The Coen Brothers – ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’
The Coen brothers‘ 2000 comedy-drama O Brother, Where Art Thou?, starring George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson, is a modern retelling of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. The iconic directors take the action from Ancient Greece and happily place it in the politically tense Mississippi in the 1930s and provide a mighty fine journey that leans heavily into the folk music of that particular period.
Our hero is the aptly named Ulysses Everett McGill (Clooney), who escapes from a chain gang with two dim-witted but loveable sidekicks, Pete (Turturro) and Delmar (Nelson). Everett’s first port of call is to seek out a rich treasure that was buried before a flood of biblical proportions came and covered it over.
The law is pretty much always on the trio’s trail, giving excellent tension to the film and making the viewer truly root for the heroes. In need of money, the trio, along with Tommy Johnson (Chris Thomas King), who is found at the crossroads where he apparently sold his soul to the devil in return for amazing guitar skills, record a song at a local radio station under the name of The Soggy Bottom Boys. They get a meagre sum in return, not knowing that the tune subsequently becomes a hit.
From there, like Odysseus himself, Everett’s fate shifts back and forth, and the Coens take him on an epic journey in line with Homer’s hero. The trio are allured by a group of singing sirens down by the river, and Everett returns home to find that his Helen has taken another suitor during his disappearance; and ‘Big Dan’ Teague (John Goodman), leader of the local Ku Klux Klan, is a one-eyed behemoth in line with Odysseus’ cyclops foe Polyphemus.
Despite all the frolics within the film, there is still time for reflective poignancy too. After all, 1930s Mississippi was a politically nervous place to be, and the Coens show the social tension that occurred in the South during its political reform. The fact that their protagonists don’t see colour and gladly adopt their good friend Johnson is counterposed with the racist, nay, the downright evil approach of the tireless political campaigners and Klan members of the time.
Music plays a significant role in O Brother too. Even aside from The Soggy Bottom Boys’ hit ‘Man of Constant Sorrow’, which is amongst the best songs ever written exclusively for a film, the soundtrack features several outstanding period-aligned folk tunes. Chris Thomas Kings’ version of ‘Hard Time Killing Floor Blues’ is put to excellent use regularly throughout, and the sirens’ rendition of ‘Down to the River to Pray’, originally written by Alison Krauss, is particularly memorable.
Clooney is the perfect choice to play Everett, an amalgamation of typical 1930s American masculinity and the roguish cunningness of Odysseus himself. It doesn’t hurt that he’s just about as good-looking as it is possible to be, having escaped a chain gang and has the effortless charisma to boot. Equally, Turturro and Nelson’s performances imbue a sense of charm, perhaps giving us a greater affinity with the trio in sum – we may have found Everett somewhat arrogant had he been on his quest solo…
The Coens, along with cinematographer Roger Deakins, use a digital colour correction technique to give the film its vintage sepia look. The result is an authentic dusty feel where the sun is perpetually setting, all captured on a long-exposure camera of yore; we’re certainly looking back at this tale with a nostalgic and reflective happy yearning.
O Brother, Where Art Thou is a heart-warming tale and a riotous rollick through the 1930s South. We more than root for our modern Odysseus and his loyal allies. This might not be the first Coen brothers film that comes to mind when we think of their best, up against some very strong contenders indeed, but it’s an excellent journey and will undoubtedly put a smile on the faces of all those who sing along with its vibrancy.
