O' Brother

2 Pages 531 Words

O’ Brother, Where Art Thou?

In response to question #2.

If Ethan and Joel Cohen had been able to sit down and write the entire script for O’ Brother, Where Art Thou straight through I might consider it a great movie. The problem I run into is that the brothers started the script years ago, and when they found themselves stuck they simply took a break and wrote something else. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Cohen brothers other films, (the Big Lebowski might be the funniest movie ever!) but O’ Brother seems too familiar to be considered a great film. In this respect I agree with Roger Ebert’s review that the movie “contains sequences that are wonderful in themselves - lovely short films – but the movie never really shapes itself into a whole.” The Cohen brother’s made great strides in cinematography, but really missed the boat with O’ Brother.
The cast is full of tremendous actors who have dazzled when working with the Cohens, but that’s precisely the problem. John Goodman has appeared in the Cohen’s Barton Fink and The Big Lebowski playing the same violently psychotic character he plays in O’ Brother. Goodman’s performance as Big Dan Teague is solid, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Vietnam vet Walter, the bungling, gun-totting lunatic who, despite his good intentions, is the bane of Jeff Lebowski’s (not Lebowski the “DUDE”) existence. Also Pappy O’Daniel, played by Charles Durning, plays essentially the same role he had in Big Lebowski, and also much more over the top as he turns in a Jackie Gleason/Sheriff Buford T. Justice performance. And for as many good performances as Holly Hunter has turned in, she is un-noteworthy as the estranged wife of our hero Everett Ulysses McGill.
As for those who turned in respectable performances, George Clooney did his best work to date and really helped propel the film. His portrayal of Everett, a lovably quirky convict on the lame with, an insatiable n...