O Brother Where Art Thou?

[baumer]

Discuss

[DAR]

I love a majority of the Coen Brothers films, but this might be my favorite. And a great soundtrack, I still listen to it these days. A

[acsc1312]

Like DAR said, this might be my favorite Coen bros movie. The cinematography is eyegasmic, and the music is perfect.A

[baumer]

I have walked out of a Coen movie before and not quite known how to feel. The two best examples of that are The Big Lebowski and Fargo. Lebowski was so ridiculously original and so filled with strange humour that I had to like it. On the other hand, there were some unnecessary reveries with flying people and killer bowling balls that just didn't seem to fit the mold of the film. Still, I liked the film and now own a copy of it. Fargo made me howl with hysterics, sometimes I wasn't sure why I was laughing so hard that it made me cry, but nonetheless I was. There were many seemingly strange characters in Fargo, but upon further investigation, they were really just real people talking about real situations. That is why the man with the shovel ( or was it a broom ) was so side-splittingly funny when he was telling the police officer about some funny looking man down at the bar the other night. And that is also why the theater erupted in laughter when he then says that there are some funny looking clouds coming in. (I own a copy of this film too) The Coen's have a way of masking their film and their characters as being somewhat eccentric and perhaps a little off the wall. But if you look closer at some of those same characters that seem zany, you will always find that in some strange way, they all ring true. That is what is quite exceptional about O Brother Where Art Thou? This is a film that is out there. I mean it is not even in the same ballpark as a traditional film. I reviewed the film Shaft this past summer and in it I said that Shaft was an okay film that I have seen a thousand times before. But you can not say that about a Coen Brother's film and you most certainly can not say that about this one.

This film has everything in it from a jail break, crooked southern politicians, muses, references to what I can only assume are historical figures, riverside baptisms, bank robberies, violence towards animals, singing flocks of religious fanatics, KKK, lynch mobs and so on. There are obviously many references to Homer's Odyssey in here as well, but I wouldn't know that because I have never read Homer's Odyssey or even knew one thing about it. Every other newspaper reviewer seems to know all about it and they think that this cynicism and almost spoof-like quality towards it makes the film that much better. Well coming from a guy who doesn't know anything about it, I can tell you that it is still an entertaining film. There were times when again, as is usual for a Coen film, I wasn't sure why I was entertained or laughing, but I was.

This is a road picture where three men travel along the way to find a hidden treasure that Clooney says he has hidden to his two other cell mates. He has to take them along because they were also chained to him when they had their chance to escape.

I like all the principal actors in the film and many of them are Coen cronies. It was nice to see Goodman again. It was nice to see Hunter and especially Turturro who seems to have a place in every Coen film. It's too bad they didn't find a place for Steve Buscemi but that is a different story all together. But back to Clooney. The man just has charisma. He is a one hell of an actor as well and here he is not quite as zany as the others but even he has his own idiosyncrasies. His work here is quite awesome and I really hope this shows that he is capable of playing any range of character.

Now after heaping all this praise on the film, let me just say this as well. I didn't really enjoy the film at first. I found it to be quite tedious and a little boring. There were too many ideas in here and not enough care went into harnessing them for all what they were worth. But then the film began to grow on me. It took a while but it did grow on me. I don't think this is their best film, but it is still a good one and I am giving it a 8.5. But the reason that I do recommend this film is for one reason only.

Every day you can go look into the paper and look at the films that are playing and say to yourself, seen it, seen it, oh, seen it last year, that is the same as this film and that is the same as that film. Most films have been recycled in some form or another. Not the Coen's films. They have not been recycled and if they have I don't know about it. That is reason enough to see something that they put out. Originality counts for a lot in my books. The Coens are original and they are good. And that is not common in todays cinema. Enjoy them while they are allowed to make films. Because you don't get vision like this in many films, so when you do, enjoy it!

[4815162342]

This film is so wonderfully oddball

[Jack Nevada]

This is not my favorite movie by The Coen Brothers, but O Brother Where Art Thou is still a movie done with extreme care and detail, and its hell of a lot of fun too. What we have here is a superbly entertaining and atmospheric road movie featuring great music, situations absurd even on the Coen scale and beautiful cinematography by master Roger Deakins. Also this, Intolerable Cruelty and especially Burn After Reading show just what a great comedic actor George Clooney is. It seems that the Coens always make the best of his underused funnyman talent, so I hope they do a movie with him again sometime. 

 

I enjoyed how the Coens portray the 20's, its very authentic. The Coens truly are masters at recreating old times on screen, because in all of their period movies nothing rings false and you almost feel like you've been transported back in time. Their team obviously does an enormous amount of research, and it shows. 

 

 

4/5

 

 

 

I still have a bunch of Coen-movies I haven't seen, but this is how I rate the ones I've seen 

 

True Grit 4,5/5

A Serious Man 5/5

Burn After Reading 4,5/5

No Country for Old Men 5/5

Intolerable Cruelty 3/5

O Brother Where Art Thou 4/5

The Big Lebowski 5/5

Fargo 5/5

Raising Arizona 4/5

[acsc1312]

This is probably my second favorite coen film under NCFOM. So hilarious and greatA

[Michael Gary Scott]

This movie is bonafided. 5/5

[acsc1312]

We thought....you was....a TOAD

[Impact]

One of the most intelligent comedies ever.

 

A

[baumer]

When they sing In Constant Sorrow and the crowd recognizes them, it brought down the house.  I thought the theater was going to stand up and cheer.  

[Jake Gittes]

One of the Coens' most accessible and fun films, yet it's got some very effective dark moments (the KKK scene). I listen to the soundtrack all the time. The parallels with The Odyssey weren't really on my mind for the first third of the movie, but then they encountered the sirens and I couldn't stop laughing during the whole scene. Genius.

 

Also, this is the best Clooney performance I've seen (with the caveat that I haven't seen Syriana and The Descendants), and a very rare occasion when he played more of a character and less of a version of himself. "Damn! We're in a tight spot!"

[darkelf]

This movie is a blast.

 

9/10

[Empire]

I can't make a review as great as baumer's was, so I will just keep it short.

 

This is such a fantastic movie. One of my favorite films and it is in my top 3 Coen Brothers films along with No Country For Old Men and Raising Arizona. 

 

I would give it a huge.......

 

A(97)

[Goffe]

Sorry, but I thought it was boring as hell and really really unfunny. 45/100

 

Barton Fink 95/100
No Country for Old Men 85/100
True Grit 80/100
Intolerable Cruelty 80/100
Fargo 75/100
The Man Who Wasn't There 70/100
Blood Simple 70/100
Raising Arizona 65/100
The Hudsucker Proxy 65/100
A Serious Man 60/100
The Big Lebowski 55/100
Miller's Crossing 55/100
Burn After Reading 45/100

O Brother, Where Art Thou? 45/100
The Ladykillers 35/100

Edited February 22, 2016 by Goffe

[CoolioD1]

^

 

[aabattery]

 

Clooney's nonchalant delivery of this line whilst Tim Blake Nelson is getting smacked in the face with a stick is one of the funniest things ever. Just about bust a gut in that scene. And the toad scene.

 

I dunno if it's my favourite Coens' movie; it's definitely up there but it's nigh impossible for me to pick a favourite from my top bunch.