Movie Review - - FILM REVIEW; Hail, Ulysses, Escaped Convict - NYTimes.com FILM REVIEW; Hail, Ulysses, Escaped Convict By A. O. SCOTT Published: December 22, 2000 The opening credits of Joel and Ethan Coen's new film, ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?,'' announce rather grandly that the picture is ''based upon 'The Odyssey,' by Homer.'' The filmmakers even supply a ritual invocation of the muse, who is asked (via Robert Fitzgerald's translation of Homer's epic) to help them sing of ''the man skilled in all the ways of contending.'' It doesn't take a classics scholar to notice that the wily brothers have taken a few liberties with their source. Their hero, played with toothy glee by George Clooney, is a hyper-articulate escaped convict named Ulysses Everett McGill, who wanders the dusty byways of Depression-era Mississippi with a pair of dimwitted companions, searching for wealth, his wife and his favorite hair treatment, a gooey pomade called Dapper Dan.

When McGill finally catches up with Penelope (Holly Hunter), she turns out not to be the embodiment of wifely constancy Homer rhapsodized but rather the harried, impatient mother of seven daughters who has thrown over her vagabond mate for a weaselly political operative named Waldrip (Ray McKinnon). (''He's a suitor,'' one of the girls explains to her baffled father. ''He's bona fide.'') While there are Homeric moments scattered through the ambling, shaggy-dog narrative -- a blind soothsayer, a one-eyed Bible salesman (John Goodman) in place of the Cyclops, a governor (Charles Durning) whose Christian name is Menelaus (though he prefers to be called Pappy) and a trio of honey-voiced sirens -- ''The Odyssey'' is just one ingredient in a feverish gumbo of borrowings and allusions.

''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' is less a retelling of the founding epic of Western civilization than a portable anthology of Americana, a tinker's van festooned with scraps of ''Moby-Dick,'' ''The Wizard of Oz'' and Preston Sturges's ''Sullivan's Travels,'' the source of the film's title. The whole contraption lurches along to the rhythms of old-time gospel, blues and country music. It is, all in all, a rambunctious and inspired ride in which the Coen brothers' voracious fascination with the arcana of American popular culture and their whiz-kid inventiveness reach new heights of whimsy. This is one of their sillier movies; its pastiche of period style has more in common with the light-handed artifice of their ''Hudsucker Proxy'' than with the necrophilia of ''Miller's Crossing'' or ''Barton Fink.'' But like ''The Hudsucker Proxy,'' ''O Brother'' is a richer and more serious movie than it seems at first, and it risks being unfairly dismissed as an empty exercise in style.

For one thing, this film has at its center an elusive, highly mannered performance that appears to belong, as much as the vintage roadsters and ice-cream suits, to a vanished era. Mr. Clooney not only looks like Clark Gable, with his hair slicked against his scalp and his carefully etched Art Deco mustache, but he also gives the kind of detached, matinee-idol performance that used to be Gable's trademark. Mr. Clooney's self-conscious line readings and leisurely double-takes are like a wink to the audience. We never forget that, whatever else the script may demand, we're watching a movie star. That we're watching a star of the present moment playing, in effect, a star of an earlier age only doubles the fun and adds to our sense of dislocation. As in many of the Coens' movies, the world on screen is one we intuitively recognize, even as its geography seems decidedly askew. With the help of the cinematographer Roger Deakins, who composes beige and ocher landscapes that look simultaneously lush and austere, the brothers have made the American South into a gauzy dreamland.

Their approach is a kind of down-home magic realism and their hero an archetype of folklore -- Br'er Rabbit or Paul Bunyan -- whose doings amount to a collection of tall tales. After busting out of the chain gang, McGill and his companions, Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) and Pete (John Turturro), endure a series of hairbreadth escapes from the forces of law and order, embodied by a sheriff who may be the Devil himself. Along the way, they pick up a young black man named Tommy Johnson (Chris Thomas King) who has just sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for guitar-playing prowess. (The reference is to the legend of the real-life Delta bluesman Robert Johnson, who was said to have acquired his otherwordly skills by means of a similar pact.) The four stumble into a back-country recording studio to cut a record that, unbenownst to them, soon becomes a runaway hit. Meanwhile, their fates become entangled with Governor O'Daniel, his fire-breathing reformist rival Homer Stokes, the Ku Klux Klan and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

To say nothing of the cyclops, the sirens and the legendary bank robber George Nelson (Michael Badalucco), better known to history as Baby Face, though it's best not to call him that. Sometimes, as in ''Fargo,'' the Coens' fondness for outre regionalism verges on contempt, as if they were implicitly contrasting their own sophistication with the literal-minded dumbness of their characters. Mr. Turturro's performance, in particular, is obnoxiously broad, as though he had prepared for the role by studying tapes of Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel, a recurring minor character on ''The Simpsons.'' But if the filmmakers sometimes indulge in easy mockery of the South and its people, they also deliberately subvert such glibness through their brilliant and entirely sincere use of American folk music. As recorded by regional labels and collected by enterprising folklorists like Alan Lomax and Harry Smith, the American vernacular music of the 20's and 30's retains an indelible, uncanny intensity. It provides a window onto what the music critic Greil Marcus has called ''the old, weird America,'' a world of magic, superstition and deep feeling.

McGill, who scoffs at his comrades' credulous religiosity, nonetheless falls to his knees in prayer when things look hopeless. Similarly, the Coens, for all their blithe insincerity, can't help but acknowledge the strange archaic power of the culture they have made a career of travestying. When McGill and his friends don fake beards for a command performance of ''Man of Constant Sorrow,'' the hit single they recorded (as the Soggy Bottom Boys), the song transcends jokiness or kitsch. Along with a dozen other carefully selected tunes -- some newly recorded for the film, some preserved in their traditional arrangements -- ''Man of Constant Sorrow'' provides ''O Brother'' with an emotional resonance that would otherwise be missing. The music also provides the key to the film's peculiar blend of fantasy, humor and pathos. One of the themes that threads through early-20th-century American folk music -- black and white, secular and sacred -- is the longing for another world, the sweet by and by, the other shore, ''The Big Rock Candy Mountain.'' The latter song, in Harry McClintock's definitive version, accompanies McGill's initial dash to freedom.

It's a childish vision of a world of lemonade springs and indolence -- like the island of Lotus Eaters in ''The Odyssey'' -- but it also expresses a weary, heartfelt longing for a life free of toil and injustice. ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' similarly offers a fairy-tale view of an America in which the real brutalities of poverty and racism are magically dissolved by the power of song. Because the Coens are smart enough to know that such a place has ever existed only in fable and song, their vision takes on an unexpected poignancy. Rather than wallow in nostalgia for the past, they dare to reinvent it, to make it something strange, beautiful and new. ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' is a tribute to, and example of, the persistent vitality of the American imagination. It's bona fide. ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has a good deal less violence, obscenity and sex than Homer's ''Odyssey,'' and not nearly as much as the average American folk song. O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?

Directed by Joel Coen; written by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, based on ''The Odyssey'' by Homer; director of photography, Roger Deakins; edited by Roderick Jaynes and Tricia Cooke; music by T-Bone Burnett; production designer, Dennis Gassner; produced by Ethan Coen; released by Touchstone Pictures. Running time: 143 minutes. This film is rated PG-13. WITH: George Clooney (Ulysses Everett McGill), John Turturro (Pete), Tim Blake Nelson (Delmar), John Goodman (Big Dan Teague), Holly Hunter (Penny), Chris Thomas King (Tommy Johnson), Charles Durning (Pappy O'Daniel), Ray McKinnon (Waldrip), Michael Badalucco (George Nelson) and Wayne Duvall (Homer Stokes). O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error O Brother, Where Art Thou?

( 2000 ) PG-13 | In the deep south during the 1930s, three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them. Directors: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 46 titles created 12 Aug 2012 a list of 24 titles created 25 Dec 2014 a list of 21 titles created 04 Jan 2015 a list of 25 titles created 23 Jan 2015 a list of 41 titles created 7 months ago Title: O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) 7.8/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 7 wins & 35 nominations. See more awards » Videos A disk containing the memoirs of a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous gym employees who attempt to sell it.

Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen Stars: Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, George Clooney A renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood. Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen Stars: John Turturro, John Goodman, Judy Davis A tough U.S. Marshal helps a stubborn teenager track down her father's murderer. Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen Stars: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Hailee Steinfeld When a childless couple of an ex-con and an ex-cop decide to help themselves to one of another family's quintuplets, their lives become more complicated than they anticipated. Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen Stars: Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, Trey Wilson Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics teacher, watches his life unravel over multiple sudden incidents. Though seeking meaning and answers amidst his turmoils, he seems to keep sinking.

Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen Stars: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Sari Lennick A laconic, chain-smoking barber blackmails his wife's boss and lover for money to invest in dry cleaning, but his plan goes terribly wrong. Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco A naive business graduate is installed as president of a manufacturing company as part of a stock scam. Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen Stars: Tim Robbins, Paul Newman, Jennifer Jason Leigh Tom Regan, an advisor to a Prohibition-era crime boss, tries to keep the peace between warring mobs but gets caught in divided loyalties. Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen Stars: Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, John Turturro A beautiful gold digger matches wits with a shrewd Beverly Hills divorce lawyer who is increasingly attracted to her.

Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen Stars: George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Billy Bob Thornton Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson. Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen Stars: William H. Macy, Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi An eccentric, if not charming Southern professor and his crew pose as a classical ensemble in order to rob a casino, all under the nose of his unsuspecting but sharp old landlady. Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen Stars: Tom Hanks, Marlon Wayans, Irma P. Hall A week in the life of a young singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961. Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen Stars: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman Edit Storyline Loosely based on Homer's "Odyssey," the movie deals with the picaresque adventures of Ulysses Everett McGill and his companions Delmar and Pete in 1930s Mississipi.

Sprung from a chain gang and trying to reach Everett's home to recover the buried loot of a bank heist they are confronted by a series of strange characters--among them sirens, a cyclops, bank robber George "Baby Face" Nelson (very annoyed by that nickname), a campaigning governor and his opponent, a KKK lynch mob, and a blind prophet who warns the trio that "the treasure you seek shall not be the treasure you find." Written by Armin Ortmann <armin@sfb288.math.tu-berlin.de> Sometimes, you have to lose your way to get back home See more » Genres: Rated PG-13 for some violence and language | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 2 February 2001 (USA) See more » Also Known As: ¿Dónde estás, hermano? See more » Filming Locations: £564,064 (UK) (15 September 2000) Gross: Did You Know? Trivia Joel Coen revealed that the film was inspired by The Wizard of Oz (1939).

"It started as a 'three saps on the run' kind of movie, and then at a certain point we looked at each other and said, 'You know, they're trying to get home-let's just say this is The Odyssey. We were thinking of it more as The Wizard of Oz. We wanted the tag on the movie to be: 'There's No Place Like Home.'" See more » Goofs When Everett and Delmar are eating at the restaurant, Everett orders the restaurant's "finest bottle of bubbly wine." Though Prohibition was repealed nationally in 1933, Mississippi still prohibited the sale of alcohol until 1966. See more » Quotes [first lines] Ulysses Everett McGill : Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?

FILM REVIEW; Hail, Ulysses, Escaped Convict - The New York Times The New York Times Movies |FILM REVIEW; Hail, Ulysses, Escaped Convict Search Continue reading the main story The opening credits of Joel and Ethan Coen's new film, ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?,'' announce rather grandly that the picture is ''based upon 'The Odyssey,' by Homer.'' The filmmakers even supply a ritual invocation of the muse, who is asked (via Robert Fitzgerald's translation of Homer's epic) to help them sing of ''the man skilled in all the ways of contending.'' It doesn't take a classics scholar to notice that the wily brothers have taken a few liberties with their source. Their hero, played with toothy glee by George Clooney, is a hyper-articulate escaped convict named Ulysses Everett McGill, who wanders the dusty byways of Depression-era Mississippi with a pair of dimwitted companions, searching for wealth, his wife and his favorite hair treatment, a gooey pomade called Dapper Dan.

When McGill finally catches up with Penelope (Holly Hunter), she turns out not to be the embodiment of wifely constancy Homer rhapsodized but rather the harried, impatient mother of seven daughters who has thrown over her vagabond mate for a weaselly political operative named Waldrip (Ray McKinnon). (''He's a suitor,'' one of the girls explains to her baffled father. ''He's bona fide.'') While there are Homeric moments scattered through the ambling, shaggy-dog narrative -- a blind soothsayer, a one-eyed Bible salesman (John Goodman) in place of the Cyclops, a governor (Charles Durning) whose Christian name is Menelaus (though he prefers to be called Pappy) and a trio of honey-voiced sirens -- ''The Odyssey'' is just one ingredient in a feverish gumbo of borrowings and allusions.

Continue reading the main story ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' is less a retelling of the founding epic of Western civilization than a portable anthology of Americana, a tinker's van festooned with scraps of ''Moby-Dick,'' ''The Wizard of Oz'' and Preston Sturges's ''Sullivan's Travels,'' the source of the film's title. The whole contraption lurches along to the rhythms of old-time gospel, blues and country music. Advertisement Continue reading the main story It is, all in all, a rambunctious and inspired ride in which the Coen brothers' voracious fascination with the arcana of American popular culture and their whiz-kid inventiveness reach new heights of whimsy. This is one of their sillier movies; its pastiche of period style has more in common with the light-handed artifice of their ''Hudsucker Proxy'' than with the necrophilia of ''Miller's Crossing'' or ''Barton Fink.'' But like ''The Hudsucker Proxy,'' ''O Brother'' is a richer and more serious movie than it seems at first, and it risks being unfairly dismissed as an empty exercise in style.

For one thing, this film has at its center an elusive, highly mannered performance that appears to belong, as much as the vintage roadsters and ice-cream suits, to a vanished era. Mr. Clooney not only looks like Clark Gable, with his hair slicked against his scalp and his carefully etched Art Deco mustache, but he also gives the kind of detached, matinee-idol performance that used to be Gable's trademark. Mr. Clooney's self-conscious line readings and leisurely double-takes are like a wink to the audience. We never forget that, whatever else the script may demand, we're watching a movie star. That we're watching a star of the present moment playing, in effect, a star of an earlier age only doubles the fun and adds to our sense of dislocation. As in many of the Coens' movies, the world on screen is one we intuitively recognize, even as its geography seems decidedly askew. With the help of the cinematographer Roger Deakins, who composes beige and ocher landscapes that look simultaneously lush and austere, the brothers have made the American South into a gauzy dreamland.

Their approach is a kind of down-home magic realism and their hero an archetype of folklore -- Br'er Rabbit or Paul Bunyan -- whose doings amount to a collection of tall tales. After busting out of the chain gang, McGill and his companions, Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) and Pete (John Turturro), endure a series of hairbreadth escapes from the forces of law and order, embodied by a sheriff who may be the Devil himself. Along the way, they pick up a young black man named Tommy Johnson (Chris Thomas King) who has just sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for guitar-playing prowess. (The reference is to the legend of the real-life Delta bluesman Robert Johnson, who was said to have acquired his otherwordly skills by means of a similar pact.) The four stumble into a back-country recording studio to cut a record that, unbenownst to them, soon becomes a runaway hit. Meanwhile, their fates become entangled with Governor O'Daniel, his fire-breathing reformist rival Homer Stokes, the Ku Klux Klan and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

To say nothing of the cyclops, the sirens and the legendary bank robber George Nelson (Michael Badalucco), better known to history as Baby Face, though it's best not to call him that. Sometimes, as in ''Fargo,'' the Coens' fondness for outre regionalism verges on contempt, as if they were implicitly contrasting their own sophistication with the literal-minded dumbness of their characters. Mr. Turturro's performance, in particular, is obnoxiously broad, as though he had prepared for the role by studying tapes of Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel, a recurring minor character on ''The Simpsons.'' But if the filmmakers sometimes indulge in easy mockery of the South and its people, they also deliberately subvert such glibness through their brilliant and entirely sincere use of American folk music. As recorded by regional labels and collected by enterprising folklorists like Alan Lomax and Harry Smith, the American vernacular music of the 20's and 30's retains an indelible, uncanny intensity. It provides a window onto what the music critic Greil Marcus has called ''the old, weird America,'' a world of magic, superstition and deep feeling.

McGill, who scoffs at his comrades' credulous religiosity, nonetheless falls to his knees in prayer when things look hopeless. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Similarly, the Coens, for all their blithe insincerity, can't help but acknowledge the strange archaic power of the culture they have made a career of travestying. When McGill and his friends don fake beards for a command performance of ''Man of Constant Sorrow,'' the hit single they recorded (as the Soggy Bottom Boys), the song transcends jokiness or kitsch. Along with a dozen other carefully selected tunes -- some newly recorded for the film, some preserved in their traditional arrangements -- ''Man of Constant Sorrow'' provides ''O Brother'' with an emotional resonance that would otherwise be missing. The music also provides the key to the film's peculiar blend of fantasy, humor and pathos. One of the themes that threads through early-20th-century American folk music -- black and white, secular and sacred -- is the longing for another world, the sweet by and by, the other shore, ''The Big Rock Candy Mountain.'' The latter song, in Harry McClintock's definitive version, accompanies McGill's initial dash to freedom.

It's a childish vision of a world of lemonade springs and indolence -- like the island of Lotus Eaters in ''The Odyssey'' -- but it also expresses a weary, heartfelt longing for a life free of toil and injustice. ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' similarly offers a fairy-tale view of an America in which the real brutalities of poverty and racism are magically dissolved by the power of song. Because the Coens are smart enough to know that such a place has ever existed only in fable and song, their vision takes on an unexpected poignancy. Rather than wallow in nostalgia for the past, they dare to reinvent it, to make it something strange, beautiful and new. ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' is a tribute to, and example of, the persistent vitality of the American imagination. It's bona fide. ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has a good deal less violence, obscenity and sex than Homer's ''Odyssey,'' and not nearly as much as the average American folk song. O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?

Directed by Joel Coen; written by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, based on ''The Odyssey'' by Homer; director of photography, Roger Deakins; edited by Roderick Jaynes and Tricia Cooke; music by T-Bone Burnett; production designer, Dennis Gassner; produced by Ethan Coen; released by Touchstone Pictures. Running time: 143 minutes. This film is rated PG-13. WITH: George Clooney (Ulysses Everett McGill), John Turturro (Pete), Tim Blake Nelson (Delmar), John Goodman (Big Dan Teague), Holly Hunter (Penny), Chris Thomas King (Tommy Johnson), Charles Durning (Pappy O'Daniel), Ray McKinnon (Waldrip), Michael Badalucco (George Nelson) and Wayne Duvall (Homer Stokes). O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Certificate: 12 Synopsis In the Coen Brothers' cheeky nod to Homer, George Clooney plays Ulysses Everett McGill, a smart-aleck convict who escapes from a Mississippi chain gang with two dim-witted companions (John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson) during the depression. The trio encounter a gallery of bizarre characters while going in search of stolen loot, including a sadistic Ku Klux Klan-affiliated salesman, and a paranoid bank robber with a severe dislike of cows. While dodging the law, the boys also find time to record a hit song and unwittingly affect the outcome of a local election as Ulysses eventually arrives home to confront his Penelope. Barmy and yet very smart. Director Holly Hunter Review From Homer, the directors borrow a Cyclops, some sirens, a hero named Ulysses and his ex-wife Penny, no doubt short for Penelope. Clooney plays smart-aleck convict Ulysses Everett McGill, who escapes from a chain gang with two dim-witted companions in Mississippi during the depression.

The trio encounter a gallery of bizarre characters while going in search of stolen loot, including a sadistic Ku Klux Klan-affiliated salesman, and a paranoid bank robber with a severe dislike of cows. While dodging the law, the boys also find time to record a hit song and unwittingly affect the outcome of a local election as our hero eventually arrives home to confront his Penelope. Clooney displays a superb flair for comic timing in this larger-than-life comedy from the critically acclaimed Coen brothers (Raising Arizona, Fargo). And it's not every day that you can watch him losing a fight with a pencil-neck, shrieking like a girl and even wearing a hairnet. The film boasts flawless performances from Coens regular John Turturro (The Big Lebowski) and Tim Blake Nelson as Clooney's clueless buddies, and great support from John Goodman and Oscar winner Holly Hunter (The Piano). A clever and visually stunning barrage of laughs, action and downright weirdness. Dominic Bloch O Brother Where Art Thou Essay - 1127 Words Comparison of the Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Essay ...Pre AP English 9 5/9/2012 O Brother, This is Not Even Close To the Odyssey Everyone loves to immerse themselves into a dramatic and extraordinary story with evil monsters, brave hero's, and the desperate will to survive. It allows you to escape your troubles and take you to a new and exiting please with each and every second. However, there are some stories that simply do not capture the essence of breathtaking adventure. The movie O... 1082 Words | 3 Pages O Brother Where Art Thou Essay ...2008 Film Analysis “O Brother Where Art Thou” This old time musical theatrical movie clip was an insightful blast from the past that made you cherish those days where it was inconceivable to not be a gentlemen, and it was a down right shame to be anything less then an honest women. This old time movie with a new age attitude definitely strikes the funny bone of any modern day movie watcher. “The opening... 1612 Words | 4 Pages Essay on Film Summary for O Brother Where Art Thou? ...abandoned clothes).

Carrying "Pete" in a shoebox, Delmar and Everett go to a restaurant where they meet Big Dan Teague (John Goodman), a one-eyed Bible salesman. Thinking that their box contains money, Big Dan lures them to a field for an advanced tutorial on salesmanship. He violently beats the two men, kills the toad after finding no cash, and steals their car. Everett and Delmar arrive at Everett's hometown, where he attempts to speak to his wife, Penny... 1160 Words | 3 Pages Self Control in the Odyssey and O Brother Where Art Thou Essay ...self control is very evident in O Brother Where Art Thou? as well as in The Odyssey, these stories portray how engrained this problem is, and are evidence to how long lack of control has been pervasive in society. These two sources parallel an idea, however the actual events that take place are much different. The numerous events that show lack of self control occur in both the book and the film, however they are revealed... 1058 Words | 3 Pages Essay about The Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou Two Relevant Pieces? ...Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou: Two Relevant Pieces?

Time has not become the conqueror for the classical epic poem The Odyssey. For the past 2,500 years it has been turning its pages for many people all around the world, classifying it as the Western literary tradition. Even in the 21st century The Odyssey is still depicting its prominence when the film O Brother, Where... 1862 Words | 5 Pages O Brother Where Art Thou? Allusions to the Odyssey Essay ...O’ Brother Where Art Thou? Allusions Everett McGill is an escaped convict, treasure hunter, and according to his wife: dead, but he has a resemblance to the fearless Greek epic hero, Odysseus, from Homers highly renowned classic The Odyssey. Joel Coen, director of the blockbuster movie O’ Brother Where Art Thou, purposefully shaped George Clooney’s... 1174 Words | 3 Pages A Close Look at the Two Main Characters in the Odyssey and O Brother Where Art Thou? Essay ...and O Brother Where Art Thou? Homer’s The Odyssey has been known to have influenced many novels and movies, one of which is the Coen Brothers’ 2000 film, O Brother Where Art Thou?.

This movie is known to be loosely based on the poem The Odyssey and it is evident through the movie’s plot and characters. What leads us to see the... 994 Words | 3 Pages True Grit Film Making with The Coen Brothers Essay ...and Ethan Coen, more commonly known as simply – The Coen Brothers. They are very well known directors, as well as producers, writers, and editors. The brothers always work as a team, sometimes under the alias of Roderick Jaynes when editing, and they are only the third directing co-op to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. They made their first movie, Blood Simple, in 1984, and the rest has been history. The Coen Brothers have... 2509 Words | 6 Pages O Brother, Where Art Thou? | Film from RadioTimes O Brother, Where Art Thou? Joel Coen (2000) Our Score by Ronald Bergan "Based upon Homer's Odyssey" runs the opening title, which - as well as setting the tongue-in-cheek tone of this Coen brothers' comedy - also happens to contain more than an element of truth.

The eighth collaborative effort produced and directed by Ethan and Joel Coen concerns the attempts of escaped convict Ulysses Everett McGill (a nicely self-mocking George Clooney) to get back to his wife Penny (Holly Hunter in a cameo appearance), and the picaresque adventures he has on the way. The title derives from the 1941 satirical comedy Sullivan's Travels by Preston Sturges, whose humorous spirit hangs over this episodic tale. The movie also contrives to encapsulate every con-on-the-run picture one has ever seen, as well as southern period crime dramas. Yet again, the Coens' cinematic alchemy has worked a treat. Summary Three bumbling crooks escape from a chain gang and strive to get their hands on some hidden loot, but encounter all manner of scrapes and strange characters along the way. The Coen brothers' comedy inspired by Homer's Odyssey, starring George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman and Holly Hunter. Cast & Crew Ulysses Everett McGill George Clooney Pete John Turturro O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Movie Review (2000) | Roger Ebert Tweet The opening titles inform us that the Coen Brothers' "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" is based on Homer's The Odyssey . The Coens claimed their " Fargo " was based on a true story, but later confided it wasn't; this time they confess they haven't actually read The Odyssey . Still, they've absorbed the spirit. Like its inspiration, this movie is one darn thing after another. Advertisement The film is a Homeric journey through Mississippi during the Depression--or rather, through all of the images of that time and place that have been trickling down through pop culture ever since. There are even walk-ons for characters inspired by Babyface Nelson and the blues singer Robert Johnson, who speaks of a crossroads soul-selling rendezvous with the devil. Bluegrass music is at the heart of the film, as it was of " Bonnie and Clyde ," and there are images of chain gangs, sharecropper cottages, cotton fields, populist politicians, river baptisms, hobos on freight trains, patent medicines, 25-watt radio stations and Klan rallies.

The movie's title is lifted from Preston Sturges' 1941 comedy "Sullivan's Travels" (it was the uplifting movie the hero wanted to make to redeem himself), and from Homer we get a Cyclops, sirens bathing on rocks, a hero named Ulysses, and his wife Penny, which is no doubt short for Penelope. If these elements don't exactly add up, maybe they're not intended to. Homer's epic grew out of the tales of many storytellers who went before; their episodes were timed and intended for a night's recitation. Quite possibly no one before Homer saw the developing work as a whole. In the same spirit, "O Brother" contains sequences that are wonderful in themselves--lovely short films--but the movie never really shapes itself into a whole. Advertisement The opening shot shows three prisoners escaping from a chain gang. They are Ulysses Everett McGill ( George Clooney ), Pete ( John Turturro ) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson ).

From their peculiar conviction that they are invisible as they duck and run across an open field, we know the movie's soul is in farce and satire, although it touches other notes, too--it's an anthology of moods. McGill (played by Clooney as if Clark Gable were a patent medicine salesman) doesn't much want company on his escape, but since he is chained to the other two, he has no choice. He enlists them in his cause by telling them of hidden treasure. What was The Odyssey, after all, but a road movie? "O Brother" follows its three heroes on an odyssey during which they intersect with a political campaign, become radio stars by accident, stumble upon a Klan meeting and deal with McGill's wife, Penny ( Holly Hunter ), who is about to pack up with their seven daughters and marry a man who won't always be getting himself thrown into jail. Hunter and Turturro are veterans of earlier Coen movies, and so is John Goodman , who plays a slick-talking Bible salesman.

Charles Durning appears as a gubernatorial candidate with the populist jollity of Huey Long, and the story strands meet and separate as if the movie is happening mostly by chance and good luck--a nice feeling sometimes, although not one that inspires confidence that the narrative train has an engine. Advertisement The most effective sequence in the movie is the Klan rally (complete with a Klansman whose eye patch means he needs only one hole in his sheet). The choreography of the ceremony seems poised somewhere between Busby Berkeley and " Triumph of the Will ," and the Coens succeed in making it look ominous and ridiculous at the same time. Another sequence almost stops the show, it's so haunting in its self-contained way. It occurs when the escapees come across three women doing their laundry in a river. The Sirens, obviously. They sing "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby" while moving in a slightly slowed motion, and the effect is--well, what it's supposed to be, mesmerizing. I also like the sequence of events beginning when the lads perform on the radio as the Soggy Mountain Boys.

By now they have recruited a black partner, Tommy Johnson (Chris Thomas King), and later when the song becomes a hit, they're called on to perform before an audience that is hostile to blacks in particular and escaped convicts in general. They wear false beards. Really false beards. Advertisement All of these scenes are wonderful in their different ways, and yet I left the movie uncertain and unsatisfied. I saw it a second time, admired the same parts, left with the same feeling. I do not demand that all movies have a story to pull us from beginning to end, and indeed one of the charms of " The Big Lebowski ," the Coens' previous film, is how its stoned hero loses track of the thread of his own life. But with "O Brother, Where Are Thou?" I had the sense of invention set adrift; of a series of bright ideas wondering why they had all been invited to the same film. Popular Blog Posts Cinematic Allusions Exhibit - O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) CINEMATIC ALLUSIONS TO LITERARY WORKS O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?

(2000) Joel and Ethan Coen have overtly billed their 2000 comedy O Brother, Where Art Thou? as based on Homer's Odyssey. Using cars and trains where Odysseus and his men used boats and rafts, they engage with the theme of a man's love for wife and home and his determination to return there against all odds. The law and the penal system substitute for war and the gods as escaped convict Ulysses Everett McGill and his companions dodge all manner of obstacles to return to Everett's home town in time to prevent his wife Penny's impending remarriage. Set in depression-era Mississippi, the film relies to a considerable extent on oral communication, evoking the era of Homeric epic when few could read or write. Political candidates compete on the radio and have back-up bands at rallies, one of which turns out to consist of Everett's young daughters. Perhaps the most significant singer of all is Everett himself, who ultimately reintegrates himself into society and restores his stature with his wife by his powerful (and marketable) singing. The power of persistence, longing for home, and centrality of music to love and life link the Coens' epic inextricably with that of Homer.

Jennifer T. Roberts, Ph.D. Professor, Foreign Languages and Literature O Brother, Where Art Thou? Dir. Joel Cohn. Perf. George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, and Holly Hunter. DVD. Touchstone Pictures and Universal Pictures in association with Studio Canal, 2000. The seeming metamorphosis of Everett's (George Clooney) companion Pete (John Turturro) into a toad after Everett, Pete and their sidekick Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) have spent an "enchanting" night with supremely seductive women billed overtly as "sir-eens" whom they found singing as they washed their laundry by the rocks. In truth, Pete has simply been seized by pursuing lawmen, but Delmar is convinced he has been transformed.

The theme of metamorphosis is common in classical literature, and the siren episode is blended here with the tale Homer told in Book 10 about the encounter of Odysseus' men with the witch Kirke: On thrones she seated them, and lounging chairs, And amber honey mixed with Pramnian wine, Adding her own vile pinch, to make them lose Desire or thought of our dear father land. Scarce had they drunk when she flew after them With her long stick and shut them in a pigsty- Bodies, voices, heads, and bristles, all Swinish now, though minds were still unchanged. So, squealing, in they went. And Kirke tossed them Acorns, mast, and cornel berries-fodder For hogs who rut and slumber on the earth. (Book 10. 257-268) Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Doubleday/Anchor, 1963. Everett (George Clooney) fighting in Woolworth's with Penny's (Holly Hunter) fianc� Vernon Waldrip (Ray McKinnon), as Penny looks on both horrified and impressed.

The need for the hero to engage in physical combat to reclaim his home is a common one in world literature. In the Odyssey, Odysseus triumphs over the suitors who have been eating him out of house and home and pressuring his wife Penelope into marriage, proving himself by stringing his old bow and shooting an arrow through a series of axes. Together with his son Telemachus, he then slays all the evil suitors despite the numerical odds. In the Coen brothers' comic rendition, Everett's first encounter with Penny's fianc� ends in a fistfight in which Everett very much gets the worst of it and is thrown out of Woolworth's with the caution never to return, but Homer's Odysseus was more successful: But the man skilled in all ways of contending, Satisfied by the great bow's look and heft, Like a musician�strung the bow. Then slid his right hand down the cord and plucked it, So the taut gut vibrating hummed and sang A swallow's note. O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack released - Dec 05, 2000 - HISTORY.com O Brother, Where Art Thou?

soundtrack released Share this: O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack released Author O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack released URL Publisher A+E Networks Released on this day in 2000, several weeks ahead of the film itself, the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack would catch on slowly, but it would eventually sell upwards of 7 million copies while winning a broad new audience for contemporary artists performing a style of American music–bluegrass–that had been absent from the pop charts for five decades or more. Of the hugely popular album widely credited with sparking a major resurgence of interest in her chosen musical genre, the bluegrass artist Rhonda Vincent said to the Los Angeles Times in 2002, “To me the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack is not bluegrass, but as long as people love the music, who cares what it’s called?” Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, O Brother, Where Art Thou?

was a loose adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey starring George Clooney as the fast-talking escaped convict Ulysses Everett McGill, who must survive encounters with sirens, a Cyclops and a posse of hooded Klansmen on an epic journey home to Ithaca (Mississippi) to prevent his wife, Penny, from marrying another man. Deciding early on to employ a soundtrack appropriate to the film’s setting in the Depression-era South, the Coen brothers enlisted songwriter-producer T-Bone Burnett to find the right music, and he found it in Nashville, though not within the country-music establishment. As the soundtrack’s liner notes put it, the sound that Burnett and the Coens were looking for was the sound of country music “before the infidels of [Nashville's] Music Row expropriated that term to describe watered-down pop/rock with greeting-card lyrics.” They found that sound alive and well and in the capable hands of musicians whose roots date back across decades—Ralph Stanley and The Fairfield Four, for instance—and others who had made their careers working in a country vernacular far older than themselves—Gillian Welch, Allison Kraus and Emmylou Harris, most prominent among them.

Using these and other contemporary musicians, Burnett completed work on the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? before the first frame of the film was shot, and the Coens consciously built many memorable scenes around songs like Krauss’s rendition of “Down To The River To Pray” and “Man Of Constant Sorrow,” by the fictitious Soggy Bottom Boys (featuring the real-life Dan Tyminski and Ron Block). Within several months of its release, the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack had topped the country album charts, but its crossover to the pop charts came much more slowly. By August 2001, the film had left theaters in the United States, but the album was still building momentum. It finally reached the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart of pop albums in March 2002—the longest climb to #1 for a pop album in the modern era. Related Videos

Question: Who plays escaped convict Ulysses Everett McGill in the 2000 film ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou’?
Answer: George Clooney