Barton Fink is a 1991 film by Joel and Ethan Coen. It tells the story of Barton Fink (John Turturro), a young, intense, and rather awkward writer of social realist plays in the early 1940s whose raison d'être is to "create a theatre of the common man," but who is suffering from writer's block and has no ability to relate to "the common man".

The film's enigmatic story has been interpreted as an examination of the creative act, a satire on Hollywood, a Joseph Campbell-like heroic quest, or even an allegory for the rise of Nazism. The Coen brothers themselves remain characteristically tight-lipped on the subject.

Barton Fink won the Palme d'Or at Cannes by a unanimous vote, as well as the awards for Best Director and Best Actor. It was the only film in the history of that festival to sweep those three honors. Michael Lerner's portrayal of the egotistic film producer Jack Lipnick was hailed by critics and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. It was also nominated for Academy Awards for Best Art Direction/Set Decoration and Best Costume Design the same year.

In 1941, New York intellectual playwright Barton Fink comes to Hollywood to write a Wallace Beery wrestling picture. Staying in the eerie Hotel Earle, Barton develops severe writer's block. His neighbor, jovial insurance salesman Charlie Meadows, tries to help, but Barton continues to struggle as a bizarre sequence of events distracts him even further from his task. Written by Scott Renshaw

Set in 1941, a newly successful New York playwright accepts an offer to write movie scripts in LA, and finds himself with writer's block when required to do a B-movie wrestling script, the only relief coming from a traveling salesman living next door. Written by Ed Sutton

Barton Fink is a troubled New York playwright obsessed with bringing his new idea of "Theater of the Common Man" to the producers he loves to hate. After his first budding success his agent convinces him to travel to Los Angeles to write for Capital Pictures. When he arrives he checks into the dark Hotel Earle and meets with Capital Pictures President Jack Lipnick, who tells him of the movie he's writing: a B-Movie wrestling picture for Wallace Beery. Fink travels back to his hotel room to begin, but when he arrives he types one sentence and then falls into the horror of writer's block. He tries getting help from his neighbor, "Common Man" Charlie Meadows; famed writer Mayhew; Mayhew's girlfriend Audrey and producer Ben Geisler. But as Fink drifts further away from his script strange things start happening, and eventually two detectives show up at his door... Written by Monte_Man167