- Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) escapes the chain gang with two fellow convicts, the simple and somewhat slow Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) and ill-tempered Pete (John Turturro), to pursue the promise of hidden loot stashed in his house that is about to be swept away in a flood. On the way, the trio experience a journey filled with hilarious adventure and cast of strange characters starting wi
Disenchanted with the daily drudge of crushing rocks on a prison farm in Mississippi, the dapper, silver-tongued Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney, THE PERFECT STORM) busts loose. Except he’s still shackled to his own chain-mates from the chain gang — bad-tempered Pete (John Turturro, SUMMER OF SAM), and sweet, dimwitted Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson, HAMLET). With nothing to lose and buried loot to regain — before it’s lost forever in a flood — the three embark on the adventure of a lifetime in this hilarious offbeat road picture. Populated with strange characters, including a blind prophet, sexy sirens, and a one-eyed Bible salesman (John Goodman, COYOTE UGLY), it’s an odyssey filled with chases, close calls, near misses, and betrayal that will leave you laughing at every outrageous and surprising twist and turn.Only Joel and Ethan Coen, the fraternal director and producer team behind art-house hits such as The Big Lebowski and Fargo and masters of quirky and ultra-stylish genre subversion, would dare nick the plot line of Homer’s Odyssey for a comic picaresque saga about three cons on the run in 1930s Mississippi. Our wandering hero in this case is one Ulysses Everett McGill, a slick-tongued wise guy with a thing about hair pomade (George Clooney, blithely sending up his own dapper image) who talks his chain-gang buddies (Coen-movie regular John Turturro and newcomer Tim Blake Nelson) into lighting out after some buried loot he claims to know of. En route they come up against a prophetic blind man on a railroad truck, a burly, one-eyed baddie (the ever-magnificent John Goodman), a trio of sexy singing ladies, a blues guitarist who’s sold his soul to the devil, a brace of crooked politicos on the stump, a manic-depressive bank robber, and–well, you get the idea. Into this, their most relaxed film yet, the Coens have tossed a beguiling ragbag of inconsequential situations, a wealth of looping, left-field dialogue, and a whole stash of gags both verbal and visual. O Brother (the title’s lifted from Preston Sturges’s classic 1941 comedy Sullivan’s Travels) is furthermore graced with glowing, burnished photography from Roger Deakins and a masterly soundtrack from T-Bone Burnett that pays loving homage to American ’30s folk styles–blues, gospel, bluegrass, jazz, and more. And just to prove that the brothers haven’t lost their knack for bad-taste humor, we get a Ku Klux Klan rally choreographed like a cross between a Nuremberg rally and a Busby Berkeley musical. –Philip Kemp
Buy “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” For Only $6.39
February 12, 2006
#1
Yes, I realize it is just a movie, but I don’t find amimal cruelty funny. That is the scary thing about dark humor though – it makes it acceptable to laugh at such things. I should have known when I found out the people responsible for this mess had made Fargo (murder, ha ha). I tried to give this movie a chance because the soundtrack was done by people I liked but it was too disturbing and totally unentertaining for me, sorry.
February 12, 2006
#2
Talk about low-brow humor! There were a couple of funny moments and other than that this movie was painfully slow moving and boring even with George Clooney starring!
February 12, 2006
#3
On 18 Feb 04, at 11:30 p.m., I watched the movie O Brother Where Art Thou. I watched it played on a DVD medium in surround sound. This film was produced by Touch stone / Universal pictures with help from Studio Canal and Working Title Productions. The movie was made in 2000 and stared George Clooney in the title role. His supporting cast was John Turturro and Tim Blake. This film was presented in color.
O Brother is a partially modernize story of Odysseus. In this case the character George Clooney plays is called Ulysses Everett or Everett for shot. He is on a chain gang and needs to get home. He convinces his fellow convicts, Pete and Nelson, to escape with him. Everett says he has stolen a million dollars and needs to get it before the valley he buried it in is flooded. This will happen in five days, so the unlikely trio races against the clock to get home.
Along the way the encounter several diversions that try to keep them from getting their prize. First the jump a train or at least a few of them do. However since they are chained together they all fall out of the train. They need to learn to work together, if they are going to make it to the money in time.
Next they meet a blind man on a hand cart. He prophesizes that they will find a treasure, but not the one they seek. This causes some dissent among the men. However Everett is able to keep them together and push them on.
After the encounter with the blind prophet, they run into Pete’s Cousin. Hogwolop turns the three in for the bounty. The depression is very severe and Hogwolop needs the money to save his farm. The three are able to escape.
The boys run into a baptism. Pete and Nelson get saved but Everett decides not to. The two saved boys are ready to call it quits. I think this parallels the encounter with the lotus eaters. Instead of physical pleasure, the boys have a spiritual pleasure. As such they feel that they have been absolved from sin. Why should they move on? Everett pushes them.
They run into a black guitar player. He tells them that they can make some money singing into a can. They cut a record and this act gets them famous. Even though the Soggy Bottom boys, as they are now called, do not realize it.
There is an encounter with three women. When they wake up Pete is gone and the boys think he has been turned into a frog. Everett pushes them on.
After the encounter with the three sirens they run into a one eyed bible sales man. Big Ted tricks them into going out into the woods for lunch. Then he kills the frog that is Pete, beats up Nelson and Everett and then robs them. This is a close parallel to the encounter with the Cyclops in the Odyssey. After several more adventures they meet the Cyclopes again. This time they defeat him. First they attempt to spear his eye with a rebel flag. But in the end they land a fiery cross on top of him.
There is an encounter with a suitor in the later half of the movie. This time Everett is not the strong one and he gets his but kicked. He has to learn that an all out attack is hopeless. So Everett disguises himself and his buddies to sneak into a political rally and see Everett’s wife. The real reason he escaped from jail. You find out that there is not treasure. Everett just said that to get his chain boys to leave with him. His wife is about to get remarried and he will do anything to stop it. In the end, the boys get a pardon, the get new jobs, and Everett gets the girl.
As for an evaluation. I do not like George Clooney. I think he is an arrogant actor that always seams oily. As such this tainted my perception of the movie. But I didn’t like it just for Clooney’s miserable performance. No I didn’t like it because of all the Yodeling. I did not care for the time period or the jandra this movie was designed for. The constant caterwauling was not music. It was noise. As such I could not get into the main part of the story. Their concept that music can save ones soul.
I am also nit picker when it comes to period concepts in films. As such I was irritated that a rebel flag was used for the KKK, as their symbol, in the film. The actual rebel flag was not adopted by the clan until the end of the second world war. As such it should not have been used at all. Now IK must say that I thought that their portrayal of the country store was accurate. It wasn’t until the advent of the super market that customers could actually get products themselves off of the shelves. You needed an attendant. This was a nice vintage touch.
This is a modern rendition of the Odyssey. However, except for a few obvious parts, the sirens and the Cyclops, I couldn’t make the connection. If you can compare O Brother Where Art Thou to The Odyssey then by all means you can compare What Dreams May Come to Dante’s Inferno .Like I have stated it was a stretch. Also I just felt the acting was lack luster and the plot was forced. All types of little things kept happening to the convicts that pushed them along in the right direction and rewarded them. These are prisoners. It is hard to sympathize with them. Yes you learn that they did their crimes for good causes, but the fact of the matter is the movie was glorifying the prisoner. This upset me. We have enough problems now a days without some idiot getting an idea that it is okay to be like baby face nelson and go out in a criminal ball of glory. Morally I was opposed to this.
As for the DVD the features were lacking. I’m used to tons of extras and this DVD had little to offer. For $15.00 I expect more for my money. All in all I was extremely disappointed in both the film and the DVD. I’m glad I only spent $2.62 to rent it. Even then I felt cheated.
Safe journey:
David
February 12, 2006
#4
I bought this movie on DVD cause of George Clooney. I’m very disappointed in what I watched. I stopped it after watching an hr of it. It put my bestfriend to sleep and almost put me to sleep. The story is way to slow with no plot. The acting sucks. The talking scenes are boring and way too long. There is nothing funny about this movie except for the fact that people actually like it. Which I find surprising. The movie is suppose to be about a trio on chain gang who break from prison is 1930′s. They are out on the run to treasure. Along the way, they come across many strange people. Who are way too stupid with very low talent or talent. Which makes this movie very unworthy to watch. I give this movie a 3 out of 10.
I’m a HUGE George Clooney fan. I’ve liked him since seeing him in Return To Horror High in 1987. Just because I don’t like this movie, does not mean I’m not a true Clooney fan. A fan does not have to like everything about the person they are a fan of. If there other fans out there who don’t like this movie. Please come forward.
If you want to see a good George Clooney movie. Then watch The Perfect Storm, From Dusk Til Dawn, Ocean’s 11, Out Of Sight or The Peacemaker.
February 12, 2006
#5
This has to be one of the most unexplainable successes of late. This movie is REALLLLLLLLLLLLLLY BAD!