O Brother, Where Art Thou?

O Brother, Where Art Thou?, is based on Homer’s The Odyssey, a tale which is about the hubris of one man and his adventure to keep his pride. The film has many similarities with the book from very subtle to large aspects of the film. But the film manages to be strong in its own right, and be a great tale on its own.

Co-writers and directors the Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan) recreated Homer’s The Odyssey with a great depression twist to create an entirely new tale. Which under the direction of the Coen Brothers is able to carry it’s self even if the audience has never read The Odyssey. With all the similarities in the film (i.e. Odysseus as Everett, Big Dan Teague is the Cyclops, Pete being turned into a toad is Odysseus’s men being turned into pigs, etc.) it is rather strange that Coen brothers were talented enough to be able to recreate such a different style story.

The lighting of O Brother Where Art Thou?, is terrific with the use of warm colors like reds, yellows, oranges, and browns every scene is given a specific feel and creates a wishful feeling for the audience. They bring the viewer into the film and have them rooting for Everett, Pete, and Delmar from the very beginning of the film. An example of cool colors used in the film is during the siren scene because of the slight blue filter the audience is entranced by the sirens along with the main characters. Creating a great audience to actor relationship.

Sound is a large part of this film. Every character has a very distinct tone in their voices when they speak helping the audience to differentiate the characters without even having to see them. Repetition is another big part of the voices in O Brother Where Art Thou?. Two examples of repetition are “Were in a tight spot” said by Everett three different times in the film, and “r-u-n-n-o-f-t” which is repeated by several different characters in the film. Along with voices, the music of the film is very distinct to the time period. With all the different songs used as big parts of certain scenes this film could be mistaken as a musical to some.

Costumes in this film are very subtle because of the time period (1937 a.k.a. The Great Depression) most characters dress very poorly to show that they are of a lower class. Which the several costume changes of the three characters it is fun for the audience to see how some people during this time is history had to lie to get what they wanted, of needed.

The set design of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, becomes very memorable in the audiences mind because of subtle details that catch the eye. This is especially true when the prophecies that the blind man on the train cart begin to come true and they are just shown on the screen without explaining to the viewer what they mean, which allows for the viewer to draw their own conclusions from everything that happened in the film.

Facial expressions were a huge part of many scenes but one in particular is the scene when the main characters are eating dinner at Delmar’s cousin’s home all the characters have strange looks on there faces giving the audience a laugh and creating openness in the film once again.

The main special effect I saw in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, was the great tidal wave near the end of the film. It was a very believable looking wave of water.

This film is very well done. In many ways it is a remake of The Odyssey, but it is also a story all its own. The great lighting and sound is what makes this film so recognizable and fun to watch.