O Brother Where Art Thou

[K9]

Just re-watched this on DVD, brilliant movie. If somehow you haven't seen this I recommend it to anyone.

[Lt.Dan]

I'm a George Clooney hater but this is a good movie.  Clooney breaks character from his mono-character he normally plays and John Goodman puts in a great appearance. Awesome music too.

We have the soundtrack on high rotation in the car, being a favourite of the Mrs and the daughter.  It's even knocked ABBA out of rotation (thank god for that!).  Very funny to hear a 4 year old ask for down by the river or rock candy mountain. 

[Salamok]

This is definitely in my top 5 for the decade.  The people that don't seem to care much for this are those that have trouble understanding the accents.

[Righ]

A very good film - I'd have to call myself a fan of the Coen brothers' movies. I don't think they've made a true dud yet although I wasn't crazy about The Ladykillers remake, perhaps because I love the original. Even with Hanks, there was no danger of out-casting the original.

O Brother is a high point for Clooney, but not I think for the Coens. The soundtrack is memorable, but its the unforced humor of the film and the inspired caricatures that really deliver. The Coens take Preston Sturges' allegory and playfully marry it to Homer's Odyssey and while we are in tears from the brilliant comedy they remind us of the social injustices of depression-era America. Quite exceptional on many levels.

"O Brother, Where Art Thou? is going to be the greatest tragedy ever made! The world will weep! Humanity will sob!"

... with joy.

[Lt.Dan]

Bravo!

[Evildrider]

Aye, this is a great movie.

[Broughden]

Good movie and sound track

[stray]

This made me a Clooney fan, period. This is a high point, I agree, but I can't help but laugh with the guy all the time now. In ER, he was kind of cold (for the most part), but he's been pretty funny in movies.

[edit] His humor is a lot like Johnny Depp's actually. He's not as weird or anything. But they both have the same exaggerated/cartoonish facial expressions. I'm surprised that anyone takes him seriously anymore.

[Ozzu]

This is definitely one of my favs.

Pete: You miserable little snake! You stole from my kin!
Ulysses Everett McGill: Who was fixin' to betray us.
Pete: You didn't know that at the time.
Ulysses Everett McGill: So I borrowed it until I did know.
Pete: That don't make no sense!
Ulysses Everett McGill: Pete, it's a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart.

[apocrypha]

One of my all time favourite films, for sure. And no, piss off Firefox, I am spelling favourite correctly thanks. In fact, added to dictionary. Hah take that! OK, adding "Hah" too.

Mrs. Hogwallop up and R-U-N-N-O-F-T.

[Murgos]

Absolutely one of my all time favorite movies.  And I really have to thank the soundtrack for opening up my horizons to 'old-timey bluegrass'.  I have 5 Dr. Ralph Stanley discs now.

[Yegolev]

/metoo

Also this movie gave me one of my frequently-used lines: "...with the midget and the broom and whatnot" which has shortened into my ubiquitous  "...and whatnot."  Other ones I like to use include "Is you is or is you ain't my constichency?!" and "I'm with you fellers."

[HaemishM]

I'm partial to "dumber than two bags of hammers."

[stray]

My favorite actor in here though is Goodman (really, in every Coen's flick, I guess). He's fucking brutal.

To frogs at least.

[Yegolev]

Too many good lines.  "He's bona-fide!"

[Bunk]

My dad's absolute favorite movie. He pulls it out anytime someone gives him an opportunity to demonstrate the surround sound system he set up in his livingroom. Something about the sequence at the river and you being able to hear it flowing through the room.

Also, he likes southern country/bluegrass tpye music, so that could be a factor.

[Abagadro]

A great film although only about #4 on my Coen brothers list which just shows how great their catalog truly is.

I've taken to using the term pater familias since that film.

[Margalis]

#1 is Miller's Crossing. Right? Right?

[stray]

Personally, I'd put Lebowski at the top of the list. I haven't seen Burn After Reading though.

[apocrypha]

Fargo would be my number one Coen brothers film. Or No Country For Old Men. Or The Big Lebowski. Maybe Miller's Crossing. Blood Simple is pretty awesome too. Oh sod it, I couldn't pick a number one.

[Abagadro]

#1 is Miller's Crossing. Right? Right?

Yes, although Lebowski is 1a.

[Broughden]

I didnt like No Country For Old Men.

Didnt like that the girl was killed at the end or that the evil bastard lived.
If you have witnessed enough evil IRL you dont need to be reminded of it nearly always winning while watching a movie.

[apocrypha]

If you have witnessed enough evil IRL you dont need to be reminded of it nearly always winning while watching a movie.

But having every single film that comes out of Hollywood have a happy ending is what gives us stupid shit like I Am Legend - actually a good film with the "alternate ending", heap of shite with the re-shot ending after test audiences didn't like the first one.

Studio execs demanding feelgood factor and test audiences reacting negatively to anything other than boy-gets-girl-evil-person-gets-comeuppance have been ruining films since 1956 (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) and personally I think it's important that directors have some options open to them in how their films end.

[ahoythematey]

All the Coen brothers movies are pretty awesome(though I personally don't feel the need to watch The Man Who Wasn't There or Intolerable Cruelty again), but my favorite remains Raising Arizona.  Yodas 'n shit.

[Margalis]

#1 is Miller's Crossing. Right? Right?

Yes, although Lebowski is 1a.

Ha ha, great minds think alike? Miller's Crossing is criminally underrated. Man, the "Look into your heart" scene still gets me.

[Abagadro]

For a while years ago I went around asking people "What's the rumpus?" but I got so many blank looks I stopped. I do still use "giving me the high hat" in moments of exasperation though.

Albert Finney shooting the guys up in his bathrobe and slippers and Danny Boy playing is one of my all time favorite scenes in film. My favorite part being him taking the cigar out of his pocket at the end. Great movie.

[ahoythematey]

True story, one that I am continually ashamed of: I have not yet seen Miller's Crossing.  It's not out of no interest, but merely one of those movies that just slips off your radar.  All this talk seriously makes me want to watch it right this moment, though.

[Abagadro]

You definitely should. One thing to be warned about though is that the plot is very difficult to follow the first time you watch it. It took me three times to really figure out what was going on on every level. Maybe I'm a dope but it's pretty complex and a lot of plot is revealed in short dialogue.  Didn't impact my enjoyment the first time around but my enjoyment of it has gotten deeper over the multiple viewings.

[stray]

My Dad actually took me to it when I was 11 or so. I didn't understand a thing. But I've seen it plenty of times since.

You can never be disappointed by Albert Finney by the way.

[Jeff Kelly]

Didnt like that the girl was killed at the end or that the evil bastard lived.

But that would be like killing off the point of the movie entirely. The evil bastard lives at the end, because he is the only person in the movie who has a moral code and sticks to it.

Without that the film would lose its element of irony. Every other person in No country for old men who dies, gets killed because they lose track of their own moral code, does something bad and that deed comes back to him at the end.

So the irony is the ending of the movie because the only one still alive is the one who stuck to his principles even if they are twisted and crazy and he is a evil bastard.

[Broughden]

Didnt like that the girl was killed at the end or that the evil bastard lived.

But that would be like killing off the point of the movie entirely. The evil bastard lives at the end, because he is the only person in the movie who has a moral code and sticks to it.

Without that the film would lose its element of irony. Every other person in No country for old men who dies, gets killed because they lose track of their own moral code, does something bad and that deed comes back to him at the end.

So the irony is the ending of the movie because the only one still alive is the one who stuck to his principles even if they are twisted and crazy and he is a evil bastard.

Ahhh! Gotcha. I actually hadnt caught on to that. Okay so how did the girl screw up and break her moral code?
(PS- This still doesnt make me like it anymore.)

[Hindenburg]

She didn't, and neither did the gent that got stopped by Chigurh on the road and got his head poked.

Chigurh is just batshit insane, as exhibited:

[Broughden]

She didn't, and neither did the gent that got stopped by Chigurh on the road and got his head poked.

Chigurh is just batshit insane, as exhibited:

Okay but how does that jive with what Jeff Kelly posted?

[Abagadro]

Because part of his code is based upon leaving things to chance.  Listen to his conversation with the clerk.  If she would have called the coin correctly she probably would have lived.

[Broughden]

Because part of his code is based upon leaving things to chance.  Listen to his conversation with the clerk.  If she would have called the coin correctly she probably would have lived.

Oh yeah I forgot he gave her the coin as well, as he did the shop clerk.