History Film / HailCaesar

** Near the film's ending, Eddie Mannix and his assistant discuss the production of a Western titled "Tucumcari". That was the name of a town featured briefly in the SpaghettiWestern from 1965, ''Film/ForAFewDollarsMore''.

* 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 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."

** ''Neptune's Daughter'' features an elaborate synchronized swimming number, ending with [=DeeAnna=] Moran majestically rising from the water as dramatic music swells. [[spoiler:The climax features a Russian submarine similarly majestically rising from the water as the same dramatic music swells.]]

Eddie Mannix (Creator/JoshBrolin) is a fixer for the Hollywood studio [[Film/BartonFink Capitol Pictures]] in the 1950's 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.

** The big scandal behind Baird Whitlock's career is that [[spoiler:he had relations with Laurence Laurentz]] to land his first major role. While this wouldn't be as scandalous in the modern entertainment scene, it would purely be about the implications that a major movie star [[CastingCouch slept his way to the top]], while in this 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 very 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.

* 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.]]
* BigDamnHeroes: Hobie follows [[spoiler: [[TheMole Gurney]]]] to where Whitlock is being held and rescues him. [[spoiler: And by "rescue", we mean he shows up at the empty mansion and orders Whitlock to come back home, which he does since he has no reason ''not'' to. Still, A for effort.]]

-->'''Hobie as "Monty":''' ...It's complicated.

** "No Dames!" features Burt Gurney's character preparing to return to sea after being on shore leave, and his dance number features a stunt where he jumps onto a ladder from afar. [[spoiler: Gurney ultimately goes to sea to board a Russian submarine so that he can defect to the Soviets. To climb onboard, he jumps onto the boarding ladder from afar.]] Furthermore, [[spoiler: it is implied that Gurney is gay, as not only is the choreography for "No Dames!" more than a little homoerotic, but Mannix identifies Gurney as Laurentz's latest protegé, which is hinted to mean that he and Laurentz have had sex as Laurentz and Baird Whitlock did years earlier.]]

* FourthDateMarriage: [[spoiler: [=DeeAnna=] Moran]] asks [[spoiler:the agent helping her with her faux-adoption]] out to dinner the day that they're introduced, and they promptly get married that same night. This of course, solves her dilemma of [[spoiler:being unmarried and pregnant on its own.]]

* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: Its pronounced "Laurentz".

-->''"Not true: he likes Jews."''
* LighterAndSofter: To the Coen Brothers' own earlier film ''Film/BurnAfterReading''. While not directly connected in character and plot and chronologically set more than fifty years apart, both movies employ a similar frantic, farcical plot with large casts and involve George Clooney and a sinister deal with the Russians. The characters in ''Hail Caesar!'' are much more sympathetic however; while the earlier film was filled with [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist selfish jerks]] even the antagonists in ''Hail Caesar!'' are harmless well-intentioned extremist types who treat their kidnap victim very well. In ''Burn After Reading'' several characters meet dark fates and the two most likeable [[spoiler: die trying to help someone]]. In ''Hail Caesar!'' no one is killed and the most likable character genuinely does save the day in heroic fashion.

-->''"God has children? What, and a dog? A collie, maybe? God doesn't have children, he's a bachelor, and very angry."''

-->'''Laurentz:''' "Would that it were so simple", trippingly.
-->'''Hobie:''' Would that it were so simple trippingly.
-->'''Laurentz:''' No, don't say trippingly, say ''the line'' trippingly!

* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: [=DeeAnna=] mentions that she doesn't want to get into another studio-enforced marriage after just getting out of two failed marriages with deadbeat significant others. [[spoiler: She ends up falling for Joseph Silverman, the surety agent who regularly sacrifices his time and effort on behalf of the studio and who offers to serve as the temporary foster parent to her child]].

* 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 his "fixings" involved such unsavory things as [[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/11/hail-caesar-coen-brothers-eddie-mannix-reel-history-josh-brolin-george-clooney Among the many things which the real Eddie Mannix did]] was [[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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_27 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]].

* 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 his "fixings" involved such unsavory things as [[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/11/hail-caesar-coen-brothers-eddie-mannix-reel-history-josh-brolin-george-clooney Among the many things which the real Eddie Mannix did]] was covering up the rape of MGM actress Patricia Douglas, more or less intimidating her from reporting the incident to spare the studio bad publicity. As noted by the writer, the film is a movie about Mannix as [[RoseTintedNarrative Mannix would have made a movie about himself]].

* MaybeEverAfter: Despite the date between Hobie Doyle and Carlotta Valdez being set up by the studio to increase public interest in them and therefore their movies, the two actually get on incredibly well, with the implication being that they may strike up an actual relationship, or at least a good friendship. However we never find out either way.

* 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 rising up out of the see 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."

* {{Confessional}}: The film opens with Mannix, wracked with guilt, confessing to his priest that he bums cigarettes even though his wife wants him to quit... just twenty-four hours after his last confession, in the dead of the night. He visits again near the end, seeking advice on whether or not to leave his job and confessing that he "struck a movie star in anger." The priest counsels him, and also says he should stop coming in so often because he's really not ''that'' bad. Still, Eddie learns what he needs to hear in the confesisonal: [[spoiler:God wants him to do what feels right, which is helping people at Capitol Pictures.]]
* 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.

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

** "No Dames!" features Burt Gurney's character preparing to return to sea after being on shore leave, and his dance number features a stunt where he jumps onto a ladder from afar. [[spoiler: Gurney ultimately goes to sea to board a Russian submarine so that he can defect to the Soviets. To climb onboard, he jumps onto the boarding ladder from afar.]] Furthermore, [[spoiler: it is implied that Gurney is gay, as not only is the choreography for "No Dames!" more than a little homoerotic, but Mannix identifies Gurney as Laurentz' latest protegé, which is hinted to mean that he and Laurentz have had sex as Laurentz and Baird Whitlock did years earlier.]]

* LighterAndSofter: To the Coen Brothers' own earlier film ''Film/BurnAfterReading''. While not directly connected in character and plot and chronologically set more than fifty years apart, both movies employ a similar frantic, farcial plot with large casts and involve George Clooney and a sinister deal with the Russians. The characters in ''Hail Caesar!'' are much more sympathetic however; while the earlier film was filled with [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist selfish jerks]] even the antagonists in ''Hail Caesar!'' are harmless well-intentioned extremist types who treat their kidnap victim very well. In ''Burn After Reading'' several chatacters meet dark fates and the two most likable [[spoiler: die trying to help someone]]. In ''Hail Caesar!'' no one is killed and the most likable character genuinely does save the day in heroic fashion.

* MonochromeCasting: All of the films within the film have all-white casts (except for one very strategically placed black extra), [[DeliberateValuesDissonance as was typical of Hollywood films of the 1950s.]] By extension, this means the film itself has an almost entirely all-white cast. Carlotta Valdez, who is Hispanic is the only significant non-white character.

* OnlySaneMan: The studio's fixer assembles four clergymen to assess whether the depiction of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} in his new movie is tasteful or not. The whole discussion ends up being a esoteric and contradictory discussion of theology between a bickering Catholic priest, Orthodox minister, and a Protestant reverend, while the Jewish rabbi interjects humorous criticisms of their points.

* SpaghettiWestern: During Hobie Doyle's date with Carlotta Valdez at the night club, Hobie takes a strand of spaghettti (purposely ordered without tomato sauce) and ties a knot to form a small lasso, which he jokingly manipulates pretending to be cowboy roping cattle, to Carlotta's amusement. This is probably the most literal representation of a spaghetti western in film history.
* SpontaneousChoreography: InUniverse; in the "No Dames" ShowWithinTheShow, there's really no reason all those service men 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.

* WTHCastingAgency: In universe--Hobie Doyle in a drawing-room comedy.

* OutOfGenreExperience: This is a period comedy set in 1950's Hollywood with it's 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.

* SwallowedWhole: [=DeeAnna=] Moran's aquatic musical number begins with her underwater in her mermaid costume reaching towards a treasure chest, only for an animatronic whale's mouth to close around her. The animatronic whale shoots some water out it's blowhole, and a few moments later Moran is lifted out of the water as if the whale shot her out of it's blowhole.

* 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.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: 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.

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

* HistoricalInJoke: The bad guys 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.

* LighterAndSofter: To the Coen Brothers' own earlier film ''Film/BurnAfterReading''. While not directly connected in character and plot and chronologically set more than fifty years apart, both movies employ a similar frantic, farcial plot with large casts and involve George Clooney and a sinister deal with the Russians. The characters in ''Hail Caesar!'' are much more sympathetic however; while the earlier film was filled with [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist selfish jerks]] even the villians in ''Hail Caesar!'' are AffablyEvil types who treat their kidnap victim very well. In ''Burn After Reading'' several chatacters meet dark fates and the two most likable [[spoiler: die trying to help someone]]. In ''Hail Caesar!'' no one is killed and the most likable character genuinely does save the day in heroic fashion.

%%* TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The Future.

* DirtyCommies: Played with. The kidnappers seemingly fit the trope to a tee, and they do appear to attempt to blackmail Whitlock into sympathising with their message. However, they're also AffablyEvil at worst and also likely {{Anti Villain}}s; 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.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Eddie Mannix is presented as a more or less sympathetic fixer SurroundedByIdiots and self-destructive stars. The real Mannix was not so introspective and serious, and his "fixings" involved such unsavory things as [[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/11/hail-caesar-coen-brothers-eddie-mannix-reel-history-josh-brolin-george-clooney Among the many things which the real Eddie Mannix did]] was covering up the rape of MGM actress Patricia Douglas, more or less intimidating her from reporting the incident to spare the studio bad publicity. As noted by the writer, the film is a movie about Mannix as [[RoseTintedNarrative Mannix would have made a movie about himself]].

* 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 not wanting to redistribute their ransom money evenly, or letting their Soviet bosses get all the money for their labor, or 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 and makes him realize that all the hard work people put in to make movie is not just to drive some system, it's worth something.

* 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. Additionally, their assertion that the ransom money should be handed upward to the Soviets rather than divided among them, despite their ire at the studios for doing the same thing with the profits from their work.

* GodLivesInTheSky: 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.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: The real Eddie Mannix wasn't anywhere near as handsome as Josh Brolin.

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

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

* BusbyBerkeleyNumber: In a direct homage to the work of Busby Berkley and Esther Williams, Eddie Mannix stops by to see Creator/ScarlettJohansson's character filming an extended underwater dance sequence featuring her rising up out of the see 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 Coenn Brothers' film, ''Film/BartonFink''.

** 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 those bananas on your head." Hobie himself is a paper-thin Expy of Creator/RoyRogers, right down to his "singing cowboy" shtick.

* 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 philosophical variant of NoAnimalsWereHarmed.

* TheGhost: The studio owner whom Mannix talks to every day on the phone.
* 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 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 from behind with astoundingly blonde flowing hair. "Squint, squint, against the grandeur", we hear the director instruct him.

* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: Thora and Thessaly Thacker are identical twins, running rival gossip columns to each other.

* CampGay: Burt Gurney is implied to be this, or he's at least a ''very'' flamboyant CampStraight.

* {{Deuteragonist}}: Hobie Doyle initially seems to be a mere comic-relief character, but he ends up playing a pivotal role in foiling the kidnapping plot (he gives Eddie Mannix a tip which helps him track down the kidnappers, and he himself [[spoiler:follows Burt Gurney to the kidnapper's hideout and "rescues" Baird -- it's pure luck that he sees the ransom briefcase, but he has enough initiative to seize the opportunity in front of him]]).

* TheDitz: Baird Whitlock, who easily buys that he's been kidnapped by a "study group", converts easily to Communism by equating it to that time he was tricked into shaving Creator/DannyKaye's back, and cheerfully regurgitates their views on the studio system without realizing he's imperiling his own career (and driving Eddie Mannix into a rage).

* HiddenDepths: [[TheDitz Hobie]] immediately points Mannix in the directions of the extras when they are looking for who could have kidnapped Whitlock, and also works out where he's being held.

* KnightInSourArmor: Despite all the dirty dealing he does to keep the studio afloat, taking a toll on his conscience and his family, Mannix still manages to get through the day and get everyone in the studio back on track, even if it means resorting to slapping them in the most extreme cases. Still, he's so worn out from his work that he considers leaving the business entirely to get a job in aviation. [[spoiler:Still, his desire to help and maintain the people he's been working with for years and the value he sees in his work convince him to stay once he's talked it over in the Confessional.]]

* NotSoSmallRole: Channing Tatum pops up an hour in as a character who has no connection to the rest of the cast, performing a random musical number for RuleOfCool. [[spoiler:His character Burt Gurney turns out to be a Soviet mole, and it's his house Baird Whitlock is locked up in]]. Played with when it comes to Jonah Hill's role as it is really just a cameo. But he still ends up [[spoiler:marrying [=DeAnna=], meaning she won't have to put her baby up for adoption]].

* UglyGuyHotWife: By the end of the movie [[spoiler:bombshell Hollywood star [=DeeAnna=] Moran]] and the fat shluby [[spoiler: surety agent Joseph Silverman]] have gotten married after one date.

* FunetikAksent: The Coen Brothers wrote the screenplay in this manner. "Would that ih-''twuuuuuuuh'' so simple."

* HiddenDepths: [[TheDitz Hobie]] immediately points Mannix in the directions of the extras when they are looking for who could have kidnapped Whitlock, and also works out where he's being held.