Movie Review: Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) co-written and directed by Joel Coen

Everett Ulysses McGill (George Clooney) is on the run from a 1930s Mississippi chain gain. He's still chained to Pete (Jon Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson), who are glad to escape and go after a bank robbery treasure that Everett has hidden near his home. $1.2 million dollars is a lot divided three ways during the Great Depression. If the money wasn't enough motivation to keep moving, a lawman (Daniel von Bargen) is chasing them. The trio run into all sorts of odd and surreal adventures as they cross the countryside.

The story is loosely based on The Odyssey by Homer. They have run-ins with a one-eyed, larger than life man (like the Cyclopes), a trio of lusty singing maidens (like the Sirens), and a blind prophet who predicts their future (like Tiresias, who appears in a lot more stories than Homer's epic). They have some original encounters, like when they stop at an isolated radio station and record a song that becomes a hit or when Pete and Delmar join a riverside revival and get baptized. Other parts are contrary to Homer's text, the most obvious being Everett's wife Penny, who has none of the loyalty or cleverness of Penelope. Penny has divorced Everett and told the children (all girls, no sons) that he died in a train accident. She has just one suitor to whom she is happily engaged and who bests Everett in a fistfight. I enjoyed most of the adaptations in this story though I didn't like turning the awesome female character into a self-centered opportunist. Also, Everett is, at best, half the man Odysseus is.

Recommended--the movie is entertaining and the music is great; but if you are a fan of the source material, you will have the occasional nails-on-a-chalkboard experience.