It contains various literary allusions and religious overtones, as well as references to many real-life people and events – most notably the writers Clifford Odets and William Faulkner, of whom the characters of Barton Fink and W. P. Mayhew, respectively, are often seen as fictional representations.

Turturro looked forward to playing the lead role, and spent a month with the Coens in Los Angeles to coordinate views on the project: "I felt I could bring something more human to Barton.

"[15] As they designed detailed storyboards for Barton Fink, the Coens began looking for a new cinematographer, since their associate Barry Sonnenfeld – who had filmed their first three features – was occupied with his own directorial debut, The Addams Family.

"[27] The dichotomy between permanent inhabitants and guests reappears several times, notably in the hotel's motto, "A day or a lifetime," which Barton notices on the room's stationery.

"[28] In his office, Lipnick showcases another trophy of his power: statues of Atlas, the Titan of Greek mythology who declared war on the gods of Mount Olympus and was severely punished.

The film transposes the woman directly from art to reality, prompting confusion in the viewer; Booker asserts that such a literal depiction therefore leads inevitably to uncertainty.

[44] Actor Turturro referred to it as a coming of age story[43] while literature professor and film analyst R. Barton Palmer calls it a Künstlerroman, highlighting the importance of the main character's evolution as a writer.

Rowell calls this a "postmodern update" of the notorious sexually suggestive image of a train entering a tunnel, used by director Alfred Hitchcock in his film North by Northwest.

[39] His first experiences in the Hotel Earle continue this trope; the bellhop Chet emerges from beneath the floor, carrying a shoe (which he has presumably been polishing) suggesting the real activity is underground.

[56] In a grim nod to later events, Charlie describes his positive attitude toward his "job" of selling insurance: "Fire, theft and casualty are not things that only happen to other people.

One detective demands to know if they had "some sick sex thing" and Charlie's first friendly overture toward his neighbor is a standard pick-up line: "I'd feel better about the damned inconvenience if you'd let me buy you a drink.

Although Fink's producer insists that these parasites don't live in Los Angeles (since "mosquitos breed in swamps; this is a desert,"[66]) its distinctive sound is heard clearly as Barton watches a bug circle overhead in his hotel room.

[72] One critic notes that Barton's fixation on the stain across the ceiling of his hotel room matches the protagonist's behavior in Flannery O'Connor's short story "The Enduring Chill.

[74] Critics have suggested that the film indirectly references the work of writers Dante Alighieri (through the use of Divine Comedy imagery) and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (through the presence of Faustian bargains).

"[77] The character of Barton Fink is loosely based on Clifford Odets, a playwright from New York who in the 1930s joined the Group Theatre, a gathering of dramatists which included Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg.

When public tastes turned away from politically engaged theater and toward the familial realism of Eugene O'Neill, Odets had difficulty producing successful work, so he moved to Hollywood and spent 20 years writing film scripts.

"[80] Unlike Mayhew's inability to write due to drink and personal problems, Faulkner continued to pen novels after working in the film business, winning several awards for fiction completed during and after his time in Hollywood.

Sullivan eventually decides that comedic entertainment is a key role for film-makers, similar to Jack Lipnick's assertion at the end of Barton Fink that "the audience wants to see action, adventure" and not a "fruity film about suffering.

[96] The last scene of Barton Fink echoes the end of La Dolce Vita (1960), where a young woman's final line of dialogue is drowned out by the sound of the sea.

The men and women who funded the production – "those people," as Barton calls them – demonstrate that Broadway is just as concerned with profit as Hollywood; but its intimacy and smaller scale allow the author to feel that his work has real value.

Producer Ben Geisler takes Barton to lunch at a restaurant featuring a mural of the "New York Cafe," a sign of Hollywood's effort to replicate the authenticity of the East Coast of the United States.

Although he begins by telling Barton: "The writer is king here at Capitol Pictures," in the penultimate scene he insists: "If your opinion mattered, then I guess I'd resign and let you run the studio.

"[101] Deception in Barton Fink is emblematic of Hollywood's focus on low culture, its relentless desire to efficiently produce formulaic entertainment for the sole purpose of economic gain.

By blurring the lines between reality and surreal experience, the film subverts the "simple morality tales" and "road maps" offered to Barton as easy paths for the writer to follow.

"[109] Such exchanges led critic William Rodney Allen to call Barton Fink "an autobiography of the life of the Coens' minds, not of literal fact."

M. Keith Booker writes:Fink's failure to "listen" seems intended to tell us that many leftist intellectuals like him were too busy pursuing their own selfish interests to effectively oppose the rise of fascism, a point that is historically entirely inaccurate ... That the Coens would choose to level a charge of irresponsibility against the only group in America that actively sought to oppose the rise of fascism is itself highly irresponsible and shows a complete ignorance of (or perhaps lack of interest in) historical reality.

[116] Several lines of dialogue make clear by the film's end that Barton has become a slave to the studio: "[T]he contents of your head", Lipnick's assistant tells him, "are the property of Capitol Pictures.

The site's critical consensus reads: "Twisty and unsettling, the Coen brothers' satirical tale of a 1940s playwright struggling with writer's block is packed with their trademark sense of humor and terrific performances from its cast.

"[6] The New York Times critic Vincent Canby called it "an unqualified winner" and "a fine dark comedy of flamboyant style and immense though seemingly effortless technique.

Chicago Reader critic Jonathan Rosenbaum warned of the Coens' "adolescent smarminess and comic-book cynicism," and described Barton Fink as "a midnight-movie gross-out in Sunday-afternoon art-house clothing.