Ever since their groundbreaking debut Blood Simple proved they could provide noirish thrills on a limited budget, the Coen brothers have been among the most respected and acclaimed filmmakers in the world. The Coens’ quirky style is so unique and unmistakable that they haven’t had to confine themselves to one genre to refine their voice.

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From a hunter who stumbles across a bundle of cash at a drug deal gone wrong to a pothead bowler who gets swept up in a Chandleresque mystery plot due to a case of mistaken identity, moviegoers can find all kinds of characters in the brothers’ work. There are some characters that fans love and others that they love to hate.

Lovable: The Dude (The Big Lebowski)

Jeff Bridges as the Dude in The Big Lebowski

The pot-addled slacker at the heart of The Big Lebowski is so lovable that he’s spawned a religion and inspired fans across the world to adopt his carefree lifestyle.

The Coens based the character of Jeffrey “the Dude” Lebowski on their friend Jeff Dowd, a political activist who enjoyed drinking White Russians, was a member of the Seattle Seven, and even went by the nickname “The Dude.”

Love To Hate: Lorren Visser (Blood Simple)

Lorren Visser

M. Emmet Walsh gives a truly sinister performance as the sadistic private eye Lorren Visser in Blood Simple. Originally, Marty seems to be the villain of the story as he hires Visser to kill his wife and her extramarital lover, but Visser soon reveals himself to be the true bad guy.

Visser turns on Marty and then goes after his wife. There’s a lot of mistaken identity in this movie and when Abby is backed into a corner and thinks her mysterious assailant is Marty, she’s shocked to hear Visser's voice.

Lovable: Larry Gopnik (A Serious Man)

Michael Stuhlbarg As Larry-Gopnik-in-A-Serious-Man

The Coens’ darkly comic A Serious Man tells the biblical tale of a painfully average man played by Michael Stuhlbarg who suddenly starts facing incessant adversity like Job.

Larry Gopnik is a mild-mannered suburbanite whose life falls apart in spectacular fashion over the course of a very unfortunate week.

Love To Hate: Gaear Grimsrud (Fargo)

Peter Stormare suffing a body into a woodchipper in Fargo

At the beginning of Fargo, Jerry Lundegaard hires partners-in-crime Carl Showalter and Gaear Grimsrud to kidnap his wife and extort his father-in-law for ransom money in what is supposed to be “a no-rough-stuff-type deal.” In the hands of Carl and Gaear, it quickly becomes a rough-stuff-type deal as they’re pulled over by the cops and spotted by a passing car, so their number of murders goes up fast.

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When Carl is shot in the face during the transaction, he returns to chew out Gaear, who wastes no time killing him. Gaear is jamming corpses into a woodchipper when Marge Gunderson finally catches him.

Lovable: H.I. McDunnough (Raising Arizona)

Hi McDunnough in the babies' bedroom in Raising Arizona

One of the first projects that Nicolas Cage took on after his big break in Peggy Sue Got Married was Raising Arizona, the Coens’ sophomore directorial effort after their debut feature Blood Simple. They set out to make a movie as different as possible than their grisly neo-noir, so they made a wacky slapstick comedy.

Cage plays H.I. McDunnough, an ex-convict who falls in love with the cop who locked him away. They want to start a family, but they can’t conceive or adopt, so they plot to kidnap a baby instead.

Love To Hate: Charlie Meadows (Barton Fink)

John Goodman standing in fire in Barton Fink

When the eponymous playwright in Barton Fink moves into a dingy, creepy L.A. hotel to write a wrestling movie, he befriends his neighbor, a seemingly kind-hearted salesman named Charlie Meadows. The Coens cast John Goodman in the role because he could win over audiences and preserve the shock of the twist.

As the movie progresses, Barton eventually learns the terrifying truth about his pal: he’s actually a serial killer named Karl “Madman” Mundt who cuts the heads off of his victims. The movie’s fiery finale suggests that Charlie Meadows might have been a form taken by the Devil.

Lovable: Mattie Ross (True Grit)

Mattie points a gun at someone in True Grit

After the original movie adaptation of True Grit shifted the focus to Rooster Cogburn in order to make it a John Wayne-starring vehicle, the Coens stuck more closely to the novel in their re-adaptation. Their version of True Grit keeps the focus on 14-year-old Mattie Ross as she seeks her father’s killer.

Hailee Steinfeld gave an incredible Oscar-nominated performance in True Grit, stealing the spotlight from such screen legends as Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin.

Love To Hate: Jesus Quintana (The Big Lebowski)

Jesus holding a bowling ball in The Big Lebowski

As the Dude, Walter, and Donny are preparing for the bowling tournament, they meet their closest competition, Jesus Quintana, who’s introduced to the sounds of a Spanish-language version of “Hotel California.”

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In Walter’s words, Jesus is a “pederast” who preys on eight-year-olds. John Turturro was given the freedom to play Jesus as zanily as he wanted and the result is a totally evil, scene-stealing character.

Lovable: Marge Gunderson (Fargo)

Marge Gunderson pointing a gun in Fargo

The pregnant cop leading the homicide investigation in Fargo might be the greatest police character ever created. Marge Gunderson solves the movie’s crimes by questioning suspects, not by shooting first like most other cop characters. She only draws her gun when perps present a real threat and even then, she’d rather injure and arrest them than kill them.

A lot of cops in movies are wholeheartedly committed to their work, but for Marge, policing is just a job. She’s more interested in her husband’s painting contest.

Love To Hate: Anton Chigurh (No Country For Old Men)

Javier Bardem as hitman Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men

Javier Bardem received a much-deserved Oscar for his turn as the villainous Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men. He’s the embodiment of violence: he wreaks havoc on people’s lives, he feels no remorse, he forges a path of death and destruction, and then he leaves without a trace.

When Chigurh kills, it’s perfunctory — there isn’t a hint of emotion in his eyes. When his victims make a desperate plea for their lives by telling him, “You don’t have to do this,” he finds it amusing.

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