WHILE EARLIER COEN MOVIES PAY HOMAGE TO DASHIELL HAMMETT, WILLIAM FAULKNER AND RAYMOND CHANDLER, THE TOUCHSTONE HERE IS SHORT STORY WRITER AND FABULIST HOWARD WALDROP.
In his novella A Dozen Tough Jobs, Waldrop retold the story of Hercules in the rural South in the 1920s. Here, the Coens use the Waldropian approach by replaying the story of Ulysses’ long journey home from the Trojan Wars against the backdrop of Depression-era Mississippi. Our hero is Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), a fast-talking wise-guy who says he’s after treasure but really wants to get back together with his family. Along the way, McGill and his two fellow prison escapees fall in with a bluesman who has swapped his soul for musical talent, which leads the runaways into a profitable detour as a recording sensation. A crowd-pleasing comedy, O Brother has more witty lines and visual imagination than a dozen regular movies.