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| Three convicts flee a chain gang with part of the chain still attached on this neat poster for Ethan and Joel Coen's O Brother, Where Art Thou? |
Three escaped convicts in Mississippi in 1937 venture out on an adventure after a buried treasure, which will soon get flooded, and they record a country single on their way.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is written and directed by Minnesotan master filmmakers, brothers Ethan and Joel Coen (Blood Simple (1984)). Ethan Coen also produced the film. It is a very loose adaptation of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey (8th/7th century BC).
It is an enthusiastic yarn full of fun, speed, visual panache (cinematography by Roger Deakins (Shadey (1985))), a delicious color scheme, - and energetic actors: Tim Blake Nelson (Dallas & Robo (2018, TV-series)) especially as the simple-minded Delmar, and George Clooney (Red Surf (1989)) as vain idiot Ulysses McGill are terrific.
Clan members and politics get mixed into the bargain, and towards the end things get a bit thick and contrived. But O Brother, Where Art Thou? is still a good and fun film that could only have come from the inimitable Coen brothers.
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Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 26 mil. $
Box office: 71.8 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 2.76 times its cost)
[O Brother, Where Art Thou? premiered 13 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 107 minutes. Neither of the Coens have ever read the Odyssey. The title of the film is a reference to Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels (1941). Clooney was paid 1 mil. $ for his performance in the film. Shooting took place from June - August 1999 in Mississippi and California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #27 to a 195k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #9 and in 847 theaters (different weeks), grossing 45.5 mil. $ (63.4 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Adapted Screenplay, lost to Stephen Gaghan for Traffic, and Cinematography, lost to Peter Pau for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It was also nominated for 4 BAFTAs, a European Film award, won 1/2 Golden Globe nominations and 2 Grammys, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. The Coen brothers returned with The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). Clooney returned in The Perfect Storm (2000); John Turturro (Somewhere Tonight (2011)) in Two Thousand and None (2000); Nelson in The Good Girl (2002); and John Goodman (In the Electric Mist (2009)) in The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000). O Brother, Where Art Thou? is certified fresh at 79 % with a 7.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of O Brother, Where Art Thou??
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