O’ Brother Where Art Thou?: A Uniquely Southern Odyssey

There is absolutely nothing I love more than a good representation of the American South. One that allows the histories and cultures from myriad different peoples to blend and cover the mountains like smooth red clay, all while still able to set down the rose-colored glasses and not simply recognize the tragedy that brought many of those people to the land but navigate it with honesty and humor. Films like these are hard to come by; most depictions of the South start and end as either historical (and often exploitative) accounts of slavery in the antebellum era, or as exaggerated glorifications of the bloody battles of the Civil War- which both lack the heart and courage to truly encapsulate the South because of their refusal to admit that both beauty and tragedy work together to shape this land, not separately, and certainly not despite each other. 

You know what? I lied. There is something I like more: a good retelling of a myth. There is something so incredibly universal about the stories contained within ancient myths; despite their creation in a time of now alien issues and their inclusion of epic battles between gods and monsters, they still find ways to resonate deeply via their truths and commentaries on human nature. There is no one authentic version of a myth, it’s a story constantly being told and retold, and introducing a new, creative spin on a classic makes it feel brand new. 

In the 2000 film O’ Brother Where Art Thou? the Coen brothers manage to intertwine these elements in a way that strikes right at the heart of what makes both these kinds of stories so fascinating. As we follow along with Ulysses Everett McGill, portrayed by George Clooney, and two of his fellow chain gang escapees, the viewer is thrown into a Homeric epic stretching across every inch of 1937 Mississippi, with each colorful character encountered along the way and every trial or tribulation reminiscent of one faced by Odysseus and his crewmates in The Odyssey.

Every new scene feels like a separate episode, one that would make even the most fair-weather Odyssey fan point to the screen and exclaim exactly the intention behind each character design or plot point. The trio start their journey on the advice of a blind old man pushing a hand car, much like Odysseus and his crew received from Tiresias. They are lured in and fall unconscious to the sweet song of three women washing clothes down by the river, and when they wake, are convinced these ladies turned their now missing friend into a toad; blending the run-ins with both the sirens and Calypso. At their great confrontation of the law they’d been running from since the first moments of the film, three grave diggers crone a soulful melody of their inevitable meeting with death, reminiscent of the fates defied in both tales, by luck and a little divine blessing. 

While the plot itself is deeply beautiful and creative, the soundtrack is truly the most memorable aspect of the film. The Coens went to great lengths to ensure the authenticity of the portrayal of Mississippi, bringing together traditional bluegrass that ranges from beautifully haunting ballads to infectiously dance-inducing tunes, all of which have persisted in my memory from the first watch. Music acts not only to underscore the emotions the plethora of sepia-soaked shots invoke but also as vital plot devices, heralding love, death, and danger, pushing our three heroes closer to their ultimate goal and pulling them deeper into the common follies of the human species.

No conversation of O’ Brother Where Art Thou? is complete without addressing its most polarizing moment: the massive in scale display of an attempted lynching by the KKK. The Coen brothers do not attempt to shy away from racism as an undeniable part of the landscape of the South in the 1930s but instead face it head-on without trying to line it with silver, and by letting our heroes make a fool out of all its participants while simply trying to save their friend. Its evility is apparent, not through direct decrying of the activities of the mob, but by the subversion of the classic backwards and slow witted caricature of a Southerner into that of innocence and a genuine desire to be good and do good, which in turn extinguishes the flame of hatred. 

From start to finish, O’ Brother Where Art Thou? is a journey of found family and love, one that was told first on the streets of ancient Rome, but has been expertly transposed onto a rich depiction of the American South, with a no-holds-barred take on what it’s like to traverse a world dead set on holding you hostage to your past, all set to the gentle strum of a mandolin. 

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