O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Cast: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Charles Durning , Michael Badalucco, John Goodman and Holly Hunter.

This is the Coen brothers' take on The Odyssey by Homer. Clooney plays Ulysses Everett McGill, a golden tongued jail breaker on the run trying to get home to his loved Penelope (Hunter). Chained together with him are two less articulate fellow convicts Delmar and Pete. On their journey they meet Tommy Johnson, the blues guitarist said sold his soul to the Devil at the Crossroads somewhere in Mississippi- which was later attributed to Robert Johnson.

Anyhow, together with Tommy, the three former inmates record a hit song, rob a bank together with George 'Babyface' Nelson, ruin a Ku Klux Klan meeting, changes the outcome of the governor election and much more.

As usual, the joy of a Coen brothers movie is the actors and the characters more than anything else. Also, the music - bluegrass - is wonderful.

Incoming Spoilers!

• Robert Johnson gets some homage from the character Tommy Johnson. Played by Chris Thomas King, an actual bluesman, Johnson is picked up at a crossroads where he sold his soul to the devil for musical ability.
• "Keep On The Sunny Side" and "Lonesome Valley" are on the soundtrack which are a distinguishing songs by the Carter Family, a godfamily of country and folk music
• The pardoning of the Soggy Bottom Boys alluded to Governor Patt Neff's pardoning of Leadbelly. Leadbelly wrote a song to the governor of Texas and was pardoned.
• "Man of Constant Sorrow" is covered by the Soggy Bottom Boys in the movie. That song was written by the Stanley Bothers and Ralph Stanley sings "O Death" for the soundtrack, the KKK song.
• "You are my Sunshine" is on the soundtrack and that song was actually written by Governor Jimmie Davis, O'Daniel has the Soggy Bottom Boys sing that on stage in the end.

The Coen Brothers take time and pay attention to so many details when creating their art. O Brother, Where Art Thou? shows their abilities in a way they have never been displayed before. "Big Rock Candy Mountain" plays while the cast rolls in the beginning. That sets you up for the movie. Actually, the O Brother, Where Art Thou official site is giving away the soundtrack in a limited edition Dapper Dan CD case. Dapper Dan is George Clooney's choice of pomade in the movie.

Allow me to use my knowledge of blues minutiae to dispel a common misconception bred by the previous write-ups. In his original wu, bigmouth_strikes alludes to the truth, but doesn't make it terribly clear. The movie character of Tommy Johnson does not refer to Delta blues guitarist Robert Johnson, but rather to Delta blues guitarist Tommy Johnson.

Tommy preceded Robert on the scene by several years, playing with his brothers primarily in and around the small Mississippi town of Crystal Springs, about 10 or 15 miles north of Robert's birthplace of Hazlehurst. Tommy claimed that he sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads in return for his guitar-playing skills, and went out of his way to exaggerate and perpetuate that story. Tommy was an apt guitarist, but by all accounts unexceptional among the heavies of his time, and as a result his story about the devil was considered by most to be just that - a story.

Robert, on the other hand, underwent a remarkable and drastic transformation in his ability as a blues guitarist in a very short period of time (around two months), during which his whereabouts were unknown to anyone. He resurfaced in the town of Robinsonville where he grew up, at a gig being played by preacher-turned-bluesman Son House. Son used to let Robert play harmonica with him, but always shooed him away from his guitar. "Put that down, boy, you drive people crazy. You can't play nothin'." When Robert turned up and blew Son away with his new musical ability, Son swore that he must have sold his soul to the devil for that talent.

Robert never confirmed the rumors, or even addressed them, which did much more to convince people that it was true than anything he could have said. This, combined with his truly revolutionary guitar playing and the similarity among their names, caused Tommy to be quite eclipsed by Robert. Also, while Tommy may have come along first with that particular story, the crossroads legend was already very well established among southern blacks at that time. Stories of people selling their soul to the devil at the crossroads at midnight for money, love, knowledge or revenge were common among their folk stories for many years prior.

As a clarification to the Odyssey connection of this film: it was never intended to be based on Homer's Odyssey. Hell, the Coen Brothers admit to having never read it. Rather, they realized they were making a movie about a journey and thought it would be neat to bring in more elements from Homer (which they thought was a cool hillbilly name, and nothing more).

So, they watched the 1954 Italian film Ulysses and bought the Odyssey comic book and did a little research on the cyclops and Penelope and sirens. And, kiddies, that's where the Odyssey connection comes in. Nothing more than "hey, that's a neat idea."

Or so they say.

VH1 ran a special on the singer who wrote the version of the song "Man of Constant Sorrow" on the soundtrack, Ralph Stanley. He released it in the 70s, where it was a minor hit, selling over 500 copies a week. A current re-release featuring similar song selection and label art as the OBWAT soundtrack is selling over 2,000 copies a week.