A review by Brooks Rich
I'm going to start at the film I think is a bridge between two differ eras of the Coen Brothers. O Brother, Where Art Thou is in my opinion the end of the classic Coen Brothers films. From there their films get slightly more cynical, especially films like The Man Who Wasn't There, No Country For Old Men and True Grit. They also twice tried to revitalize the screwball comedy with the two films considered their weakest, Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers. O Brother brings an end to their main run that started their career, going from Blood Simple and ending with O Brother.
In 1937 rural Mississippi three men escape from a chain gain. The leader of the group, Everett, played by George Clooney in his first of four films with the Coen's, is trying to get home to win back his wife and daughters. As he and his friends travel across the country they encounter various odd characters and try to stay one step ahead of a posse led by a frightening man with sunglasses.
This film is incredible. Not only is it a fun adventure it is also an adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey, which is hard to notice if the viewer doesn't see a credit at the start of the film. The film plays like a straight comedy but there's a magic and soulfulness at times. Racial politics of the time are explored and surprisingly the Coen's aren't nearly as nihilistic as they can be in other films when it comes to their comments on race here. The everyday folks of the film are shown to be inclusive, resisting the characters that are involved with the Klan, who are on the outskirts of the story.
I'm going to start at the film I think is a bridge between two differ eras of the Coen Brothers. O Brother, Where Art Thou is in my opinion the end of the classic Coen Brothers films. From there their films get slightly more cynical, especially films like The Man Who Wasn't There, No Country For Old Men and True Grit. They also twice tried to revitalize the screwball comedy with the two films considered their weakest, Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers. O Brother brings an end to their main run that started their career, going from Blood Simple and ending with O Brother.
In 1937 rural Mississippi three men escape from a chain gain. The leader of the group, Everett, played by George Clooney in his first of four films with the Coen's, is trying to get home to win back his wife and daughters. As he and his friends travel across the country they encounter various odd characters and try to stay one step ahead of a posse led by a frightening man with sunglasses.
This film is incredible. Not only is it a fun adventure it is also an adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey, which is hard to notice if the viewer doesn't see a credit at the start of the film. The film plays like a straight comedy but there's a magic and soulfulness at times. Racial politics of the time are explored and surprisingly the Coen's aren't nearly as nihilistic as they can be in other films when it comes to their comments on race here. The everyday folks of the film are shown to be inclusive, resisting the characters that are involved with the Klan, who are on the outskirts of the story.
The Coen Brothers always seem to be riding the line of being indie filmmakers and big box office draws. Theire most well known films are probably Fargo, Big Lebowski, No Country For Old Men, and True Grit, which is currently their most successful film as far as box office goes. O' Brother is probably the tier below those films. It's a film that's probably more known for it's soundtrack, a fantastic collection of old bluegrass and folk songs.
I don't know if this is a good start for someone who's never seen a Coen Brothers film but tis' probably one that can be seen early on by someone just discovering them. The Coen's have a style of their own and O Brother would certainly work as an early introduction to that style. This is just one of those films that's a good time. It's one of their if not their most light hearted movie. The Coen's can get dark. Really really dark.
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