O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Genre: Comedy| Year: 2000 | Duration: 106 mins | Director: Joel & Ethan Coen | Medium: DVD (EAGLE Entertainment) | Trailer: HERE | My rating: 5*/5*

Favorite Dialogue: Everett: “Deceitful, two-faced she-woman. Never trust a female Delmar, remember that one simple precept and your time with me will not have been ill spent.”

O’Brother set in 1937 rural Mississippi during great depression is a brilliant comedy inspired in parts by Homer’s Odyssey. Dapper Dan hair cream obsessed Everett (George Clooney),  easily excitable Pete (John Turturro), and dopey Delmar (Tim Nelson) escaped from a prison chain gang, still chained to each other and goes looking for 1.2 million dollars that Everett claims to have stolen and buried at a farm before he was caught. They run together in chains through fields and even attempted jumping on a running train till they reached Pete’s cousin Wash’s farm. They get surrounded by Sheriff Cooley and his men  and escape with the help of Wash’s son in his car. On their way out they pick up a hitchhiker Tommy, who claims to have sold his soul to the devil in lieu of learning guitar from him. The four of them goes to a radio station run by a blind man, Root, and sing a song “Man of constant sorrow” under the name of Soggy Bottom Boys, conning Root for extra dollars. While they are their wild goose chase, their song becomes famous around the state, which eventually helps them getting pardoned by the governor.

This strangely beautiful, thoroughly eclectic and musically comic flick is my Movie of the day.