O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Like caviar and oysters, the Coen brothers are an acquired taste. They are responsible for some of the more idiosyncratic movies in recent memory (“Fargo,” “The Hudsucker Proxy,” Barton Fink,” “Blood Simple,” “Raising Arizona”), and even at their most accessible (“Miller’s Crossing”), their movies can leave a viewer feeling left out in the cold, never quite in on the joke. That being said, they are also superb film craftsmen, with a true talent for creating worlds onscreen and eliciting excellent performances from their (often big name) stars. Who better, then, to imagine Homer’s Odyssey as a Depression-era bluegrass extravaganza? George Clooney stars as Ulysses Everett McGill, a man with a gift for gab and a die-hard fondness for Dapper Dan’s Hair Pomade. Clooney is quite funny in the role, and is not afraid to abandon his movie star aura and look a little ridiculous when necessary. Ulysses is a good-natured man with an answer for everything, and if he doesn’t have an answer he is more than happy to expound for a while upon the personal philosophy which enables him to accept his lack of an answer with equanimity.

He escapes from a southern chain gang with two fellow inmates, Pete (Turturro), and Delmar (Nelson), and the film chronicles their picaresque adventures as they struggle to find their way back home to the great fortune that Ulysses has ostensibly hidden away. The Coens hew reasonably closely to the Odyssey, incorporating into the story a Cyclops (John Goodman as Big Dan), a blind seer, and three Sirens. Upon arriving home Ulysses must reclaim his wife from the suitors which have gathered around her. But recasting The Odyssey in modern pop form is the easy part; Steely Dan did it years ago in a song called “Home At Last.” The charm of “O Brother” lies in the details of the picture, the period “look,” of the film (with fine cinematography by Roger Deakins), the secondary characters it includes, and its fondness for “old-timey” bluegrass music that infuses the picture. (The score is by T-Bone Burnett, and it includes a number of classic songs of the genre.) The three escapees end up forming, for reasons a bit too complicated to detail here, a singing group called the Soggy Bottom Boys, and they perform several tunes in the film, quite admirably too (if in fact they are doing the singing).

In the Coen’s world, of course, the three convicts just happen to be able to harmonize like Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross, but it all seems quite reasonable in the context of the film. Of course, they also run into a young black guitar player named Tommy Johnson (King), whom they pick up at a crossroads where he has just sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for his guitar playing ability. (You make the reference.) This feckless band of travelers encounters any number of twists and turns on their journey. They team up for a bank job with George “Babyface” Nelson (and I am pretty sure Homer never mentioned him in the source material), have a run-in with the Ku Klux Klan, and end up allied with Governor Pappy O’Daniel (Durning), struggling with his re-election campaign until the Soggy Bottom Boys come along and breathe new life into it. Through it all, “O Brother” radiates a charm and goodwill often absent from the Coen’s work, and it is nice for a change to see them writing characters who are not entirely venal and depraved. If all of this sounds a bit random, if not downright strange, it is. “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” is not for everyone, to be sure, but the movie will reward adventurous viewers with laughter and the pleasure of seeing something truly original. (2/11/2001)