O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU

US, 2000, 110 minutes, Colour.
George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, Charles Durning, Michael Badalucco.
Directed by Joel Coen.

This is a film from the celebrated Coen brothers, Ethan the producer and Joel the director. They are very difficult to categorise with their wide range of film subjects and styles, crime dramas like Blood Simple and Fargo, comedies like Raising Arizona and various combinations always with an ironic sense of humour. They also have a penchant for peppering their films with swearing or, as the Americans say, 'cuss-words'. This time there wasn't one to be heard. This is one of their most benign and easily watchable films.

They do, however, give us a warning at the beginning! They tell us that their film is a re-working of Homer's Odyssey. Since the movie is set in a chain gang in the US South in the 30s, this seems to make demands on the imagination. And, is it making out of three prison escapees and their adventures the equivalent of epic myth? Or is it implying that, when it is all boiled down, Odysseus and his companions were much the same as convicts on the run? Obviously, the Coens want us to keep this in mind as we watch their film.

And they keep reminding us of the parallels: John Goodman as a greedy one-eyed bully, a Cyclops; mysterious women singing by a stream, Sirens; and a waiting wife called Penny, Penelope...

That said, the film can stand in its own right as a broadly smiling comedy. There are funny lines, comic situations and, always, a sense of the unexpected.

George Clooney is excellent as the leader of the group. Looking like Clark Gable, he is both romantic and dodgy, and shows himself expert at comic timing. A regular from Coen brothers' films, the versatile John Turturro, contributes edgy humour. Holly Hunter is Penny and Charles Durning an exploitative governor.

We get a tour of the Depression south familiar from the old American movies: the prisons and the bosses, the chain gang and their uniforms, the dogs chasing escapees, the relatives who take them in (and betray them), crooked politicians and their campaigning, racism and African Americans, the early radio stations and recording studios, southern music and the country and western tradition. And how you can get all that into one film, well, you will just have to go and see.

1. The reputation of the Coen brothers? Drama, comedy, offbeat style and perspective?

2. The Southern settings, the '30s, the open landscapes, the towns, the communities? Prisons, the open countryside, farms?

3. The musical score, the range of songs, themes? Old songs, new songs? Country and western, the radio, the performances?

4. The tone and the title of the film, themes of the Depression and people referring to each other as "Brother"? The film based loosely on The Odyssey, the wanderings of the central character, imprisoned, the parallels with the stories in The Odyssey, his return home to his wife Penny (Penelope)? A comic variation on The Odyssey in the American '30s?

5. The perspective on the background of the people at that time in the South, simplicity of life, the country, basic politics and manipulating the electorate, the religious background? The importance of the serious questions about life and its meaning underlying the comedy?

6. The film as a homage to the chain-gang films of the '30s, imitating the style, settings and décor, situations?

7. The chain gang and its evocations, labouring on the roads, the hard work, the bosses, in the prison itself, in the yards, especially going to the cinema?

8. The escape plan, the execution of the plan, its style, on the road, the film as a road adventure, experiences on the American back roads?

9. The family, the hero going to see his cousins, the young boy, eating, the betrayal by the cousin, the fire and the escape?

10. George Clooney as Everett: his story that he told to Pete and Delmar, the quest for treasure, his relationship with Peter and Delmar, their friendship? His leading the group and their discussions about who was to be leader? His ability at smart talk, clever, definitions? The joke about his pomade, concern about his hair, the net, his vanities?

11. Pete, the South, his relations, wanting to be leader, agreeing not to be?

12. The contrast with Delmar, slow on the uptake, a nice character?

13. The recording and the encounter with Tommy at the crossroads, the story about the Devil, giving him a list, the success with the DJ, his wanting to cut the record and its being popular all over the South?

14. Meeting the religious group, going to the river, Pete and Delmar being baptised? Everett and his scepticism? His theories about God, religion, baptism?

15. In the town, the encounter with Babyface Nelson, his dislike of the name, his giggle? The bank robberies, the homage to the films about the gangsters of the '30s? The Depression and its moods? Seeing Babyface later, the celebration? Hearing of his death?

16. Parallel with the Cyclops, John Goodman and his one eye? The salesman, the Bible, the meal together, his seeming to be very genial, bashing them and escaping? The later encounter with the Ku Klux Klan, the unmasking and finding the salesman there? And the javelin, the cross?

17. The parallel with the Sirens, the women and their washing and the water, their song, the men going to watch them, the seductive atmosphere? With the women, Pete, his clothes, the toad inside and Delmar believing he had been magically turned into a toad? The reality and Peter being recaptured?

18. Their hiding in the cinema, the chain gang coming in, seeing Pete? The escape, and going to the town? And the truth through the lawyer?

19. The character of Pappy O'Dwyer, his sons, the Governor, his reform plan (or not)? His using the media, the songs? The rally? His welcoming the group and relying on them?

20. Penny, her relationship with Stokes, the irony of his being part of the Ku Klux Klan?

21. Tommy, the Ku Klux Klan, his being tortured, the three going to his rescue, the unmasking, the salesman, Stokes, the satire on the prejudices of the South and its racism - yet the comic tone with the javelin, the cross?

22. Penny, the children, her exasperation with Everett, the divorce, the story about being hit by a train? Everett turning up again, his pleading with her? The preparations for her wedding?

23. The rally, the group singing in disguise, Pappy O'Dwyer using them, his offering the pardon, the unmasking of Stokes as a bigot, his ending his campaign, Penny and her discovery of the truth?

24. The story of the treasure being false, the reaction of Pete and Delmar, the search for the ring and Penny's demands about it, the flooding, the house? The sheriff and the confrontation, the prayer, the floods? Everett and his going into the water, retrieving the ring?

25. The reconciliation, the happy ending?

26. An entertaining character study of eccentrics, of a period, of the American South, of music and song, of politics, of greed, and the essential goodness of human nature?