"O muse!
Sing in me, and through me tell the story ..."

Thus begins Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey" set to the sweet sound of a chain-gang chant and pick-axes – or wait – perhaps this is the deep south during the 1930's and a keystone-cops-meets-Odysseus comedic adventure film directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Cue the good old-timey music, yes, it is “Oh Brother where Art Thou” set in rural Mississippi during the Great Depression. A film story that is a modern satire loosely based on Homer’s Odyssey.

The tale begins with three convicts escape from a chain gang and set out to retrieve the treasure that one of them claims to have stolen from an armored car and buried before his incarceration. They have only four days to find it before the valley in which it is hidden will be flooded to create Arkabutla Lake as part of a new hydroelectric project.

This is the premise as Ulysses Everett McGill, Pete, and Delmar O’Donnell set off on their bumbling journey in this film peppered with scenes from epic literature. Such as encounters with a blind soothsayer, a bible-selling Cyclops, tempestuous sirens, and a quest to be reunited with an estranged spouse a la Penelope. Though don’t worry about a literature lesson, all classic references in the tale of these unlikely heroes are quiet, or transparent, since each element and character flows naturally in the setting and moves the story along its hobo-ish path. It is a story that can stand on its own merits.

Cinematography.

A notable feature of the film is its authentic sepia-tinted look. Through the use of digital color correction the film favors a dry, dusty Delta look with golden sunsets.

The creative team created an old hand-tinted picture, with the intensity of colors dictated by the scene and natural skin tones that were all shades of the rainbow. For this effort, they won big awards, but more important for a viewer the imagery draws you completely into the setting.

As a writer, I appreciated this great detail to the art of storytelling. In the mechanics of some movies, I think the art is lost, and film that focuses on the unique nature of the visual, celebrates this medium's craft.


Setting.


In Homer’s Odyssey, the political landscape of Greek city-states was the backdrop for the tale: where all politics were local, fraught with powerful families and corruption, with conflict and strife in the small local assemblies of tribal structure. These human power plays affect the heroes journey.

What a brilliant move for this “modern” version to be set in the small fiefdoms of the rural south, where good-ole-boy politicians are working the backrooms, and family ties and who one can buy dictates the power structure. Expect some social commentary from this movie, wonderfully juxtaposed with the song “Keep on the Sunny-side of Life.”


Music.

Under the direction of brilliant ear of musician and producer, T-Bone Burnett, the musical score to this movie won 4 Grammy awards in 2001. It is foot-stomping, hand-clapping wonderful!

Musical interpretation was an important choice for the story. In the deep south of pre-television era, the front porch, the speak-easy, the town halls were the source of socialization and the entertainment was music. I particularly enjoyed the array of musical numbers selected by the political candidates to suit their purposes. Ah, some things never change.

A tight weaving of music and story should be expected because the epic poem “The Odyssey” included its own ancient soundtrack as a critical part of its oral performances. The narrative poem consists of 12,110 lines of dactylic hexameter which probably lent itself very well to a musical form.

In the Coen Brothers’ loose adaptation O Brother Where Art Thou, the original rhyme and meter of the text were adapted to accommodate the vernacular and musical traditions of Depression-era Mississippi.

Take up the banjo. Seriously, that is one great flick to drive some one into becoming the bane of their friend’s existence.

This film starred George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning, and was written and directed by the Oscar-winning talented brother team of Joel and Ethan Coen.

Storytelling.

It has all the fine elements of great storytelling: rich and believable setting, memorable characters, smart dialogue, well-paced plot, engaging drama, delightful humor, and uplifting over-arching themes.

I appreciated the creative use of mythology, yes, Homer’s poem has been mentioned, but the story includes a subplot with the notatorious American gangster legend “Baby Face” Nelson and an important encounter with a blues player reminiscent of Robert Johnson who met the devil at the crossroads and sold his soul to the ability to play music. Classic American mythology.


Entertaining.

If you’re in a lousy mood, watch this movie. If you’re in a good mood, watch this movie. It is simply one of the most musically interesting and smart-funniest films I’ve seen.

The directing Coen brothers are known for films that are oddball comedies or film noir suffused with dark humor, this particular movie however, rests safely in the middle of those extremes. Funny without the sheer nonsense of “Raising Arizona” and dark without the violence of “No Country for Old Men.” I would not recommend it as young family fare though, because there are harrowing scenes with the KKK that may disturb children.

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Created Jun 11, 2010 at 10:29pm • Submit your own review...