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O Brother, Where Art Thou? Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 87 Reviews)

Historic Comedy with a Memorable Plot
George Clooney and his terrific co-stars in "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" create colorfully believable characters who present moviegoers with a comic reflection on a period in American History we might well forget. Thank goodness for this movie because I believe the popularity of the plot along with the excellent CD movie track will keep America's dark secret of discrimination practiced in pre-World War II Mississippi from falling off our cultural landscape. Couched inside the politically correct safety blanket of colloquial comedy, the three escaped prisoners (Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson)take on individual situations of racial prejudice in Mississippi, with unlikely charm and innocence, in contrast to the seriousness of the issues. All the while they are on the lamb, the three men are becoming popular with southern country music lovers because they serendipitously recorded a song with a blind radio producer who didn't know they had latched on to a Negro guitar player - thus creating a de-segregated or "mulatto" performing group. Charles Durning is a favorite actor of mine, and his performance as the incumbent Governor Pappy O'Daniel is memorable for his colorful irreverence for hyperbole but also for his refreshing political honesty. This movie is worth seeing over again because it leaves Americans with something to remember about our past - so we're not doomed to re-live it. Although the movie is loosely based on Homer's "Odyssey", this analogy doesn't really cut it with the elite set - rather, this movie is about what it's about, and I don't believe it should be given any pseudo-intellectual accoutrements. It's simply a gem.

Odyssey
Ulysses Everette McGill is on a chain gang in Mississippi in 1937. He wants to go home so he tells the two guys that he is chained up with that he has a whole bunch of burried treasure in his house that he wants to get.

The three friends excape and have a bunch of adventures trying to stay one step ahead of the law and meeting some interesting people as well as dealing with the KKK.

While on their way back to Mississippi they record a song with a guy that "sold his soul to the Devil" and the song gets very popular. They also meet George "Babyface" Nelson

When Everette and his friend make it to his hometown they find out that Everette's wife had another baby and that she is getting married again.

What happens next? See the movie!!

Homer of the South
What a perfect film to use with students once they have read Homer's Odyssey. The reinvention and the humor are a tremendous reward.

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