_**Amusing rural Mississippi odyssey in the 30s**_
During the Depression, three guys escape a chain gang in Mississippi (George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson and John Turturro) to experience many misadventures with a blind prophet, a gifted musician (Chris Thomas King), a radio station, baby-face Nelson (Michael Badalucco), baptism in a river, “sirens,” a one-eyed Bible salesmen (John Goodman), an ex-wife (Holly Hunter), the KKK, corrupt politicians and an area with hidden treasure about to be flooded.
A Coen brothers film, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" (2000) is a farcical odyssey taking place in the Deep South of the 1930s. The cast is entertaining, which also includes the likes of Daniel von Bargen. It’s quirky and amusing augmented by its setting and locations, not to mention one of my wife’s favorite movies (possibly because Clooney was in his prime). In ways, it’s like “Deliverance” (1972) if it were a comedy, just mixed with “Cool Hand Luke” (1967) and a dash of Homer’s Odyssey.
I like it, but don’t love it; it’s fun, no doubt, but also kinda forgettable. Yet the song “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow” is well done and catchy.
The film runs 1 hour, 47 minutes, and was shot mostly in Mississippi, plus some stuff done at Universal Studios.
GRADE: B-
Having just escaped from a chain gang, the eloquent “Everett” (George Clooney) and the two men who share his chain - “Pete” (John Turturro) and the not so bright “Delmar” (Tim Blake Nelson) set off on a journey to find his $1.2 millions in treasure buried in the ground in an area designated to be flooded to generate hydro-electric power. First things first, they have to get the chains off and that’s just the start of their escapades as they meet some of the eccentric folks that live in 1930s Mississippi. Along the way they encounter the mad-as-cheese bank robber “Babyface” Nelson (Michael Badalucco), distinctly dodgy bible salesman “Big Dan” (John Goodman); they meet travelling minstrel “Tommy” (Chris Thomas King) and he helps them to make a record for a blind radio host and they even manage to meet with some very tempting ladies doing their laundry on ricks in a stream! The whole thing is very, and I mean very, loosely based on Homer’s post Trojan war “Odyssey” and if you’re familiar with that text, then you can just about see the narrative as the story proceeds and certainly when you look back on it. If you don’t, well it doesn’t matter at all - this is still a comedy-laden and sharply written take on three people motivated by money in the first instance, but who come to realise that there is more to life than a dollar bill. It also transfers the ancient scenario quite entertainingly, politically, too - taking a fun pop at the gubernatorial race between an hopeless but exuberant incumbent flour merchant and the red-robed leader of the local branch of the KKK, and it also presents us with some toe-tappers from three men who work well together on a road-trip with a difference. This is probably my favourite outing for Clooney as he delivers some of his almost Homerian dialogue with charming sarcastic wit and skill. It’s enjoyable, this, and well worth a cinema viewing if you can.
