O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

PG-13 for some mild language, racial themes, hate speech shown in a negative light, and mild sexuality.  Honestly, the sirens scene might be the only thing that slowed me down from showing this to my kids.  The racial stuff, it's done in the context of saying that Americans are racist, especially in this time period with the Klan.  The Klan look like jerks.  I can get aboard the Klan looking like a bunch of jerks.  Oh, and there's some animal cruelty and death in the movie.

DIRECTORS:  Ethan and Joel Coen

Do you know what is incredibly dumb on my part?  It's a little after 1:00 am.  I just finished posting my Twister blog moments ago, but I wanted to close up my "to do" list before going to bed.  So I thought that I would have a late night / early morning cup of tea and knock out O Brother, Where Art Thou? and hoping that I'll find what I want to say as I write it.  There are a couple of blasphemous confessions that I'll have to make early on.  The first is that, even though I'm an English teacher, I'm pretty sure that I never read The Odyssey.  There's a chance.  On my Goodreads account, I apparently gave The Iliad a one-star review way back in the day.  This sound like me, by the way.  It makes absolutely no sense, but Greek mythology does almost absolutely nothing for me. To apologize for this gap in my education, I started slowly reading it on my Kindle, reading annotations as I go so I can really grasp this.  The second confession is that, the first time that I saw O Brother, it did almost nothing for me.

That has changed.  I'd like to put that out there right now.  O Brother, Where Art Thou might be one of those perfect films and it is straight up a crime that I didn't care for it the first time.  I have always criticized Young Me's tastes.  When O Brother, Where Art Thou? came out, I think one of my favorite movies was Moulin Rouge.  (One day, I'll have to write a blog about that movie and I think I'm going to be ashamed for a long time.)  Part of my dislike for O Brother stemmed from the fact that I thought that it was going to be a very different film than it was.  "Man of Constant Sorrow" was the entire trailer for me.  I heard that song everywhere.  For some reason, I thought that the movie was going to center around that song when I first saw it.  That song is in the movie twice and it kind of is not about the song.  If anything, this is a somewhat silly look at character and setting and that's what makes it absolutely great.

Do I wish I knew what The Odyssey was like besides a general idea?  Yes.  That might be the only thing that can make an already great movie already better.  But even if I took O Brother as an original work, the concept is kind of brilliant.  The "Escaped Convict" movie is kind of a win-win for any storyteller.  Ultimately, it has the best genetics from the road movie, but it also gives a sense of stakes and impermance that is necessary to make a road movie great.  The trio in this film, as silly as they behave, ultimately have to be emotionally up and down constantly throughout the movie.  Part of this comes from the idea that Johnny Law is always on their tails, but it also comes from personalities that might not match the depths of their characters. Clooney's Everett is a bit of a mislead from moment one.  For the lion's share of the movie, Everett comes across as a con man.  He's even got the hair treatment to go with the Slick Willy persona that he outwardly manifests.  It's heavily implied that he's an armored truck thief, but we discover that Everett's crime is far more noble.  He's accused of practicing law without a license.  The Coens aren't dummies.  While they never harp on this point and never give him a free pass, Everett's crime is one of technical altruism.  We never really get details on Everett's slightly illegal law practices, but my natural inclination is that he tried to do right by someone and got caught doing it the wrong way.  Honestly, Chaotic Good alignment and all that.  

Contrasted with Everett is Pete.  No one in this cabal is truly evil. After all, Pete was supposed to be getting out of jail in two weeks if it wasn't for this mythical reward that Everett spun. But Pete is potentially the most criminal out of the three.  He's not a bad man.  But he lives in a world where crime is almost part of the moral fabric of day-to-day life.  He has a sense of right and wrong and the law is not a motivating factor in those decisions.  I adore that Pete is mad at Everett for stealing his cousin's watch, despite the fact that his cousin reported them to the police.  And, as silly as it is, he kind of has a point.  Everett does all of these immoral acts before they end up being justified by someone else's actions.  Yet, he doesn't mind all the crime that is happening around him.

Delmar is the comic relief.  He's a lovable moron.  

But O Brother, Where Art Thou? is just a playground. Yes, we deal with morality and friendships that develop through the story.  I honestly want to talk about God a bit in this movie, but I have to put the playground first.  One of the things about the road picture is that every story is a bit of a fish-out-of-water story.  These three, in their pursuit for a treasure that doesn't exist, run into every scenario that is meant to test comfort zones.  But what makes the movie such a joy to watch is something that the Coens and Wes Anderson share in terms of attitudes.  These characters find the absurd to be mundane.  That's where the comedy really hits.  I'm thinking of a handful of other road movies.  These road movies are great, so I'm not trying to disparage them.  I'm just saying what makes the Coens and Wes Anderson so great.  If you look at National Lampoon's Vacation, Clark Griswold is continually flummoxed by his bad fortune throughout the story.  That's normal.  As much as Clark is an over-the-top character with some abhorrent character traits, he's meant to be our avatar for the movie.  The trio here act in the most absurd ways imaginable.  They meet George "Babyface" Nelson (but don't call him that!) on the run from the police.  When he tells them to get into the car to help him with directions, despite seeing the approaching police on the horizon, they don't even question Nelson's request.  When Nelson robs a bank, they find the whole thing a bit much, but that never really slows them down.  They're eager to help their new friend, even though he seems almost psychotic in his desire for infamy.  And that's the film.  Clark Griswold probably would have robbed the bank as well, but the comedy there would have been him trying to get out of the situation.  Instead, the Coens painted their protagonists as guys who are going to see every situation through until the end, no matter how silly.  A Bible salesman beats Delmar silly, Everett is going to see where this is headed.  That's the movie.  

And that's perfect.  This ties into some of the message of the film.  The movie has two contrasts between Everett's grounded nihilism in the form of vocal atheism and Delmar and Pete's newfound religion.  Delmar's innocence is so intense that it becomes contagious for Pete.  Delmar, the second he sees a chance to save his soul, bee-lines it to the front of the line to get baptized.  Pete watches, more confused than skeptical, and sees the man get submerged.  Delmar, in all his simple-minded stupidity, explains that his sins were forgiven and that he's no longer guilty.  That absurd notion is enough for Pete and that colors the rest of the film.  Everett becomes our avatar then, understanding as we do that it doesn't quite work that way.  But the story is partially about how Everett isn't really part of the gang until the end.  Throughout the film, Pete is questioning Everett's de facto leadership.  It's because he's not really one of them until he gets down and prays.  If anything, this is a case for God, which is fascinating.  It's not like Everett will ever truly abandon his atheist spin, despite evidence to the alternative.  Instead, he becomes almost more respectful for the boys' joy in their faith.  He's the one who ends up looking a little silly when he sees the oracle's prophecy come to fruition in the river. It's almost as if Everett and God make a little deal to treat each other with a little bit more respect and that's enough.

But as much as I can wax poetic about themes that make the movie work, this is just Joel and Ethan Coen doing what they do best.  The aesthetics of a Coen Brothers movie is so specific that I've never really seen anyone nail it exactly the way that they do.  The Coens have an appreciation for a specific shade of Americana that takes a very specific personality to really enjoy.  And the thing about that look at Bluegrass attitude comes with it a slightly teasing tone.  I almost said "mocking", but I don't really think that it is it.  These guys keep making movies with these cultural touchstones because they are almost immersed in these kinds of characters.  They can poke fun at the things that they love and there's really nothing wrong with that.  It's teasing someone in a best man speech, not a roast.  

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a masterpiece.  I'm ashamed that I didn't really give it the time of day when it came out.  But between the Coens being on the ball with their comedy coupled with a visual and audio aesthetic that can't be beat, this might be one of those few perfect films.