Valdez - while both are straight, they've never even met before and the studio is trying to cook up a phony romance story. In a subversion Hobie and Carlotta genuinely hit it off really well and enjoy a surprisingly sweet date [[spoiler:at least until Hobie catches sight of Gurney carrying the ransom money and has to make his excuses and rush off after him.]]

* BookEnds: The closing scene mirrors the movie's second scene in which Mannix gets his morning briefing from his secretary.

* BrickJoke: Laurentz spends ages trying to get Hobie to say the line "Would that it were so simple" with the proper emotion and ''without'' the cowboy accent... they still haven't succeeded by the time the film moves on. Later, Mannix views the dailies from the filming, and discovers that Laurentz had to find another solution to Hobie's inability to say the line.

* BrooklynRage: [=DeAnna=] has this after her fish costume is too tight.
* BusbyBerkeleyNumber: In a direct homage to the work of Busby Berkeley and Esther Williams, Eddie Mannix stops by to see Creator/ScarlettJohansson's character filming an extended underwater dance sequence featuring her [[SexySurfacingShot rising up out of the sea]] in a mermaid costume while swimmers circle around her in synchronized movement. This is accompanied by orchestral music and is shot from directly above (InUniverse and out) like many of Berkeley's iconic numbers. It's a very beautiful, elaborate spectacle, which makes it much more jarring when Johansson throws her crown directly at the conductor and starts complaining in a raspy voice about being stuck in a plastic "fish ass."
* CallBack: Eddie Mannix is a fixer for Capitol Pictures, a studio featured in another Coen Brothers' film, ''Film/BartonFink''.

** Dolph Lundgren appears briefly as a Soviet sub commander.
** The rabbi that Mannix consults on ''Hail Caesar'' is played by Creator/RobertPicardo
** Creator/FredMelamed is one of the communists. He had worked with the Coens before on ''Film/ASeriousMan''
* CapitalismIsBad: Parodied by The Future, a rather hypocritical group of communists. As communists, they see capitalism as an oppressive system that takes their good work as writers and gives them nothing for it. This doesn't stop them from listening to a professor who says the best way to fight capitalism is to try and obtain the most wealth as possible, a capitalist mindset. The whole philosophy is presented as humorously contradictory, except when Eddie Mannix hears a big actor using it to bad mouth the studio after all it sacrificed to rescue him and secure his career. Mannix slaps the actor silly.

* CardboardPrison: Baird isn't locked up or tied up--the main thing keeping him at the house is not having a car and not actually being ''bothered'' by the kidnapping enough to look for one. [[spoiler:When left alone in the house, he just reads magazines until Hobie turns up.]]
* CastingCouch: Among the fires Mannix finds himself having to put out is a story Thora Thacker is threatening to print revealing that A-List star Baird Whitlock's big secret: [[spoiler:he got his first job by sodomizing the director]]. He is able to quash the story by telling Thora that she doesn't want to be associated with the source of her story, [[spoiler:since he's a Soviet spy]].

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:Hobie recognizes the ransom package sitting next to Gurney in a restaurant. This leads him to Whitlock.]]

* CreditsGag: At the very end of the closing credits, there appears the following warning "This motion picture contains no visual depiction of the Godhead," which can be considered a theological variant of NoAnimalsWereHarmed.
* CrucialCross: The first shot of the movie is of Church with a crucifix in the middle of the frame, which is followed by a close-up of the face of Jesus. We then cut to our main character in a {{Confessional}}, and the rest of the movie concerns his conflict between whether to pursue his personal security or goodness for its own sake. [[spoiler:Like Jesus is said to have done, he chooses goodness.]]

** Mannix is involved in a subplot regarding [=DeeAnna=] Moran's pregnancy while she is unmarried. She got better. [=DeeAnna=] is also shown smoking while pregnant.

** The big scandal behind Baird Whitlock's career is that [[spoiler:he had relations with Laurence Laurentz]] to land his first major role. In the modern entertainment scene, and particularly in the wake of the Creator/KevinSpacey scandal it would purely be about the implications that a major movie star [[CastingCouch was forced into a sexual relationship to advance his career.]] In the movie's time period, it would come with the extra shock of homosexuality, which was obviously unfathomably taboo by the standards of TheFifties (not to mention illegal in those states enforcing ''anti-sodomy laws''). Mannix outright tells Thacker that she can't spill the story, because it would be too much for contemporary audiences.
* DirtyCommies: Played with. The kidnappers seemingly fit the trope to a tee, and they do appear to attempt to blackmail Whitlock into letting them send their message. However, they're [[HarmlessVillain Harmless Villains]] at worst; they never fail to treat Whitlock anything other than impeccably politely, and in the end it's heavily implied that it's actually the DirtyCommies who are putting the true message of the Gospel into the films the studio system churns out (including the production that gives the film its title). This is, however, complicated by the HypocriticalHumour.

* DramaticThunder: When Whitlock kneels before the cross in the final scene of "Hail, Caesar!"

* ExcitedShowTitle: The film (and the Biblical epic within the film) has an exclamation as its title, so it has an exclamation point at the end.
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The movie spans a full day from one morning to the next as indicated by the BookEnds scenes.

* GreyAndGrayMorality: [[spoiler:Burt Gurney and the Hollywood writers who make up The Future are (rather hypocritical) Soviet sympathizers who kidnap and blackmail an actor, but they're shown to raise valid points about the exploitative practices of the studio system and treat their "captive" very well otherwise. Eddie Mannix is an [[MarriedToTheJob absentee husband]] and father who, on behalf of the studio, alternates between being very controlling towards his actors and covering for them when they get themselves in trouble, sometimes to the point of physical abuse, but he's also shown to be a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who genuinely believes that films have artistic merit, and he stands up to a smarmy gossip columnist who wants to out Baird Whitlock's homosexual affair.]]
* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: In a scene of the FilmWithinAFilm, ''Hail Caesar! A Tale of the Christ'' that is viewed in the screening room by Mannix and his assistant, Baird Whitlock is seen encountering Jesus, whom we see [[TheFaceless from behind]] with astoundingly blonde flowing hair. "Squint, squint, against the grandeur", we hear the director instruct him.
* HeavenAbove: The movie ends with the narrator describing how the protagonist's story is "written in light everlasting," as a choir plays and the camera shifts up to the sky. Along with the film's use of the {{Confessional}} and an InUniverse PassionPlay, the ending shows the essential role the protagonist's relationship with {{God}} plays in his life.

* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: The real Eddie Mannix wasn't anywhere near as handsome as Josh Brolin. To put it into perspective, he'd been played in ''Film/{{Hollywoodland}}'' by Creator/BobHoskins who was a much closer fit.

** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Hall Gus Hall]] was the Communist Party USA's chairman and perennial presidential candidate.
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Eddie Mannix is presented as a more or less relatively sympathetic fixer SurroundedByIdiots and self-destructive stars who tries to protect his employer's interests by covering up dirt (though most of the dirt isn't really of a criminal nature). The real Mannix was not so introspective and serious, and [[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/11/hail-caesar-coen-brothers-eddie-mannix-reel-history-josh-brolin-george-clooney Among the many "fixings" which the real Eddie Mannix did]] involved such unsavory things as [[https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2003/04/mgm200304 covering up the rape of MGM actress Patricia Douglas]], including erasing all evidence that [[https://steemit.com/life/@mandireiserra/girl-27-the-patricia-douglas-story-the-biggest-scandal-from-golden-era-mgm-studios the star-filled party it happened at]] ever took place and repeatedly attempting to intimidate her to silence.[[note]]Not only did Patsy Douglas ''not'' keep silent, not only did she take her rapist to court, when he was acquitted she sued him for $500,000. This was absolutely unheard of at the time. When the judge dismissed her suit, she filed ''again'' in U.S. district court. It was the first time in American history that a female plaintiff made rape a federal case, based on its violation of her civil rights. Mannix had all he could do to buy off the numerous witnesses. Douglas' life and career were utterly ruined. In 2003, just before [[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22320579/patricia-douglas her death]], she revealed her story. The documentary ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gymhFPRXoGE Girl 27]]'' includes her final interviews.[[/note]] As noted by the writer, the film is a movie about Mannix as [[RoseTintedNarrative Mannix would have made a movie about himself]].

* HomoeroticSubtext: Burt Gurney's InUniverse ''Theatre/SouthPacific''/''Theatre/OnTheTown''-style musical seems to ''run'' on this, with an all-male cast singing a song called "No Dames" while dancing in pairs, and the choreography involves faces near crotches, backsides near crotches, backsides near other backsides, etc. Also a case of DeliberateValuesDissonance, since what would be seen as blatantly homoerotic by modern standards (such as having sailors dancing together and talking about [[HelloSailor "spending time" together out at sea]]) actually ''wouldn't'' be seen that way in TheFifties, since depictions of homosexuality were virtually nonexistent and out of the public consciousness. The closest the musical gets to acknowledging any of it is when Burt's character gets caught between two other sailors' rear ends and bumped around, to which the already grouchy bartender barks, "hey, cut it out, this ain't that kind of a place!" -- a line that could've passed on Broadway, but would've faced some difficulty with the Hays Code, to say the least.
* HornySailors: a bunch of sailors celebrate the night before going onto an 8-month-journey. They mourn the fact that they won't see [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVQ0JFzXMgY no dame]] during that time.
* HumorDissonance: InUniverse, within the film ''Hail, Caesar!'' the Romans at a lavish dinner party laugh at the prospect of trouble brewing from an itinerant preacher in Palestine. They laugh (at the director's call) for a really long time, way out of proportion with the actual remark, but totally in keeping with [[StylisticSuck the overdone artifice]] of the rest of the movie.

* JewishSmartass: A rabbi is among the clergymen consulted by Eddie Mannix for a film about Christ; the others being a Catholic priest, a Protestant minister, and an Eastern Orthodox patriarch. When the subject of Jesus' parentage comes up, the Catholic priest, the Protestant minister, and the Eastern Orthodox patriarch (who all believe in the Trinity) get into a debate about the nature of Jesus. The Jewish rabbi (who does ''not'' believe in the Trinity) scoffs, "God has children? What, and a dog? A collie, maybe? God doesn't have children, he's a bachelor, and very angry."

** Hobie Doyle goes on a studio-arranged date with actress Carlotta Valdez, who is an {{Expy}} of Carmen Miranda, right down to him commenting on how he doesn't know how she dances "with all them 'nanners on your head." Hobie himself is a paper-thin Expy of Creator/RoyRogers and Kirby Grant, right down to his "singing cowboy" shtick.

** Marcuse, the intellectual of the Future has a name modelled on Herbert Marcuse, famous Frankfurt School philosopher who settled in the USA after the war and was part of the German emigré community. [[note]]The Marcuse in the film bears no other resemblance to the real Herbert Marcuse, whose philosophy was a rather intoxicating combination of Marx and Freud; he ended up being a major influence on the New Left in the 1960s.

** Laurence Larentz, is a parody of Creator/LaurenceOlivier of being a classy British director who just prefers to be called Laurence rather than Mr. Larentz. His struggle with Hobie Doyle reflects Olivier's infamous struggle with directing Marilyn Monroe in The Prince and the Showgirl.

* OutOfGenreExperience: This is a period comedy set in 1950's Hollywood with its main focus on the protagonist's personal conflict and a kidnapping plot, but the various [[ShowWithinAShow movies being made]] all around the protagonist give reason to have extended sequences reminiscent of several films typical of the era. The most drawn-out are the [[BusbyBerkeleyNumber aquatic dance sequence]] featuring Creator/ScarlettJohansson's character and TheMusical number "No Dames" featuring Creator/Channing Tatum's character and a host of naval dancers.

* PassionPlay: The InUniverse film, ''Hail Caesar! A Story of the Christ'', lives up to its second title in its final scene, which sees the Roman protagonist giving a speech about the virtues of Christ at the foot of the Penitent Thief's crucifix. This is also the last scene to be filmed, so it becomes dire to recover the actor from his kidnappers before filming for the scene begins. [[spoiler:Ultimately, the filming of this scene is the third-to-last scene of the movie, and the film's speech about having faith in something greater resonates with the film as a whole.]]

* RedScare: The Future turns out be a Communist group comprising disaffected screenwriters. Burt Gurney is in league with them and collects and delivers the $100,000 ransom for Baird Whitlock. This works to Mannix' advantage when Thora Thacker reveals that [[spoiler:Burt has told her about Baird's Casting Couch session with Laurence Laurentz at the beginning of his career; if it gets out that her source for this story is a Communist sympathiser, her career will be ruined]].

** The title sequence and opening music of ''Merrily We Dance'' are imitated from ''Film/ShadowOfADoubt'', another [[Creator/AlfredHitchcock Hitchcock]] film (both films open with footage of waltzing couples set to Franz Lehar's "Merry Widow" Waltz).

** At the film's ending, Mannix's secretary briefs him on the production of a film titled "Tucumcari". That was the name of a town featured briefly in the SpaghettiWestern from 1965, ''Film/ForAFewDollarsMore''.
* ShowWithinAShow: There are several of these, ranging from musicals about mermaids or the navy to the Roman epic that gives the film its title to the British period piece in which Hobie Doyle is miscast. All of them are somewhat subject to StylisticSuck, although they are also highly accurate portrayals of films of the period.

* SpontaneousChoreography: InUniverse; in the "No Dames" ShowWithinTheShow, there's really no reason all those servicemen going off to sea should be able to tap dance on table sheets so well that they can keep dancing as the bartender pulls the sheets out from under them, but hey, that's what the movies are for.
* StallingTheSip: Two commies infiltrated the set of "Hail Caesar" as extras and roofied the chalice from which Baird Whitlock is supposed to drink in the scene. Whitlock raises his chalice four times but gets interrupted each time much to the commies' disappointment. He finally drinks up and later passes out in his trailer.

* StealthSequel: It's subtle, but the film studio which serves as the film's central location is the same studio (Capitol Pictures) from the Coens' earlier period film about Hollywood; ''Film/BartonFink''. Whether this is intended to be set in the same universe as the former or simply an InternalHomage is unknown, although at some point Fink was apparently intended to appear among the other Communist screenwriters.

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Baird Whitlock's failed speech from the main trailer [[spoiler:is his last scene, after being returned from the clutches of The Future]]. Mannix's confession from the same trailer (where the priest tells him he's "not that bad") is [[spoiler:the second-to-last scene]] of the film.
* TranquilFury: Eddie Mannix sits silently at his desk while Whitlock burbles about how Communism is great and the studio system is an arm of capitalism intent on keeping the masses down. Though clearly angry, Mannix only responds with non-committal, terse phrases until Whitlock badmouths Skank, the studio's owner. ''Then'' he lets loose.
* TroubledProduction: [[invoked]] Each of the films-within-a-film being produced is having trouble getting completed or contending with some other sort of behind-the-scenes drama. The film's entire plot is essentially Eddie smoothing things over and sweeping the troubles under the rug as best as he can so that the studio can avoid scandal in the gossip columns.

** A passing familiarity with Marxist terminology will let viewers know exactly who The Future are long before they explain it themselves.

* TheVoice: The studio owner whom Mannix talks to every day on the phone.

* WaterIsDry: The scene where [=DeeAnna=] rises from the pool was filmed in reverse. As a result, it appears that she emerges from water completely dry. It becomes all the more noticeable when Mannix asks her afterwards "how are you?" and she responds "Wet", even though she doesn't look wet the slightest.
* WouldHitAGirl: Mannix delivers two well-timed slaps to an actress who was breaking her contract at the beginning of the film, during his EstablishingCharacterMoment. His treatment [[spoiler:of Baird Whitlock once he's returned from The Future]] makes it clear that this is how he knocks some sense into ''all'' of his celebrity delinquents.
* WritersSuck: The ''reason'' all of the writers have turned to a very bourgeois sort of Communism, namely, that they are unappreciated for all their hard and miserable work.
* WTHCastingAgency: In-universe--Hobie Doyle in a drawing-room comedy.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

** Marcuse, the intellectual of the Future has a name modelled on Herbert Marcuse, famous Frankfurt School philosopher who settled in the USA after the war and was part of the German emigré community. [[note]]The Marcuse in the film bears no other resemblance to the real Herbert Marcuse, whose philosophy was a rather intoxicating combination of Marx and Freud; he ended up being a major influence on the New Left in the 1960s.[[/note]]

** Marcuse, the intellectual of the Future has a name modelled on Herbert Marcuse, famous Frankfurt philosopher who settled in Los Angeles after the war and part of the famous German emigre community.

* MeaningfulName: "Capitol Pictures" takes on new significance when you learn The Future is made up of [[spoiler:communists who have essentially gone to screenwriting war]] with the studio.

* HypocriticalHumor: The Future turns out to be a group of disgruntled Hollywood screenwriters who have turned to communism and are sneaking socialist messages in their films, yet still indulge in the luxuries of Hollywood and capitalism from their Malibu-mansion meeting ground. They even enlist the services of a proletariat maid, whom they categorically ignore.

* BrooklynRage: DeAnna has this after her fish costume is too tight.

-->-- '''Eddie Mannix'''

-->--'''Eddie Mannix'''