O Brother, Where Art Thou?

I saw "Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou," in theaters with my dad when I was 10. As we walked out of the theater he asked, "Well, what did you think?" I didn't really know what to say, because there had been parts that I liked, but I wasn't sure if I actually liked the movie, mostly I thought that I didn't really get it. Once we figured out that I didn't know Homer's "Odyssey," and therefore completely missed the entire story of the movie, we went to the closest bookstore and bought a children's version to read.

The next night we went back and saw the movie again. We walked out of the theater talking about the adaptation, the soundtrack and the acting. To me, "O Brother," has always been a movie that I can watch in any type of mood I am. And, surprise surprise, one of my favorite parts of the movie is the soundtrack.



It's hard to pick one song out of the entire film, but the stand out song is easily the Soggy Bottom Boy's "I am a Man of Constant Sorrow." The song is one of the catalysts of the film as Everett (George Clooney), Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson), record it after escaping from a chain gang in depression ridden Mississippi.

Everett, to say the least, is a man of constant sorrow. He was arrested, he is constantly looking for a very particular type of hair product, his wife got engaged to someone while he was in jail, convinces her to take him back, but she demands that she has her original ring, he finds the ring, and gives it to her after a flood and a near hanging, however she insists it is the wrong one.

Not only does "Man of Constant Sorrow," fuel the movie by creating the opportunity for Everett's wife to finally realize he is "bona fide," and worth taking back, but it also has many parrallels to the actual story of the "Odyssey" and "O Brother." In the beginning of the song, the narrator must "bid farwell," to his home, both Ulysses and Everett at one point (or many) are forced to leave their home.

Besides being one of my favorite Coen brothers movies, it is overall one of my favorite soundtracks to any movie. The soundtrack is full of blue grass and folk music, something I never appreaciated, to say the least I may have despised, but after falling deeply in love with the movie it was hard not to appreciate the music. An entire new genre of music was opened up to me through the wonderul movie of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"