O Brother, Where Are Thou?

I've never been a huge fan of the Coen Brothers. And what I mean by that is I've never really understood them. Coen Brothers movies are films that you probably need to watch more than once to understand all the jokes and you probably need to watch them more than once if you want to get the philosophical satire they're trying to push. And some of those movies you can. Watching Fargo again is a hoot and a half. But watching No Country For Old Men more than once is one of the most boring things I could ever think of. So while I want to explore more Coen Brothers, I don't always understand those films and that makes it difficult to watch them.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is somewhere in between Fargo and No Country For Old Men and I'm trying to land exactly what I thought of the film and if I need to just take the movie at face value, or look into it to find some kind of philosophy I'm missing.

The film takes place in the 1930s during The Great Depression. Three convicts escape their manual labor and set off on a journey to find a treasure that one of them buried in an area that is going to be made into a lake soon. The three convicts are Everett (played by George Clooney), Pete (played by John Turturro) and Delmar (played by Tim Blake Nelson). There's a funny line at the beginning of the movie where Pete asks Everett who made him in charge of the outfit and I had to kind of laugh to myself. I mean c'mon, he's George Clooney, how would he not be the leader?

Everett is the leader and the brains of the operation. The other two are just kind of dumb and following him because they want a piece of the treasure for themselves. Now I can't say for certain what is supposed to distinguish Delmar from Pete besides one is dumb and one is slightly dumber. But this is a pretty good trio all things considered.

In the opening credits, it says that the story is based off The Odyssey by Homer. Now I will be honest, I never read the Odyssey.

I know enough about the Odyssey to understand some of the references and understand what kind of throw back their trying to make to this Greek myth, but I have no scholarly background of the story the way I think a lot of people I went to school with. Eventually I will read the Odyssey and come back to this film and I'm sure it will make more sense to me, but for now I'm judging it on it's own merits.

One thing I do know about the Odyssey is that the point of the story is that it's not the destination that is important, it's more the journey. And that's pretty much what this movie is about. It's about these three losers who go on this journey across Depression America and they meet a whole cast of cooky characters along the way. From John Goodman as a con artist, to George "Baby Face" Nelson (played by Michael Badalucco), to finding themselves in the middle of a KKK rally.

Right off the bat, I will say, this movie is funny. It's definitely within the vein of a Coen Brothers movie so it's the kind of humor that is very dry and you have to be paying attention to totally understand it. But the reason I'm not going to make a huge deal about the fact that there isn't much of a difference between John Turturro's character and Tim Blake Nelson's character is because those two work so well with George Clooney's almost oblivious straight man.

On top of that, this movie is supposed to be a satire. What it's satirizing, I'm not one hundred percent sure. But it's still an entertaining story nonetheless, as these guys keep on moving when they would almost be better off just staying where they are. Every person they meet and every decision they make eventually puts them in a bind that sends them back to square one and yet they keep on going. Now maybe that's exactly what they're satirizing and even after research into the making of this film, I figured out that the Coen Brothers didn't even read The Odyssey. At the end of the film, you watch this journey and you're glad of the outcome, but at the same time you're kind of scratching your head wondering if there was something you missed in the film like a higher meaning.

Maybe that's the charm of the Coen Brothers, maybe it's all up to interpretation, but it does make for a confusing film.

The two things that really make this a fun romp of a film is the humor, and the music.

I've already talked a bit about the humor of the movie. Even if you walk out of this movie, thoroughly confused over the overarching message that you feel like you missed, you can still say that you got a good chuckle out of the film regardless.

But the other big thing is the music. I'm going to try and attach the main song that they basically get famous off of because it's a really catchy song and it really pulls me into the love for folk and blue grass music that comes in and out for me. Along with that song, the soundtrack of the film is this really fun folksy collection that you may not love at the beginning, but once you get into the feel of the movie, you'll end up loving it.

Again, I'm not going to try and explain the deeper meaning of this film. Call me ignorant, call me stupid, but that's not why I started this movie in the first place. I look at films critically, but not in a scholarly way, at least not unless I'm in a class or I'm getting paid for it. That requires a lot more research and honestly, I put in this movie because I wanted to get a different experience with my movie watching time.

On face value, that's what you're going to get with O Brother, Where Art Thou? You're going to get a good comedy with smart dry humor. You're going to get a fun adventure with good characters and good performances that make you like these characters. Anything else you'll have to get for yourself because I can't promise this movie has it or doesn't.

I'm hoping to perhaps watch some more Coen Brothers and I can tell you, when I'm done with the Odyssey, I'm coming right back to this film and I'm going to try and see if there's some kind of deeper meaning to this film. But for now, I suggest checking it out, see if you can't find it out for yourself.

But those are my thoughts. Do you know the deeper meaning of O Brother, Where Art Thou? Is it just a run of the mill comedy? Share your thoughts in the comment section below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future, especially if they are Coen Brother films. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. Like I said, I wanted to put some of the music from the film because that really is one of the movie's strong suits. Enjoy!