O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

• Year: 2000
• Released: 02 Feb 2001
• Country: United Kingdom, France, United States
• Adwords: Nominated for 2 Oscars. 8 wins & 39 nominations total
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190590/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/O_Brother_Where_Art_Thou
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/o-brother-where-art-thou
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: PG-13
• Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Crime
• Runtime: 107 min
• Writer: Homer, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
• Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
• Cast: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson
• Keywords: seduction, southern usa, fraud, mississippi river, prophecy,

	7.7/10
	69/100
	78% – Critics
	89% – Audience

O Brother, Where Art Thou? Storyline

Loosely based on Homer’s “Odyssey,” the movie deals with the picaresque adventures of Ulysses Everett McGill and his companions Delmar and Pete in 1930s Mississipi. Sprung from a chain gang and trying to reach Everett’s home to recover the buried loot of a bank heist they are confronted by a series of strange characters–among them sirens, a cyclops, bank robber George “Baby Face” Nelson (very annoyed by that nickname), a campaigning governor and his opponent, a KKK lynch mob, and a blind prophet who warns the trio that “the treasure you seek shall not be the treasure you find.”

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O Brother, Where Art Thou? Movie Reviews

Hillbilly hi-jinks. Bluegrass music. Laugh out loud funny!

The Coen Brothers have done it again. Three depression era convicts(George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson)escape a Mississippi chain gang and head off in search of buried treasure that will fund their new lives. Along the way, they sing on the radio and become much sought after stars as well as escapees. Great laughs and a soundtrack that is a lesson/introduction to bluegrass music.

Clooney is outstanding as the fast talking, quick witted Ulysses Everett McGill. Holly Hunter plays his estranged wife. Turturro and Nelson are flawless stumblebums. Also in the cast are John Goodman and Charles Durning.

Dan Tyminksi provides the singing voice for George Clooney on “I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow”, the Soggy Bottom Boys song that serves as a template for the bluegrass laden soundtrack that also features Alison Krauss, Ralph Stanley, The Whites, John Hartford, The Cox Family and Gillian Welch. Toe tapping, knee slapping fun for the whole family. You’ll be surprised with how relaxed and funny this movie is.

The film gets better and better each time I watch it

Despite me giving this film a 10, it is NOT my favorite Coen Brothers film (that honor would go to the even more bizarre and quirky HUDSUCKER PROXY). However, it still is an amazingly good film. The first time I saw it, I might have scored it an 8, but now after seeing it again, I find myself laughing even harder and enjoying it even more. Plus, while the film is a hilarious retelling of Homer’s “ODYSSEY”, I find myself spotting more and more story elements from this great book. The cleverness in doing this was truly a work of genius. On top of that, the music is so infectiously fun that you can’t help but tap your feet and even sing along–it’s THAT good.

The film begins with the escape of three idiots from a chain gang. The normally handsome George Clooney is rather greasy and stubbly looking but he always manages to look far more attractive than his incredibly ugly and occasionally dim-witted sidekicks. I liked John Turturro quite a bit, but especially fun was Tim Blake Nelson as the dumbest and ugliest of the lot! He was incredibly funny throughout–especially when he was convinced that Turturro had been turned into a frog (much like when Odysseus’ men had been turned into pigs in THE ODYSSEY).

However, these three guys were not the whole show, as like most of the best Coen films, they are surrounded by the best supporting performances you can find in film. Charles Durning (who was great in THE HUDSUCKER PROXY) was delightful as the wily old governor and Holly Hunter was wonderfully awful, but so many wonderful actors and actresses adorned this lovely film. So many odd faces (much like a Fellini film) and quirky personalities made this film truly memorable.

The look and sound of the film was also terrific–with a real nice early 1930s look about it and great sepia-toned cinematography and the best toe-tappinest soundtrack I’ve heard in years. I usually hate old time country music, but the songs they chose were amazing! And the actors did a great job in pretending to be singing the songs.

See this film. In fact, after you see this film, see ANYTHING the Coens made–THE HUDSICKER PROXY, RAISING ARIZONA, THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS, INTELLERABLE CRUELTY, MILLERS CROSSING and pretty much most of their other wonderful films. Oddly, while it won so much fame, one of their worst and most disappointing films was FARGO–a one joke film. Plus, I gotta admit that BARTON FINK really fell apart towards the end.

An Odyssey Through Mississippi

George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson, and John Turturro star as 3 Mississippi escaped convicts in 30s Mississippi where they run into all kinds of adventure on the way back to Clooney’s home and hearth and aa ‘treasure’ purportedly buried there. There’s a gubernatorial race going on in Mississippi at the time and that’s woven into the plot.

As this film is based on Homer’s Odyssey and that work is a few thousand years old I think the Coen Brothers took the point of view that this is already a few thousand years in the future and the mythology of the times is being explored So who will know or care that Pappy O’Daniel did this thing in Texas and Baby Face Nelson never did his criminal deeds in Mississippi.

Speaking of which Charles Durning as Pappy O’Daniel and Michael Badalucco as Baby Face Nelson are having a ball overacting in their outsized performances. In fact this whole film has everybody overacting like crazy. Nothing subtle here.

The tone however is set by George Clooney as the leader of the three escaped convicts. His droll style is nothing short of marvelous. Nelson and Turturro are a pair of brain dead followers who probably did something along the lines of what Paul Newman did to earn his place on the chain gang in Cool Hand Luke. As for Clooney when we find out what he did his gift of gab is explained.

As we know Ulysses was just trying to get home to his Penelope here is Holly Hunter with her seven daughters. She hasn’t exactly let grass grow under her feet, but married to Clooney who could blame her?

What Clooney did might be considered white collar crime. But Mississippi had no minimum security prisons then. Not sure the state has one now. As he sees it a man like himself is wasted on a road gang and his choice of companions is dictated by who he was chained with.

You will have one rollicking good time watching O Brother Where Art Thou? It’s a film that could use several viewings to get all the humor out of it.