Raising Arizona Essay, Research Paper

Raising Arizona

Joel and Ethan Coen came up with a true original, ?Raising Arizona,? the rollicking tale of H.I. and Ed, played by Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter, about a childless couple who steal a quintuplet in order to satisfy Ed?s maternal urges. The lengths that H.I. and Ed go to to acquire a child are blown up into a weird and wonderful story which takes the usual stereotypes and pushes them into new dimensions. The story tells how H.I. McDonnough, a many times convicted armed robber, who only robs convenience stores with an unloaded gun, met and fell in love with Edwina, the police officer taking his mug shots each time he is convicted. They get married and all is grand, as they try to start a family, until Ed finds that she is barren (?H.I.?s seed could find no purchase on the rocky shores of Ed?s insides?). Since they can?t adopt, due to H.I.?s extensive record, their marriage is going nowhere. However, one day the papers are full of great news ? Mr. And Mrs. Arizona have been blessed with quintuplets. In the desperate throes of her broody hormonal imbalance Ed convinces H.I. that surely the Arizona?s wouldn?t miss one of their babies, having been blessed with so many.

They do manage to kidnap one of the babies, whom they believe to be Nathan, Jr. (T.J. Kuhn), but it becomes clear that neither of them have any idea what to do with the baby. As if Nathan was a visiting alien, they dote and fawn over their idealised concept of a baby rather than the real thing that?s sitting between them. To complicate matters further, two convicts who met H.I. in jail and have just broken out of the very same place, show up at 2:00 a.m. looking for a place to hide out. Ed tells them they can?t stay because she has ?respectable? people coming to visit.