Response to O' Brother Where Art Thou
A wonderfully told tale of the quest for a non-existent treasure taken by three escaped convicts who are hopelessly lead by Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) defines the general plot of O' Brother Where Art Thou. Told by the Coen Brothers who have written other big screen hits such as "The Big Lebowsky" and "Intolerable Cruelty". The Coen's have created an adventurous roller coaster ride of events. O' Brother is also subtly yet loosely based upon Homer's "The Odyssey".
O' Brother was based during times of the Depression in the 1930's. This was the platform upon which the Coen brothers created very stylized characters of the south who essentially reflect a very broad stereotype. Everything from their physical attributes to speech impediments and right down to a limp from "the war" helps to bring the characters to life with the "slack-jawed-yokel" mentality with which these characters were brilliantly portrayed.
English: Coen Brothers at Cannes in 2001.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (soundtrack)This appeals to a mass audience who doesn't necessarily have to own a history degree to get a general idea of what is going on and what is going to happen with these types of characters in this setting.
O' Brother Where Art Thou has few weaknesses which can be pointed out only by the most hawkeyed and critical viewer. My quarrel with the story is its lack of completion in every endeavor with the different characters they meet along their journey. For example, Big Dan Teague could have been explored a bit more in depth in order to more directly relate him to the "Cyclops" of Homer's "Odyssey". Instead of giving us a bit more insight to the storylines relation to each of these characters, the viewer is somewhat dragged along a series of events with each character then swept...