O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a genius 1930s Mississippi satire that is both heavy in folk music and uses the Odyssey for its plot.
In a perfect world, I would have reviewed the Coen Brothers classic for its 20th anniversary in 2020. I apologize for missing the anniversary but am rectifying the situation now as I kick off something of a George Clooney retrospective series on Solzy at the Movies. I reviewed a number of Clooney films–either directing or acting–on his birthday in 2002. This week will mostly focus on his directing although there are going to be some reviews in which he acts or produces. Sit back, relax, and happy reading!
Right off the bat, the title is a nice callback to Sullivan’s Travels, perhaps the best satire in cinematic history. The filmmaker in the Preston Sturges satire wanted to make a film about the Great Depression using the film’s title. If you’re going to make a contemporary period satire, why not call back to the greatest satire ever? The Coens must have done something right because they earned an Oscar nomination for Adapted Screenplay.
I like this idea of taking the plot of Ulysses and moving it to the American South in the 1930s. They inject a lot of their traditional humor into the script, making what Joel Coen calls “the Lawrence of Arabia of hayseed movies.” In addition to Ulysses, we have the Blind Seer, Cyclops, and Sirens, amongst others.
Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), Pete (John Turturro), and Delmar O’Donnell (Tim Blake Nelson) escape a chain gang in search of a treasure. After Plan A goes south, they meet Tommy Johnson (Chris Thomas King) and their fortunes change overnight. Together as the Soggy Bottom Boys, “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow” becomes a hit. But even as their fortunes change without them knowing, they are still outlaws on the run. After this, they meet the Sirens, think Pete became a toad, and then picnic with the one-eyed Big Dan (John Goodman). They eventually reach Everett’s hometown, learn Pete is alive, and then he confronts Penny (Holly Hunter) and her fiancée, Vernon (Ray McKinnon).
One of the funniest parts in the film is how they save Tommy and disrupt the KKK rally. As if this isn’t enough, Homer Stokes (Wayne Duvall) exposes his white nationalist views at a campaign gala fundraiser and is run out of the room. Luckily for the Soggy Bottom Boys, Mississippi Governor Menelaus “Pappy” O’Daniel (Charles Durning) is on hand and pardons them. Right when you think Everett won Penny back, there’s a catch–find the ring back home. That’s going to be easier said than done. What with a flood and all!
In terms of political portrayals, the film gets it right. The Coens borrow from many Southern politicians, including a Texas governor’s name! Music played a big role in the campaigning and one of those governors had a radio show, too. It was the quickest way to reach constituents next to the newspaper.
When I first saw the film, I thought for sure it was George Clooney singing. After all, his aunt was the legendary Rosemary Clooney. But as it turns out, singing is not one of his strong suits as Clooney learned upon stepping foot inside the recording studio. The actor spoke about it during the 2020 Nashville Film Festival, saying “It literally sounds like a cat caught in the wheel well of a truck driving down the street.” Even though Clooney doesn’t sing himself, he does add some Kentucky flavor to the screen by adding clogging during some of the instrumental breaks.
The film’s soundtrack–featuring period-appropriate bluegrass, country, gospel, blues, and Southern folk music–won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2002 and deservingly so. I mean, look at the artists that feature on the soundtrack! Of the many songs in the film, “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow” is performed many times on screen.
Visually speaking, the Coens work with Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins. They depart from what might be a conventional look for a movie. Instead, they would manipulate it digitally. They wanted it to look “dry, dusty, and feel like an old picture book” per Deakins. How do you create a Dust Bowl look on screen? Not as easy as it seems, especially when filming in summer. Things might be better in 2023 but the digital technology was slowly coming around in 2000. It required a massive amount of color correction during post-production. Per Deakins, they shot it cleanly rather than use a sepia filter. Would it have been easier to go that route? Oh, definitely. In any event, Deakins earned himself another Oscar nomination for his work.
The thing about George Clooney at this point in his career was that it was never about the money. No, he took a job if he liked the movie. The Coen brothers came to him as a result of his work in Out of Sight. Thankfully, he didn’t turn them down. As Clooney told the LA Times during the press junket, he didn’t even read the script before saying yes: “They came to my hotel room, put the script on the coffee table, and I said, ‘Great, I’m in.’ They said, ‘Don’t you want to read the script first?’ I said, ‘No, I know what you guys do.’ ” Things worked out because they’ve made three more films together: Intolerable Cruelty, Burn After Reading, and Hail, Caesar!
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is probably not the first film that one thinks of when it comes to George Clooney or the Coen brothers but it’s still a pretty fun satire and masterpiece over 23 years later. Honestly, I went into this review with a 4/5 as the baseline but ended up writing myself into the full 5/5. Why more people don’t talk about this film when discussing the Coens is beyond me. Unless I’m just not seeing those conversations.
DIRECTOR: Joel Coen
SCREENWRITERS: Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
CAST: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Charles Durning, John Goodman, Michael Badalucco, and Holly Hunter, Stephen Root, Chris Thomas King, Wayne Duvall, Daniel Von Bargen, J.R. Horne, Brian Reddy, Frank Collison
Touchstone Pictures released O Brother, Where Art Thou? in theaters on December 22, 2000. Grade: 5/5
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