Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
This letter made its way to me this afternoon from someone who saw O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU at a special screening featuring a Q&A afterwards with John Turturro. Check it out!!
I post on the talkbacks from time to time and am hopelessly addicted to this goofy ass site. Anyways, I’ve just comeback from a screening of the Coen Bros. new flick “O Brother, Where Art Thou”that was followed by a Q&A with Barton Fink Dejeezuz himself, John Tuturro. I know you’ve reviewed it already but I figure why the hell not chime in with my own review and a brief description of the Q&A that followed. So here goes.
The Coen Bros. have once again worked their quirky screwball magic. This time on the Depression era south. Though “Oh Brother, Where Art thou” is billed as “based on THE ODDESSY by Homer” it reminds me a lot more of Ragtime. Chiefly because it’s really about a certain time and place and the main characters interact with fictionalized versions of real people. I’m not gonna be pretentious and act like I’ve read The Oddessy and do a side by side comparison but I’ve got some knowledge of the text from 9th grade history like everybody else. The Coens have thrown in a couple of wink and nod scenes that borrow from the book: the blind soothsayer, the sirens, the flood. But overall this movie was more of a happy go lucky postcard from the Depression era south.
There are certain constants in most of the Coen films(except maybe Blood Simple and Fargo), a formula if you will and this film conforms to them with wonderful results. They always end up casting someone new to them in the lead and make them shine to the point where they end up giving one of the best performances of their career. Nicholas Cage, Gabriel Bryne, Tim Robbins, Jeff Bridges; all these guys had their best roles working with the Coens. They do it again with Clooney who obviously doesn’t need a breakthrough but has needed a challenging role that didn’t just require him to say “You, be cool!” and do that annoying thing with his neck. And he had it here with that Clark Gable mustache and that galdarned accent. The second constant is the Coens recycling great talent from previous films in great scene stealing supporting roles; Mr. John Goodman, John Tuturro, Charles Durning, Ms. Holly Hunter (it’s great to have her back) and newcomer Tim Blake Nelson give great supporting performances in this flick. The third though not quite as obvious and not quite often as used constant is the enigmatic, wild card antagonistic character though not always the main baddie that we only briefly see cool glimpses of until halfway through or towards the end of the flick. In Raising Arizona it was The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse, Miller’s Crossing - The Dane, Barton Fink – John Goodman, The Big Lebowski – Jackie Treehorne. And here it’s Daniel Von Barger as Sheriff Cooley. Anyways, here’s how the plot goes.
Ulysses, Pete and Delmar are three escapees from a Mississippi chain gang off in search of a hidden treasure that Clooney has stashed away somewhere. At the start of their “oddessy” they encounter a blind old “negro” who fortells of their coming journey and the fortune that awaits them, though it is not the fortune they seek. They go on constantly persued by Sheriff Cooley and his dark glasses(seemed like a homage to the guard in Cool Hand Luke) and along they way they pick up a young hitchhiking “colored boy” at the crossroads who says he’s just sold his soul to the devil to learn how to play guitar. This character is supposed to be Robert Johnson the famous Blues guitarist but they changed his name to Tommy. Along the way, they record a hit record that sounds a lot like some okkie, old Hank Williams tune. They help George “Babyface” Nelson rob a bank. They run from the sheriff who eventually does capture Pete though Delamar thinks the Sirens turned him into a frog. Ulysses confronts his wife played by Holly Hunter(totally Ed McDunough all over again)who is about to remarry. They wreck a KKK rally. The Klan rally is one of the best scenes in the film as far as capturing a point in history. The Grand Dragon turns out to be the guy running for Governor against the incumbant governor played by Charles Durning (This is great history because after Birth of A Nation came out and the depression hit the Klan was at the height of it’s popularity during the thirties even more so than the fifties or sixties when the civil rights movement was going on. Many politians in the south were card carrying members of the “invisible empire” chiefly to get votes and go along with the fad).
After that they sing their song in a church and generally have a big adventure. The film starts off kinda slow (The trio thing works but the laughs grow thin) and then it kicks into high gear once they pick up Tommy. That’s when all of the great supporting players start making their rounds. I mean Clooney, Tuturro and Nelson are great but they’re way better interacting with whoever’s cameoing with them in a scene. Stephen Root’s got a great cameo as a cross eyed, goofy disc jockey who records their record. Mr. John Goodman rules as the “Bible salesman” and Charles Durning is great as the Governor. As for the afformentioned enigmatic big bad Sherriff Cooley, Daniel Von Barger is pretty good but he’s not in enough scenes and when he does get his big scene at the end it doesn’t deliver quite as well as say, The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse. As for the main trio; Clooney’s great but he doesn’t really get your sympathy until all of the stuff with Holly Hunter happens. He’s this long wided pontificator type who loves the sound of his own voice but once we see that deep down he’s just a guy who wants his family back we’re with him. Still that’s about 20 steps in the right direction from previous Clooney performances.Tuturro gives an understated performance as Pete but I’d really say of the three of them the one whose the most likable is Tim Blake Nelson as Delmar. He’s the guy whose kind of there watching everything transpire and comenting on it so the audience identifies with him the most. Eventhough, he is a little dumb.
All in all a good time to be had by all. It probably won’t make that much money because the Coens rarely do, but who cares. As long as it makes some profit it’s all good.
Now as far as the Q&A with Dejeezuz goes it was basically a room full of big headed, know it all NYU film students but Tuturro was quite gratious. Most of the questions he answered were about his previous experiences with the Coens, the actor – director relationship in general, and what he likes about acting and directing movies. I didn’t have a tape recorder handy so I can’t really give direct quotes but he did say that with the Coens each experience for him was different. On Barton Fink they rehearsed on weekends for months and sculpted out the character mostly through that rehearsal process. While on Lebowski, Dejeezuz was just him kind of improvising. “The lick”, the Mohammed Ali style posturing, that cutaway where he's furiosly shining his ball; it was all him. For this film he said he had to do most of the work himself because he was shooting something else when they were rehearsing. He’s a great guy though. A real class act.
Anyways, that’s my first AICN Review. Hope you liked it.
Excelsior,
THE COMEDIAN
