The Coen Brothers Film Experience #9: ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’

05 Jan

Posted by Bill Rusnak as Comedy, Film Experience

**”O Brother, Where Art Thou?” was a first time viewing in 2009 therefore it is not a part of my 2010 Film Watch.**

Catch next week’s Coen Brothers Film Experience entry on Wednesday, January 13th: The Man Who Wasn’t There

This entry into my Coen Brothers Film Experience was supposed to be posted on December 9th. Seeing as it is now January 2nd, you can tell I’m a little late… The tardiness however is not for lack of trying. I’m going to disappoint a ton of Coen fans when I say that after ‘O Brother’ ended, I had no idea what I would write about.

After almost 30 days of thought, I think I’m about ready to discuss the film. It’s going to take a lot for me to do so because in order for me to continue, I’m going to have to admit to some pretty serious personal deficiencies surrounding my knowledge of Homer, film and the themes that the Coen Brothers built this movie around.

Hit the jump for the rest.

“O Brother, Where Art Thou?” is based loosely on Homer’s “The Odyssey”. Three prison escapees evade capture through the south during the The Great Depression of the 1930’s in an attempt to find a $1.2 million dollar buried treasure. George Clooney plays Ulysses Everett McGill, the fastest talking member of the three prisoner group and acts as the defacto leader as it it his treasure they are hunting down.

It is on this journey to find the buried treasure where the links to “The Odyssey” begin…it is also where my ignorance of Homer’s work handicaps me from both enjoying this film as much as others do and also from understanding exactly all the themes developed by the Coens in this movie. I can give a fairly basic description of “The Odyssey” where it is the story of a man (Odysseus), his crew, and his ship as they attempt to travel home from war abroad. On this journey home, the ship and crew get waylayed time and time again by mythical events and creatures on the islands they stop at on the way home. The most simplistic relations between the source material and ‘O Brother’ are glaringly obvious: as Everett and company work their way through the south, they find themselves up against characters and scenarios reminiscent of ‘The Odyssey’: John Goodman as a one eyed con man (a cyclops), and three sirens on a river (umm.. sirens). What I have trouble with is the why?

The movie looks great, it’s wonderfully shot, the music is excellent and George Clooney does a fantastic job. My only negative angle here is that I don’t get the meaning of it all. I have a business background and so my knowledge of literature and philosophy are fairly limited. Maybe I’m thinking too much into it but why did the Coens decide to do a film loosely based on Homer’s work, set it in the South, inject it with elements of racism and politics and then mix in some Saggy Bottom Boys? (feel free to comment) The most logical conclusion I can come up with is because they are the Coen Brothers.

I watched “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” with my girlfriend and she brought up the following, very excellent point. This movie is one of the rare films where George Clooney is actually acting. Take a look at Clooney’s IMDB page. ‘O Brother’ is one of the few films in which George Clooney plays a character that isn’t George Clooney. His filmography is full of roles where he is either an army officer/soldier or a legal/business man. In either case, he usually plays a suave, clean cut guy in a suit or uniform with a great smile that usually saves the day in some way or another. His smarmy, hair gelling, con man Everett (“Dapper Dan”) is indeed a refreshing departure for Clooney. The Coen’s seem to be able to get Clooney out of his shell since his character in “Burn After Reading” skews to the slightly odd, idiosyncratic side as well.

John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson round out the group of prison escapees on this journey. I have come to really enjoy John Turturro from his outings as various characters in Coen films. He’s an immensely gifted actor and is very adept at getting the Coen comedic pacing and tone. It also helps that he and Nelson are able to do great dimwit faces seeing as they are the slightly less intelligent components of the traveling prisoner trifecta.

The Bottom Line: 3/5. A good movie but one that I am struggling with. Everything about this film is great. I want to like it a ton and agree with critics and peers that it is one of the Coen Brothers’ best films however there is a sizable chunk missing for me. That being said, don’t let my “3″ put you on the fence if you have never seen ‘O Brother’ before. I highly recommend you see it and make up your own mind. Hell, then you can come back here and help me out.

Since one of the elements of this Film Experience is to rank the Coen Brother films, in order of preference, I’m going to have to put “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” at #8 – right after “The Hudsucker Proxy” and before “Raising Arizona”. I will be revisiting it in the near future and since I have implemented my Film Watch column, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on it. After nine films viewed for my Coen Brothers Film Experience, here is the list of films in the order of my liking:

1. The Big Lebowski (1998)
2. A Serious Man (2009)
3. Fargo (1996)
4. Miller’s Crossing (1990)
5. Blood Simple (1984)
6. Barton Fink (1991)
7. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
8. O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000)
9. Raising Arizona (1987).

What do you think? Feel free to school me on the subject of the themes and links between “The Odyssey” and ‘O Brother’ below.