How do you describe O Brother, Where Art Thou? It’s a retelling of The Odyssey by someone who has never read it and has only picked up on the story based on what has stayed in the pop culture. It’s the Three Stooges in a remake of The Wizard of Oz set in the Depression-era South. It’s a fantastical musical comedy adventure. It’s an infinitely-quotable colorful dialect-heavy masterpiece and just so dang fun. It’s the first collaboration between George Clooney (who said he loved the Coen brothers’ movies so much, he agreed to be in it without even reading the script) and the Coen brothers – the first of four roles where George Clooney plays against type as an absolute moron. It’s one of the Coen brothers’ most accessible films, and also its least violent. And according to Joel Coen, it really is the Odyssey without any real knowledge of the Odyssey. He claims the only person on set who had actually read the Odyssey to that point was Tim Blake Nelson, who majored in Classics in college.

Everett, Pete and Delmar escape from a chain gang in hopes of getting to buried treasure before it’s lost in a flood. They first make their way to Wash, Pete’s cousin, but Wash betrays them to Sheriff Cooley who is on their trail. Cooley burns Wash’s barn where the escapees are sleeping, but Wash’s son helps them escape. The men pick up Tommy Johnson, a black man who sold his soul to the devil to learn how to play the guitar well. To get some quick cash, they visit a radio station and record a song under the name, the Soggy Bottom Boys. Afterwards, the men separate from Tommy and fall in with Baby Face Nelson in the middle of a string of bank robberies. Meanwhile, their song is becoming a smash hit. Near a river, they hear singing and come across three sirens washing clothes. The sirens give them whiskey until they fall asleep. When Delmar awakes, he sees Pete’s clothes, but no Pete…just a toad nearby. He’s convinced the sirens turned him into a toad and so takes the toad with him. Everett and Delmar go to a restaurant and meet Big Dan, a one-eyed bible salesman. Big Dan robs them and kills the toad. Later, Everett and Delmar see the real Pete back on a chain gang. They get back to Everett’s hometown and so Everett tries to talk to his wife, but she refuses to talk with him and her new suitor, Waldrip, beats him up.

Everett and Delmar steal Pete away in the middle of the night, and Pete confesses to revealing the location of the treasure while being tortured. Everett comes clean and admits there’s no treasure, he just needed them to escape together since they were chained together. The three come across a KKK rally where they’re about to hang Tommy, so they disguise themselves as klansmen to free him, but they’re caught by Big Dan, another klansman. The leader of the meeting turns out to be Homer Stokes, a man running for governor of Mississippi on a reformation platform. To get away with Tommy, the guys cause mass confusion by knocking over their burning cross. They get to Homer Stokes campaign dinner because Everett’s wife, Penny, is there (Waldrip is Stokes’ advisor), disguised as the Soggy Bottom Boys. They go to perform their hit song, which causes an uproar in the venue. However, Stokes recognizes them and tries to shut them down. The crowd boos and Pappy O’Daniel, the incumbent in the governor race, takes advantage of the situation and endorses the Soggy Bottom Boys and grants them pardons. Penny agrees to remarry Everett if he can get her ring back. Everett goes to get it, but Cooley is there with three graves prepared for them. Just before he kills them, Everett prays and a flood comes through, saving them. The ring Everett was able to recover is the wrong one, and Penny stands by her statement that she will not remarry him until he gets the right ring.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a fascinating subject because the movie did well at the box office, but what did even better is the soundtrack. Made up entirely of folk songs from the Depression era, the soundtrack was a major throwback that just took off. I had a professor in college who talked about going to see O Brother, Where Art Thou? while living in Paris, France and was amazed at the reception the soundtrack in particular received from the French. It was a worldwide phenomenon. I mean, really, are there any other instances where the film’s soundtrack sells better than the film itself does? The soundtrack is also responsible for the existence of Mumford & Sons. Take that for what you will, but it’s still an interesting degree of impact. The fact that these old American folk songs could have such a powerful hold on our culture is beyond strange, but I’m here for it. Those “old-timey” songs have a certain foot-stomping vibe to them that’s impossible to shake. It’s a testament to the power of music and film, a partnership that cannot be denied.

Bonus Review: The Big Lebowski

Due to some of the content, I can’t recommend The Big Lebowski to everyone like I can with O Brother, Where Art Thou?, but if you can handle the more adult-oriented content, The Big Lebowski is just as funny and just as quotable. Based on the crime novels of Raymond Chandler, The Big Lebowski has an overly complicated plot that ultimately is unnecessary, but it’s filled with off-the-wall characters that carry the film along. It’s so funny and ridiculous, that we don’t even notice the pointlessness of the plot. Jeff Bridges and John Goodman as the two loser best friends is perfect casting, especially when their friendship comes to a head at the funeral for their friend, Donny. The film’s cult status has exploded in confusing ways from Dude Fest, an annual weekend convention filled with trivia, bowling and showings of the movie, to Dudeism, a parody religion (like Pastafarianism) with over 200,000 ordained “Dudeist priests” based on the various philosophies presented in the film. It’s a wild ride, but so much fun. If you don’t like The Big Lebowski, then, well…you either know the quote or you don’t.

Jeff Lebowski, aka “The Dude”, is a bowler and slacker living in LA in the early 90s. Two enforcers for porn producer, Jackie Treehorn, break in to collect money that his wife, Bunny, owes. The crappy apartment and trash ones doesn’t alert the enforcers that they have the wrong Jeff Lebowski until one of them has already peed on the Dude’s rug. It’s unfortunate because that rug really tied the room together. The Dude consults his bowling team, Walter and Donny, on what to do, and Walter convinces him to get reimbursed for the rug by the other Jeff Lebowski, a wealthy philanthropist. Lebowski is angered at a bum’s attempt to get money out of him and refuses, but the Dude convinces his assistant that he is given permission to take whatever rug he wants. Before leaving, the Dude meets Bunny and her German nihilist friend, Uli. Later, Bunny is kidnapped and Lebowski hires the Dude to deliver the ransom to her kidnappers. That same night, the Dude’s apartment is broken into again, this time by thugs of Maude, Lebowski’s daughter who has a sentimental attachment to the rug he took. Walter shoehorns his way into helping deliver the ransom, but he is convinced Bunny wasn’t actually kidnapped, so he fakes the drop. They go bowling, leaving the briefcase full of money in the car. The car is stolen. Lebowski confronts the Dude about the botched drop and shows that the kidnappers have sent him Bunny’s severed toe. Maude also meets with the Dude and tells him to recover the money because her father pulled it from the family’s charity foundation.

The Dude gets the car back, but the briefcase is gone, which they track down to a teenager named Larry Sellers. Larry refuses to give them any info about the briefcase and Walter smashes a sports car outside in retaliation, thinking it’s Larry’s. However, it’s the neighbor’s and the neighbor smashes the Dude’s car in retaliation. The Dude and Walter get to the bottom of everything and confront Jeff Lebowski. Bunny has returned, having gone out of town without telling anyone. Her nihilist friends took the opportunity to blackmail Lebowski. Lebowski took the opportunity to withdraw money from the charity and blame the blackmailers, likely implying the briefcase never had any money in it to begin with. Walter is so upset, he knocks Lebowski out of his wheelchair, thinking he’s lying about being crippled. Turns out that’s very real. After bowling, the nihilists wait outside for the Dude, Walter and Donny and set fire to the Dude’s car, wanting the money they think they’re owed. They get into a fight, the nihilists lose, but Donny suffers a heart attack and dies right after. Because of their lack of funds, the Dude and Walter cremate Donny and take his ashes, in a Folger’s can, to the Pacific Ocean and spread them. However, the wind blows the ashes back into the Dude’s face. Between that and Walter’s eulogy that goes deep into the Vietnam War (which Donny was not a part of), the Dude blows up on Walter. Walter consoles him and convinces him to go bowling.