The Bluegrass Odyssey: O Brother Where Art Thou?

All too often films tend to be judged based on their plot, this is where many come under fire. The Coen Brothers in particular are filmmakers who have created some of the most unbelievable plots in modern cinema. While in many of their crime films like "Fargo" or "Blood Simple", plots are brilliantly pieced together with unbelievable twists that one does not expect. However the Coens always make the point that the plot is not the thing that drives the story.

When it comes to Coens' comedies, I would say the plot matters even less and it becomes more about the whimsy and the journey (honestly can anyone describe the plot of "The Big Lebowski" to me.)

When it comes to the Coens' underrated masterpiece "O Brother Where Art Thou?" it's all about the journey. The film was loosely (very loosely) based on Homer's "The Odyssey", a story the Coens said themselves they never fully read, but they did take the more famous aspects as inspiration. The story follows the journey of three chain gang convicts Everett (George Clooney), Pete (John Turturro), and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) as they go through the mystical depression era Mississippi, and experience one surreal moment after another.

The Coens mix Homer's mythology with a bit of old Mississippi's as well. Along with meeting a trio of sirens, and an evil one-eyed bible salesman (John Goodman), they also come across Tommy Johnson a guitarist who sold his soul to the devil in order to play great guitar. They also meet George "Babyface" Nelson (Michael Bodalucco) who is depicted here as having a bit of a bi-polar disorder. Delmar also joins in on a congregational baptism and is saved, and to top it all off the three men record a version of "Man of Constant Sorrow" which becomes the biggest hit over the radio.

Like in many Coen films there is the depiction of the devil incarnate in the form of Sheriff Cooley (Daniel Von Bargen) who is hunting are three wanderers and stops at nothing to catch them.

Along with viewing the film again recently, I also found myself listening to soundtrack in my car. The soundtrack of course became much more successful than the actual movie winning the Grammy for Album of the Year, but there is wisdom in the way the Coens use the music in the film. Although not a musical per se, the songs help tell the story, and the bluegrass mysticism of the tone and lyrics were probably the things that inspired the Coens more than the words of Homer. Just watching the baptism scene with that heavenly choir singing turns that scene into something much more spiritual.

This is in fact The Coens most spiritual film, and I often wonder what the people who accuse them of being pure nihilists have to say about it. The question of God and good and evil have come into play in many of their films even in "No Country for Old Men", a film often accused of being nothing but nihilistic.

Whether the Coens are making any strong spiritual statement with this film is debatable, however it does demonstrate their love of their characters. Everet, Pete, and Delmar as played by Clooney, Turturro, and Nelson are three of the Coens most likable and endearing characters, there kind of like if the Three Stooges took a few classes of whimsy. Although they're simple minded they endure through difficult situations, and the Coens even give them a bit of pathos.

"O Brother Where Art Thou?" is often seen as mild Coen Brothers, however I would call it their most pleasant. There isn't any rush to arrive to a point in the movie, in fact they never do arrive to the point, the film becomes about the journey, it uses old fashioned mythology and pairs it with a deep South that can only be depicted in the movies. In the end, you might not find a point or a moral, or a message, but sometimes a movie doesn't have to do that to make it an experience.