The story behind Clooney singing is the real voice belongs to Dan Tyminski, lead male singer from Alison Krauss and Union Station. Dan went home to tell his wife that was going to be singing on a movie, but it was going to be his voice and George Cooney's face. His wife said "oh baby, that's my dream come true!!"
My men was so proud of that movie that he get😢… But we all have been burn like that.. and i bet none of us has been in a movie what a savage women hahahahahahahaha 😂
I love that George Clooney thought that he could sing in this movie until he tried it and heard Dan's version and just gave up because he knew that he would never do it as good. I also love that George tells this story on himself to prove that just because you are a big movie star doesn't mean that you can do everything.
Fun fact: In real life Baby Face Nelson, while robbing banks, also destroyed foreclosure documents and debt collection books, freeing hundreds of ordinary people from bank debt, improving his reputation in the eyes of common people.
George Nelson (Lester Gillis) aka Baby-face Nelson didn't care who he killed; women, children, etc... He was married with 2 children. His children lived into their 70s. He was part of the John Dillinger Gang.
I can't prove my mom hitchhiked with Dillinger and got advice from BFN, but she told me that after robbing a bank one should always drive away slowly while pretending to be just curious.
@@Lunch_Meat really! Pretty boy Floyd shot at bystanders of some the banks he robbed, killed a man for cutting him off in a car. None of those gangster were anything but lifelong criminals. I mean starting from early teens. They were thief's, robbers, thugs, and murderers. Sometimes they did a few things that seemed to help the common man but it was for show. Very little evidence that Floyd burned loan documents (maybe a couple of times), but in the 30's banking was a business hundreds of years old. They were well aware of the possibilty of documents being destroyed. They had copies of every loan document maintained elsewhere.
Being a member of the Boomers, for whom the Odyssey was required high school reading, as well as having parents who grew up in the Great Depression, I was blown away by this movie - as was my mother. The way they adapted the story was amazing, the casting was about perfect, and according to my mother, who lived through that time period, the background of the Depression/Dustbowl era was spot on. I've lost track of how many times I've watched this movie, and it just keeps getting better every time. The only problem my mom ever had with this movie was Baby Face Nelson. Factually he was already dead when this movie was supposedly set (1937). He was killed in a shoot out with the FBI in 1934 about a mile from where I grew up. But, hey, it's a fun subplot anyway.
Idk about anyone else, but I had to read the odyssey in middle school as a millennial. We got to watch this movie right after, and I fell in love with it
The surreal, scary, and fascinating world of The Odyssey was introduced to me in 1999 when I was in elementary school. It was written in 300 BC, Boomers don't have an exclusive claim to it lol.
@@brandonthesteelesame here but I was into ancient mythology from around the world in grade school and discovered it on my own. The blame goes to Marvel comics because they introduced me to Thor.
..can they even swim "rednecks" i mean? EDIT(before GOOGLE AI cums): I am a white, male & Blonde too 😲- xennial born in West-Jutland, Denmark! All in all: Pretty much = Redneck/Whitetrash/etc.
Of course they can swim!!! It’s just that they tend to swim in areas populated by such things as alligators and water moccasins, and often after consuming too much cheap beer, so….
Regarding the redneck mermaids: the 3 of them sing in all 3 vocal ranges. Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, and Alto. Which is why their voices blended so beautifully. It gave a supernatural feel to it.
The character Tommy is based on blues guitarist Robert Johnson. Legend has it he sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads to enhance his skills on guitar. His recordings are foundational and influenced multiple generations of guitarists like Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.
Fun Fact; Little after Robert Johnson’s death, bunch of people were trying to gather a bunch of blues artists to play at Carnegie Hall, with Johnson dead, they got one of his records, and played it. The record of him playing got an standing ovation.
I hate to be the "actually" guy, but I actually think that the Tommy Johnson character is based more on Tommy Johnson, a blues musician that had the same "sold his sole to the devil" myth. He even did it before Robert Johnson, it's just that Robert Johnson's the one that got bigger, and is now remembered.
In the very first scene, when it shows the prisoners building a railroad, we hear an old prison work song playing. That song was recorded by actual prisoners in the late '50s. After the movie came out and the soundtrack became a big hit, someone tracked down the prisoner who sang lead. He was living in Chicago and he had no idea he had a hit record. He got $20 000 in royalties.
Mine is, upon meeting someone with 14 children, Groucho says "I like my cigar but I take it out of my mouth every now and then" followed closely by "Sir, leave my house and never darken my towels again!" (President Rufus T. Firefly to Count Ambassador Trentino, played by Louis Calhern). Wait, what? This IS the Groucho/Duck Soup video comments section, isn't it? Well...I still think those are both really great lines. And they were both adlibbed by Groucho. My 3rd is "I just went GAY all of a sudden!" adlibbed by Cary Grant in 1938 (NINETEEN THIRTY-EIGHT!!!) and left in by Howard Hawks in Bringing Up Baby.
"of course it's Pete. Look at him" "Runnoft" "That don't make no sense" "Come on in boys, the water is fine" "We thought... You was... A toad"... Just soooo many memorable quotes. Those were without even thinking.
@@nomchompsky2883 Oh for the days when actors like Grant & Groucho had come up through vaudeville and were thus skilled at improvisation. Naturally directors like the Coen Bros. and the Farrellys (who write their own movies) have great screenplays but I'm curious as to how much dialogue from their movies are adlibbed. And the movies by Adam McKay (who started with Anchorman) who encourages improv, since it keeps things fresh AND with stars like Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill,etc. they're going to improv anyway. O BROTHER has great lines but if it had been made in 1973, during the decade of The New Hollywood, Clooney Nelson and Turtturo would have been as racist as can be and would still be funny, just like audiences rooted for the racist cops in the French Connection (and African-Americans went in huge numbers to see that movie). Why? I asked a black friend and he said that "black folk love the hell out of that movie because it's the first cop movie that doesn't lie to us. It shows cops for what most of them are and for what we go through all the time. You give black folk the truth about white people and we'll be there for it and support I." I mention that because you know how 1930s white underclass guys thought about African-Americans. I know it's a comedy but it could remain funny and also be real, like Huckleberry Finn, where Twain used the n-word on every page (since it was narrated by Huck) and had Huck still be pro-slavery at the end, just not including Jim, whom he now knows. And HUCKLEBERRY FINN is, to this day, laugh out loud funny, just like it was in Eighteen Eighty whatever the exact year. Maybe the Coens did try to keep things honest (like showing the Klan) but got vetoed by financial backers and distributors. Never know. But yeah, you're right. O BROTHER is ridonkulously funny, even if it came from the screenplay and even if it fudged on life in 1930s Mississippi.
I love how Ashleigh has gone from not have seen any classic movies to pretty much being an expert and being able to make all sorts of connections and references!
Ms. Burton worked at a country music radio station for 11 years, she said. HOW THE HELL DOES SOMEONE WHO WORKED AT A COUNTRY RADIO STATION AVOID KNOWING ABOUT O BROTHER WHEN IT WAS NUMBER ONE ON THE COUNTRY CHARTS FOR SEVEN STRAIGHT YEARS AND ALSO WON SO MANY GRAMMY AWARDS THEY NEEDED TWO HERD OF CATTLE TO HAUL THE AWARDS OUT OF THE BUILDING. THE SOUNDTRACK ALSO WON EVERY COUNTRY MUSIC AWARD THERE WAS TO GIVE OUT, EVEN THE TIERRA DEL FUEGO COUNTRY MUSIC ASSOCIATION'S PENGUIN AWARD FOR BEST COUNTRY MUSIC ALBUM OF THE LAST 50 YEARS. LOOK IN UP; ITS ALL ON GOOGLE. THE O BROTHER SOUNDTRACK WAS THE DARK SIDE OF THE.MOON FOR COUNTRY MUSIC!!!! WORKING AT A COUNTRY MUSIC RADIO STATION FOR.11 YEARS and.NOT knowing about this is like working in country radio for ELEVEN YEARS and asking who the hell Hank Williams was. And seeing the gifs of George Clooney singing into a can? "I didn't know George Clooney was in this! I wonder what the music sounds like? All I knew was George Clooney singing Man Of Constant Sorrow into a can from a movie called O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU. I didn't know this was the SAME O BROTHER movie I've seen 3 hours of gifs and clips of. Honest. I mean, how many O.BROTHER WHERE ART THOU movies have already been released this year? 8? 9? I wonder what kind of music George Clooney etc will sing in THIS O BROTHER and who will be in it? Will George Clooney be in this particular O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU like he was in all the clips and gifs I've seen of that other O BROTHER I've seen nine hours of clips and gifs of? And that was on in the background of every tv at the station and in the homes of every country radio worker I visited for the last 50 years? Could this be the same O BROTHER STARRING GEORGE CLOONEY I've seen 69 clips of?"
@@nomchompsky2883 I AM skeptical because I don't think anyone would disagree with me about good parts for good actresses being scarce...unless in a cape. And O BROTHER was INSANELY successful and the most honored CD in recent decades. Google the soundtrack to see how many Grammys it won and.all.the honors it received from every country music association on earth and beyond. Even the North Korean American Country Music Gulag gave it album of the year, decade, and century. I know that it was produced by T-Bone Burnette (rock/Americana guitarist)but country artists made it and country music claimed it. So I'll always be skeptical of anyone who says it was a cult classic, unless said cult is referring to our nation's entire solar system.
His home was in a valley, yes, and if I remember correctly, somewhere in the movie there was someone talking about the TVA flooding the valley. So, it was definitely heavenly intervention for them to be right there, at that exact moment, when human intervention stepped in. I *love* this movie, and I love how it follows the story of The Odyssey, including the seer at the beginning.
@AshleighBurton as a Tennessean, you should appreciate that it was the Depression era WPA project that created the Tennessee Valley Authority or TVA to wipe out thousands of acres of farms and farmland to dam and create river control & water projects for the mid-south states. That's the flood that came through at the end of the movie and destroyed Clooney's character's home.
Are any of you boys smithies? Or if you aren't smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgical arts before straightened circumstances led you to a life of aimless wanderin'?
22:42 Is what's known as "Riding a rail". Riding the rail (also called being "run out of town on a rail") was a punishment most prevalent in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries in which an offender was made to straddle a fence rail held on the shoulders of two or more bearers. The subject was then paraded around town or taken to the city limits and dumped by the roadside. Being ridden on a rail was typically a form of extrajudicial punishment administered by a mob, sometimes in connection with tarring and feathering,[1] intended to show community displeasure with the offender so the offender either conformed behavior to the mob's demands or left the community. "Famous whiskey insurrection in Pennsylvania", an illustration from Our first century: being a popular descriptive portraiture of the one hundred great and memorable events of perpetual interest in the history of our country by R. M. Devens (Springfield, MA., 1882). A story attributed to Abraham Lincoln has him quoting a victim of being ridden out of town on a rail as having said, "If it weren't for the honor of the thing, I'd just as soon it happened to someone else."[2] -Wikipedia
“Of course, it’s Pete. Look at him!” One of my favorite movies and that scene makes me laugh every time. Pete and Delmar are perfectly cast. And George Clooney 😍
I think the reason people love it so much besides the music and the cinematography, is the fact the story is based on the Odyssey. To think a story thousands of years old can still entertain people is pretty amazing.
Lets put it like this: The Hero's Journey is one of the oldest story plots. The women in the Odyssey are female archetypes used in many other settings: Penelope, the faithful wife, Circe, the temptress, turning men into animals, Nausicaa, the young naive, Calypso, the clasping lover, the sirens, the deadly traps.
After my class finished reading the Odyssey we watched this movie and did a report on the numerous similarities to each other. Definitely one of the more fun reports.
I’ve been wanting and suggesting Arsenic & Old Lace for like 2 years now. I’m glad one of the big fish patreons finally got in on the list! Such a great film!
With all due respect to all other reactors, I'd be hard pressed to think of a better match of a movie to a reactor. That was fantastic. I've never seen a movie bring out your Tennessee accent even more! Not Coal Miner's Daughter, not Dolly in 9 To 5, only this one! They should put this reaction on the DVD.
The album for this movie is one of my all time favorites. Gillian Welch, Allison Krause and Emmy Lou Harris were the voices for the sirens in “go to sleep you little baby”. The talent in this film is amazing. It’s also a coen brothers film like Raising Arizona and Fargo.
I used to sing that song to my boys when they wee babies because it was the only lullaby I knew al the words too from watching this movie so many times.
George Babyface Nelson was a pretty famous bank robber gangster who died in the 30s by a shootout with police. This movie does a very good job putting an alternate history of real events mixed with the mythology of Homer's Odyssey. The three singing girls were the Sirens, John Goodman was the Cyclops, and so on. And of course Holly Hunter is Helen of Troy.
This is a Cohen Brothers film. They make amazing films. They consistently use the same stable of actors , most of whom you adore. Here is their major filmography, some of which you have already seen. Watch them all! 1987 Raising Arizona 1990 Miller's Crossing 1991 Barton Fink 1994 The Hudsucker Proxy 1996 Fargo 1998 The Big Lebowski 2000 O Brother, Where Art Thou? 2001 The Man Who Wasn't There 2003 Intolerable Cruelty 2004 The Ladykillers 2007 No Country for Old Men 2008 Burn After Reading 2009 A Serious Man 2010 True Grit 2016 Hail, Caesar!
You're missing Blood Simple (1984 - their first film and a huge critical success), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), starring Oscar Isaac, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018).
I'm forever blown away by the fact that this movie, shot by the BRILLIANT Roger Deakins (look him up. not a single ugly film. guy's an actual genius), was one of the first big budget films to use completely digital color grading/correction. All that dustbowl-era yellow and beige was actually VERY green irl because production was in the south around spring and summer. So without completely tinting the whole film with one flat filter, they were able to make the bright green scenery look the way it does in the movie. Still looks seamless and beautiful. I adore this film and everything about it, even on a technical level.
You're right. It was filmed in and around Vicksburg, MS which is my hometown...I was in HS at the time. We knew they were filming a movie, some people actually got to meet goodman. I got to see the cars (real 30's era bodies with modern engines) and that Radio Station was built up in a clearing and its still there. But when the film came out we were all mighty confused cause we knew it was filmed in Summer and everything was yellow lol.
It was great for this movie but started an incredibly bad trend of color grading every movie. I mean Twilight's blue tinge was so distracting that I had to turn it off less than an hour in. Apparently, that's a good thing.
I'm so glad you watched this movie! Not just because it's a great movie, but because of the impact of the soundtrack. It brought bluegrass music back into the mainstream. The movie and the soundtrack have shaped my life in a way. So much so that my parents attended a concert of the soundtrack when my mom was 7 months pregnant with me and my dad was tapping along to the music on my mom's wrist, next thing my mom knows I'm kicking to the same beat in the womb 😂. Also, this movie gives my family a lot of pride because Tishomingo (the town Tommy wants to go to) is the tiny town in Mississippi where my family is from so my nana LOVES this movie.
Man this is a timeless classic ❤ If you're still confused at the concert scene. It's a southern thing if there's someone who's hated by the whole town they'll get run out of town sitting on a wood post for the whole town to humiliate him/her.
My mother used to say that when I was a kid, so I wouldn't hear her saying "shit". But then I started repeating it and she had to explain to me that it meant the same thing.
@@Blazingstoke The tying in of the KKK (who have a rank called Grand Cyclops) was a good move. The Coen brothers also faked out viewers by having Goodman grab the pointy flagpole just before it reached his eye, as viewers familiar with The Odyssey would expect the Cyclops to be blinded.
@@sartanawillpay7977 According to a documentary I watched, the Coen brothers hadn't actually read The Odyssey when they were developing the script for the film. I'm not sure how much truth there is to that. Very surprising if that's really the case.
FYI Ashleigh, the hated politician was "ridden out of town on a rail" and was also "tarred and feathered". Both are very painful punishments also intended to humiliate and shame the target. Physical punishment was more common in societies that couldn't afford to jail every one.
I couldn't click on this fast enough! I love this film so much. I don't know how much you know about Homer's Odyssey but this movie is a clever retelling of his epic journey. When I taught literature, I often had my students watch movies based on the stories we studied. This one was so much fun to watch after reading and then watching the classic Odyssey film. The kids loved recognizing the key elements and being able to pick up on the symbolism. Side note: The black guitarist they called Tommy Johnson was supposed to represent the legendary Robert Johnson, a famous blues musician from the 1930's. There's an amazing film based around his story called "Crossroads" that I know you will love. Please consider reacting to that one as well. It stars Ralph Macchio (My Cousin Vinnie/The Karate Kid) **I only mention this so you don't confuse it with another film of the same name that stars Brittany Spears. Trust me... you don't want to grab that one by mistake. **💕😃
My late dad was a great fan of both country music and witty, irreverent humour, so this was one of his favourites. It was a great pleasure one year to get him the DVD/CD boxset of the movie and soundtrack for Christmas - the OST won more awards than the film itself. Thanks for reacting to it, Ashleigh - I'm pleased you enjoyed it every bit as much as he used to 😊
I love this movie so much. I own both the DVD, and the soundtrack. Years ago, I used to go to church. I was a bass in the choir. When this movie came out, I wanted to perform one of the songs for the congregation. I chose Down In The River which the was in the baptism scene. I figured out what each part would sing, and I wrote the lyrics down. I taught the sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses their parts. Then we sang it on stage one Sunday. It was one of the proudest musical achievements of my life.
I was in the Army when this movie came out. It didn't sound too appealing to me so I had little interest in watching it. But one night on CQ (basically 24 hour barracks guard duty, but we were allowed to watch movies to stay awake at night) the Sergeant I was working with played it. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. Glad to see you loved it.
@@goldenageofdinosaurs7192 I would have a hard time resisting the urge myself...especially if the person who said did a really good impression of Clooney saying it as Emmet. LOL
The clearest memory I have going to the movies as a kid was going to this movie. I was 8 and my grandparents gathered all of the grandkids and we went to see this. Surprisingly, I loved it and still love it despite it not really being a kids movie.
"Riding the rail (also called being "run out of town on a rail") was a punishment most prevalent in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries in which an offender was made to straddle a fence rail held on the shoulders of two or more bearers."
This movie is a victim of horrible marketing because this was such a sleeper. Me and my dad absolutely LOVED this movie. Years later he would to the Soggy Bottom Dance when acting a fool 🤣🤣🤣. Like you so accurately said; its witty, fun suspenseful, whimsical, etc. I wish this would air more often. Keep up the great work! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
I don't recall this being a "sleeper", perse. I remember the marketing and previews. I remember the soundtrack breaking records. And, I remember every karioki bar in the country playing Man of Constant Sorrow at least 2 or 3 times a night while people quoted lines over, and over, and over again, especially down south. Nearly every person I know has a copy on DVD or Blueray, and I've lost count of how many posters I've seen in people's houses. But, I don't know what the box office numbers were. I just remember it being immensely popular.
Love this movie! I'm quite fond of randomly saying, "And stay outta the Woolsworth!" It's one way you can spot a potential friend among random strangers.
It’s totally The Odyssey and I didn’t realize that until the Sirens, because I missed the opening credits. Fell in love with it instantly as The Odyssey was the 2nd book I actually enjoyed reading in high school.
The more you watch this movie, the better it gets. Every time I watch this the laughs just keep coming! It's why you had so many requests from me and apparently just about everyone else. Thank you
This is the best movie review channel. Ashleigh is so much better than she thinks. I also know depressions. It comes in waves with me but as you get older you learn to recognize it and deal with it (with the help of a little medication for me)
My grandparents were young adults during the Great Depression. This movie is filled with the stories that they used to tell. My maternal grandmother would sometimes talk about how she missed Billy Graham's revivals and river baptisms.
I was lucky enough to watch this in the theaters all those years ago. It was a film experience unlike any other. It still has one of my all-time favorite soundtracks. I still have Hard Time Killing Floor Blues on my daily walking playlist, and it's perfect for those hot, cloudless summer days that seem to stretch on forever. Also, the Gifford Homestead gift shop in Utah's Capitol Reef National Park plays I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow. It was so weird to randomly encounter that song again, but a nice memory.
I once had a boss reserve a conference room and make us watch the entire movie one Friday after lunch. Nice work if you can get it! 😄 I'm happy to know your Mom loved this movie, mine did too. 🥲
One of my all time favorites. I saw in the theater twice, and got the soundtrack album and DVD as soon as they came out. I lent the DVD to a friend who had to watch it with subtitles because he wasn’t used to their southern accents. The soundtrack was so popular Alison Krause and all the rest of the musical performers actually went on tour called Down From the Mountain. My brothers and I took our parents to see them here in St. Louis. Great concert!
This film pretty much burned a hole through my old DVD player back in the day. So many good memories surrounding this movie with old friends. For a year or more after it came out the crazy quotable lines dominated pop culture. It's rare for a non Pixar film to be so universally loved, but this one is right up there. I think most of us were as sure as anything that you would love it like we do. That said, our fingers were still crossed that you would. The music weaved into this still sings in my soul all these years after. I'm going to bet that even after editing that these songs will stick with you for a long while.
Another fun fact is the story behind the title of this film. The Coen Brothers were paying tribute to one of their favorite movies, the 1941 Preston Sturgess film, Sullivan's Travels, in which Joel McRae's character sets out on a journey to experience life as a hobo and write a movie called, O Brother, Where Art Thou. The Coen Brothers fulfilled his dream!
The singing voice for Clooney was done by Dan Tyminski - guitarist and backup vocalist (sometimes lead) for Allison Kraus and Union Station. The guitarist Tommy is real blues musician Chris Thomas King, he really did the guitar work and singing for his parts. The singers at the political rally is bluegrass family group The Whites (singing "Keep on the Sunnyside"). The lead singer is wife of country/bluegrass star Ricky Skaggs. Tim Blake Nelson (Delmar) was really singing for "In the Jailhouse Now". Another musical cameo was made by Gilian Welch, she is a folk/country/bluegrass singer and was the lady with the glasses trying to buy a Soggy Bottom Boys album. She also provided the singing voices for the sirens along with Allison Kraus and Emmylou Harris. The grave diggers at the end are members of the Fairfield Four, a gospel quartet. The singing voice in the cross burning scene was Ralph Stanley - a country music legend going back to the '50's. He was probably mid 70's when this movie came out. Also he is singing "Angel Band" in the end credits, one of my personal favorites. "My latest sun is sinking fast, My race is nearly run My strongest trials now are past My triumph has begun Oh come, angel band, Come and around me stand Oh bear me away on your snow-white wings To my immortal home"
I watched this for the first time with my nan. She loved it so much she then brought the soundtrack for her car. Her and my pops song was You are my sunshine, he sang it to her when they were courting. Down in the river was one of her funeral songs
I'm so glad you enjoyed this!!! I think the reason people were confused that you hadn't seen it is that, for a lot of small-town Southerners, this feels very authentic to the way we grew up. You and I are the same age (both 29 😊), but growing up in East Tennessee in the 90s and 2000s was still super similar to how this movie presented Georgia and Tennessee in the 20s/30s. We all got baptized in the river, there was one store in the center of town, cows were everywhere, bluegrass and country were all anyone played, and (waaaaaay less pleasantly) we had to deal with a lot of racism. But it still gives off a sense of nostalgia. (Also, the deal with the flood at the end is because this movie is set at the time when the TVA dammed up the rivers for electricity production. Like you said, Everett built his house in one of the valleys the TVA turned into a lake.)
Racism has never been bad in East Tennessee. Those people will shoot anybody they don't know for trespassing. Mountain boys don't take kindly to strangers.
The wife and I still quote bits of in daily life. Carrying in groceries and one starts to slip: "And that's... All I got." Bags fall. When one of us is eating a snack and offers some to the other: "Gopher, Ev'ert?" Sometimes we'll respond with the rest. "This town is a geographical oddity" come sup less often, but still often enough. "We thought you was a toad" comes up randomly as well.
2000 was a good year for old timey music; with this film and Songcatcher; an indie release about a musicologist in the early 1900s; Doctor Lily Penleric, who discovers ancient Scottish/Irish ballads being sung by the Appalachian mountain folk and tries to record them for posterity. The soundtrack is amazing, performed by some of the best women singers of country music; including Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Patty Loveless, Sara Evans, and even Emmy Rossum(who while known more these days as an actress; was trained at a young age as a classical singer.) For both this movie and O'Brother, very successful road tours followed.
My little local town is known for their word-famous Bluegrass festival, the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. I remember after this movie came out, suddenly everyone was playing the songs from the movie at their camp or on a camp stage. It's a tradition now for several years to screen this movie outdoors in the Pecan Grove.
Ashleigh, you already saw another movie directed by the Coen Brothers, "Raising Arizona" with Nicholas Cage and also John Goodman. There are a few more classic Coen Brothers films that are highly recommended: The dark comedy "Fargo," the intense nail-biting "No Country for Old Men" and the crime thriller that put the brothers on the Hollywood map "Blood Simple."
This is the ONLY movie I have seen in theaters more than once! I saw this 3 times when it came out and absolutely loved it! George Clooney isn’t singing but Tim Blake Nelson and John Turturro are actually singing in the music scenes. I’m so happy you loved this movie! It really is a great piece of cinema history!
That corn popping out of Everett's mouth when Big Dan whops him just kills me. The Gov walking up to the radio station in the middle of nowhere, "We ain't one-at-a-timin' here. We're MASS communicating!" So great. So many fun lines.
This soundtrack hit #1 on the Billboard charts. It is amazing! From Wikipedia article on the soundtrack: O Brother, Where Art Thou? won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2002, the Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals (for singer Dan Tyminski, whose voice overdubbed George Clooney's in the film on "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow", Nashville songwriter Harley Allen, and the Nashville Bluegrass Band's Pat Enright), and the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for "O, Death" by Ralph Stanley. The album won the Album of the Year Award (only the second soundtrack to ever do so) and Single of the Year Award for "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" at the Country Music Association Awards.[18] It also won the Album of the Year Award at the 37th Academy of Country Music Awards and took home 2 International Bluegrass Music Awards: Album of the Year and Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year (for Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch on "I'll Fly Away").[19] In 2006, the album ranked No. 38 on CMT's 40 Greatest Albums in Country Music. In 2009, Rhapsody ranked it No. 8 on the "Country's Best Albums of the Decade" list.[20] Engine 145 Country Music Blog ranked it No. 5 on the "Country's Best Albums of the Decade" list.[21] In 2010, All Songs Considered, a program on NPR, included the soundtrack album on their list of "The Decade's 50 Most Important Recordings".[22] Some of the artists on the soundtrack album played a concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, which was recorded in the 2000 documentary film, Down from the Mountain. On August 23, 2011, a 10th anniversary edition was released featuring a bonus disc with 14 new tracks that were not included in the original album, all but two of which were previously unreleased songs from Burnett's original sessions.[23][24]
@Laurette LaLiberte..I took my mom to see Ralph Stanley at a small but popular venue in Tampa around 2013. It was wonderful to hear the music my mom grew up listening to and I became even more in love with Bluegrass because of Mr. Stanley!
Absolutely 100% love this film and I am so glad you reviewed it. I was in a shitty mood today and when I saw your new upload I air grabbed and sat with a cuppa with my feet up and had a blissful half hour. Thanks for cheering me up x. Now I would dearly love for you to view JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS from 1963.
One of our favorites!! Never fails to make us belly laugh no matter how many times we watch! We quote from this movie on the regular, too. I am so happy that you loved it, Ashleigh!
George Clooney nearly didn't get this role because casting didn't think he could pull off the southern accent. Clooney was born in Kentucky but spent time in Cincinnati. He mimics his tobacco farmer uncle's accent for this movie proving he can do it. Clooney's original dream was to play for the Reds.
The hardest I've ever laughed in my life was a funny moment in an old junky video game my wife was having me play that I won't go into now. The second hardest I've ever laughed was the first time I heard Delmar say "Well I'll only be 82!"
2:13 That’s the opening of Homer’s Odyssey, I believe. 2:54 If you’re ever in the mood to see a *serious* movie with chained-together fugitives, check out “The Defiant Ones” with Sydney Poitier. 4:08 Hey, you ever see his wife? He definitely *got* it! 12:57 Lead siren is Musetta Vander, whom I always remember as the Mantis Teacher from the fourth episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
The whole movie is a reimagining of Homer’s The Odyssey…you’ve got the cyclops (Big Dan), the sirens who lure men to an island where they get turned into animals, and all other manner of perils and semi magical encounters. Fantastic adaptation of a classic.
This is perfect with you watching this movie and my favorite bass singer Geoff Castellucci released his LOW Bass cover of "Man Of Constant Sorrow". His bass voice could melt butter and is not hard on the eyes either. When he drops those deep bass notes it is instant Geoffgasm. If I was thirty years younger as you say " He could totally get it".
YAY, FINALLY "ARSENIC AND OLD LACE" IS COMING UP! Also in regards to this particular review, it's one of the few films I actually went and bought the soundtrack for, because it is AWESOME.❤
The story behind Clooney singing is the real voice belongs to Dan Tyminski, lead male singer from Alison Krauss and Union Station. Dan went home to tell his wife that was going to be singing on a movie, but it was going to be his voice and George Cooney's face. His wife said "oh baby, that's my dream come true!!"
OMG that's hilarious. 😂🤣😂
🤣😆😂
My men was so proud of that movie that he get😢…
But we all have been burn like that.. and i bet none of us has been in a movie what a savage women hahahahahahahaha 😂
I love that George Clooney thought that he could sing in this movie until he tried it and heard Dan's version and just gave up because he knew that he would never do it as good. I also love that George tells this story on himself to prove that just because you are a big movie star doesn't mean that you can do everything.
The music is bluegrass
"The color guard's colored? Who made them the color guard?" gets me every time.
The reason for the eyepatch is because Big Dan is playing the role of the Cyclops
“Of course it’s Pete, look at him”
That’s my favorite line. I love this movie and love Man of Constant Sorrow.
Fun fact: In real life Baby Face Nelson, while robbing banks, also destroyed foreclosure documents and debt collection books, freeing hundreds of ordinary people from bank debt, improving his reputation in the eyes of common people.
George Nelson (Lester Gillis) aka Baby-face Nelson didn't care who he killed; women, children, etc... He was married with 2 children. His children lived into their 70s. He was part of the John Dillinger Gang.
I can't prove my mom hitchhiked with Dillinger and got advice from BFN, but she told me that after robbing a bank one should always drive away slowly while pretending to be just curious.
"Baby Face Robin Hood" Nelson lol
True for a lot of the "outlaws" of that time. It's a movement that should really make a comeback 🤔
@@Lunch_Meat really! Pretty boy Floyd shot at bystanders of some the banks he robbed, killed a man for cutting him off in a car. None of those gangster were anything but lifelong criminals. I mean starting from early teens. They were thief's, robbers, thugs, and murderers. Sometimes they did a few things that seemed to help the common man but it was for show. Very little evidence that Floyd burned loan documents (maybe a couple of times), but in the 30's banking was a business hundreds of years old. They were well aware of the possibilty of documents being destroyed. They had copies of every loan document maintained elsewhere.
Being a member of the Boomers, for whom the Odyssey was required high school reading, as well as having parents who grew up in the Great Depression, I was blown away by this movie - as was my mother. The way they adapted the story was amazing, the casting was about perfect, and according to my mother, who lived through that time period, the background of the Depression/Dustbowl era was spot on. I've lost track of how many times I've watched this movie, and it just keeps getting better every time. The only problem my mom ever had with this movie was Baby Face Nelson. Factually he was already dead when this movie was supposedly set (1937). He was killed in a shoot out with the FBI in 1934 about a mile from where I grew up. But, hey, it's a fun subplot anyway.
But that wasn’t Babyface Nelson. That’s why he was so upset.
Idk about anyone else, but I had to read the odyssey in middle school as a millennial. We got to watch this movie right after, and I fell in love with it
The surreal, scary, and fascinating world of The Odyssey was introduced to me in 1999 when I was in elementary school.
It was written in 300 BC, Boomers don't have an exclusive claim to it lol.
I'm glad to hear at least some schools are still teaching the classics. Far too many have stopped.
@@brandonthesteelesame here but I was into ancient mythology from around the world in grade school and discovered it on my own. The blame goes to Marvel comics because they introduced me to Thor.
I absolutely lost it at “redneck mermaids.” 😂😂😂
So perfect.
She was right too.
Southern Sirens was also good.
And she pretty much nailed it on the head as Sirens were part of the Odyssey.
..can they even swim "rednecks" i mean?
EDIT(before GOOGLE AI cums): I am a white, male & Blonde too 😲- xennial born in West-Jutland, Denmark! All in all: Pretty much = Redneck/Whitetrash/etc.
Gotta watch the Atlanta episode of futurama then lmao
Of course they can swim!!! It’s just that they tend to swim in areas populated by such things as alligators and water moccasins, and often after consuming too much cheap beer, so….
Regarding the redneck mermaids: the 3 of them sing in all 3 vocal ranges. Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, and Alto. Which is why their voices blended so beautifully. It gave a supernatural feel to it.
Also one of them was Queen Sindel from Mortal Kombat Annihilation
@migiplayz91 I don't even know if that's true but I love that fact.
The character Tommy is based on blues guitarist Robert Johnson. Legend has it he sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads to enhance his skills on guitar. His recordings are foundational and influenced multiple generations of guitarists like Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.
The 1986 movie “Crossroads” ties into this legend as well. Not a spectacular movie, but worth one watch.
Fun Fact;
Little after Robert Johnson’s death, bunch of people were trying to gather a bunch of blues artists to play at Carnegie Hall, with Johnson dead, they got one of his records, and played it. The record of him playing got an standing ovation.
I love how they picked him up at a crossroads in the film!
@@dhaddine5472 yeah, the reference is quite direct.
I hate to be the "actually" guy, but I actually think that the Tommy Johnson character is based more on Tommy Johnson, a blues musician that had the same "sold his sole to the devil" myth. He even did it before Robert Johnson, it's just that Robert Johnson's the one that got bigger, and is now remembered.
In the very first scene, when it shows the prisoners building a railroad, we hear an old prison work song playing. That song was recorded by actual prisoners in the late '50s. After the movie came out and the soundtrack became a big hit, someone tracked down the prisoner who sang lead. He was living in Chicago and he had no idea he had a hit record. He got $20 000 in royalties.
" I guess I'm the only one unaffiliated." One if my favorite lines
lol so many good ones
Mine is, upon meeting someone with 14 children, Groucho says "I like my cigar but I take it out of my mouth every now and then" followed closely by "Sir, leave my house and never darken my towels again!" (President Rufus T. Firefly to Count Ambassador Trentino, played by Louis Calhern). Wait, what? This IS the Groucho/Duck Soup video comments section, isn't it? Well...I still think those are both really great lines. And they were both adlibbed by Groucho. My 3rd is "I just went GAY all of a sudden!" adlibbed by Cary Grant in 1938 (NINETEEN THIRTY-EIGHT!!!) and left in by Howard Hawks in Bringing Up Baby.
"of course it's Pete. Look at him"
"Runnoft"
"That don't make no sense"
"Come on in boys, the water is fine"
"We thought... You was... A toad"...
Just soooo many memorable quotes. Those were without even thinking.
@@nomchompsky2883 Oh for the days when actors like Grant & Groucho had come up through vaudeville and were thus skilled at improvisation. Naturally directors like the Coen Bros. and the Farrellys (who write their own movies) have great screenplays but I'm curious as to how much dialogue from their movies are adlibbed. And the movies by Adam McKay (who started with Anchorman) who encourages improv, since it keeps things fresh AND with stars like Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill,etc. they're going to improv anyway.
O BROTHER has great lines but if it had been made in 1973, during the decade of The New Hollywood, Clooney Nelson and Turtturo would have been as racist as can be and would still be funny, just like audiences rooted for the racist cops in the French Connection (and African-Americans went in huge numbers to see that movie). Why? I asked a black friend and he said that "black folk love the hell out of that movie because it's the first cop movie that doesn't lie to us. It shows cops for what most of them are and for what we go through all the time. You give black folk the truth about white people and we'll be there for it and support I."
I mention that because you know how 1930s white underclass guys thought about African-Americans. I know it's a comedy but it could remain funny and also be real, like Huckleberry Finn, where Twain used the n-word on every page (since it was narrated by Huck) and had Huck still be pro-slavery at the end, just not including Jim, whom he now knows. And HUCKLEBERRY FINN is, to this day, laugh out loud funny, just like it was in Eighteen Eighty whatever the exact year.
Maybe the Coens did try to keep things honest (like showing the Klan) but got vetoed by financial backers and distributors. Never know. But yeah, you're right. O BROTHER is ridonkulously funny, even if it came from the screenplay and even if it fudged on life in 1930s Mississippi.
Jesus saves. i redraw is one of my fav lines.
"They are not black! They aint even old timey!" My favorite line in the whole movie!
I love how Ashleigh has gone from not have seen any classic movies to pretty much being an expert and being able to make all sorts of connections and references!
Yeah, she is on her way to being a cinephile. We just need to get some more foreign movies under her belt.
@@mekkio77 I'd say some Fritz Lang is definitely in order next, then.
Ms. Burton worked at a country music radio station for 11 years, she said. HOW THE HELL DOES SOMEONE WHO WORKED AT A COUNTRY RADIO STATION AVOID KNOWING ABOUT O BROTHER WHEN IT WAS NUMBER ONE ON THE COUNTRY CHARTS FOR SEVEN STRAIGHT YEARS AND ALSO WON SO MANY GRAMMY AWARDS THEY NEEDED TWO HERD OF CATTLE TO HAUL THE AWARDS OUT OF THE BUILDING. THE SOUNDTRACK ALSO WON EVERY COUNTRY MUSIC AWARD THERE WAS TO GIVE OUT, EVEN THE TIERRA DEL FUEGO COUNTRY MUSIC ASSOCIATION'S PENGUIN AWARD FOR BEST COUNTRY MUSIC ALBUM OF THE LAST 50 YEARS.
LOOK IN UP; ITS ALL ON GOOGLE. THE O BROTHER SOUNDTRACK WAS THE DARK SIDE OF THE.MOON FOR COUNTRY MUSIC!!!! WORKING AT A COUNTRY MUSIC RADIO
STATION FOR.11 YEARS and.NOT knowing about this is like working in country radio for ELEVEN YEARS and asking who the hell Hank Williams was.
And seeing the gifs of George Clooney singing into a can? "I didn't know George Clooney was in this! I wonder what the music sounds like? All I knew was George Clooney singing Man Of Constant Sorrow into a can from a movie called O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU. I didn't know this was the SAME O BROTHER movie I've seen 3 hours of gifs and clips of. Honest. I mean, how many O.BROTHER WHERE ART THOU movies have already been released this year? 8? 9? I wonder what kind of music George Clooney etc will sing in THIS O BROTHER and who will be in it? Will George Clooney be in this particular O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU like he was in all the clips and gifs I've seen of that other O BROTHER I've seen nine hours of clips and gifs of? And that was on in the background of every tv at the station and in the homes of every country radio worker I visited for the last 50 years? Could this be the same O BROTHER STARRING GEORGE CLOONEY I've seen 69 clips of?"
@@cwdkidman2266 you sound skeptical 😂
@@nomchompsky2883 I AM skeptical because I don't think anyone would disagree with me about good parts for good actresses being scarce...unless in a cape. And O BROTHER was INSANELY successful and the most honored CD in recent decades. Google the soundtrack to see how many Grammys it won and.all.the honors it received from every country music association on earth and beyond. Even the North Korean American Country Music Gulag gave it album of the year, decade, and century. I know that it was produced by T-Bone Burnette (rock/Americana guitarist)but country artists made it and country music claimed it. So I'll always be skeptical of anyone who says it was a cult classic, unless said cult is referring to our nation's entire solar system.
His home was in a valley, yes, and if I remember correctly, somewhere in the movie there was someone talking about the TVA flooding the valley. So, it was definitely heavenly intervention for them to be right there, at that exact moment, when human intervention stepped in. I *love* this movie, and I love how it follows the story of The Odyssey, including the seer at the beginning.
@AshleighBurton as a Tennessean, you should appreciate that it was the Depression era WPA project that created the Tennessee Valley Authority or TVA to wipe out thousands of acres of farms and farmland to dam and create river control & water projects for the mid-south states. That's the flood that came through at the end of the movie and destroyed Clooney's character's home.
They flooded valleys to make reservoirs. Everyone had supposedly evacuated by then.
Tons of great lines in this. George Clooney delivers some of the best. "Ain't this place a geographical oddity - two weeks from everywhere!" 😂
I live there, unfortunately. Overnight mail takes 3 days
I'm a Dapper Dan man!! Gimme some of them hair nets.
Are any of you boys smithies? Or if you aren't smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgical arts before straightened circumstances led you to a life of aimless wanderin'?
22:42 Is what's known as "Riding a rail". Riding the rail (also called being "run out of town on a rail") was a punishment most prevalent in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries in which an offender was made to straddle a fence rail held on the shoulders of two or more bearers. The subject was then paraded around town or taken to the city limits and dumped by the roadside.
Being ridden on a rail was typically a form of extrajudicial punishment administered by a mob, sometimes in connection with tarring and feathering,[1] intended to show community displeasure with the offender so the offender either conformed behavior to the mob's demands or left the community.
"Famous whiskey insurrection in Pennsylvania", an illustration from Our first century: being a popular descriptive portraiture of the one hundred great and memorable events of perpetual interest in the history of our country by R. M. Devens (Springfield, MA., 1882).
A story attributed to Abraham Lincoln has him quoting a victim of being ridden out of town on a rail as having said, "If it weren't for the honor of the thing, I'd just as soon it happened to someone else."[2] -Wikipedia
“Of course, it’s Pete. Look at him!” One of my favorite movies and that scene makes me laugh every time. Pete and Delmar are perfectly cast. And George Clooney 😍
The Redneck Sirens song was actually sung by Allison Krause, Emmylou Harris, and Gillian Welch. Total top notch hillbilly women!
I ain't sure that's Pete. HAHAHA!!!!
The character "turned into a toad" is a clever reference to The Odyssey's sorceress Circe turning some of Odysseus' crew into pigs.
I think the reason people love it so much besides the music and the cinematography, is the fact the story is based on the Odyssey. To think a story thousands of years old can still entertain people is pretty amazing.
Lets put it like this: The Hero's Journey is one of the oldest story plots. The women in the Odyssey are female archetypes used in many other settings: Penelope, the faithful wife, Circe, the temptress, turning men into animals, Nausicaa, the young naive, Calypso, the clasping lover, the sirens, the deadly traps.
After my class finished reading the Odyssey we watched this movie and did a report on the numerous similarities to each other. Definitely one of the more fun reports.
So you like Anal? But anal IS greek...and a bit Roman... 😲
@@HikingPNW When's Lysistrata?
@@dallesamllhals9161 😅😅😅😅😅
Watching Ashleigh's movie nerd prowess over the years has been a joy. Coen Brothers films are a joy.
I’ve been wanting and suggesting Arsenic & Old Lace for like 2 years now. I’m glad one of the big fish patreons finally got in on the list! Such a great film!
Yes, so excited to hear it's coming up!
That one is a true classic!
Same, that is one of my all time favorite movies and it's a tradition in my family to watch it on Halloween.
Same! My wife and I watch it every Halloween.
Omgareyouserious!!! Eeeeeeeeeeee! 🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤
With all due respect to all other reactors, I'd be hard pressed to think of a better match of a movie to a reactor. That was fantastic. I've never seen a movie bring out your Tennessee accent even more! Not Coal Miner's Daughter, not Dolly in 9 To 5, only this one! They should put this reaction on the DVD.
The album for this movie is one of my all time favorites. Gillian Welch, Allison Krause and Emmy Lou Harris were the voices for the sirens in “go to sleep you little baby”. The talent in this film is amazing. It’s also a coen brothers film like Raising Arizona and Fargo.
I used to sing that song to my boys when they wee babies because it was the only lullaby I knew al the words too from watching this movie so many times.
Fantastic Score. The soundtrack is fyah.
ruclips.net/video/94h2L9oBOHM/видео.html
This is the entire concert: ruclips.net/video/GvWNyM6AzIs/видео.html
George Babyface Nelson was a pretty famous bank robber gangster who died in the 30s by a shootout with police. This movie does a very good job putting an alternate history of real events mixed with the mythology of Homer's Odyssey. The three singing girls were the Sirens, John Goodman was the Cyclops, and so on. And of course Holly Hunter is Helen of Troy.
This is a Cohen Brothers film. They make amazing films. They consistently use the same stable of actors , most of whom you adore. Here is their major filmography, some of which you have already seen. Watch them all!
1987 Raising Arizona
1990 Miller's Crossing
1991 Barton Fink
1994 The Hudsucker Proxy
1996 Fargo
1998 The Big Lebowski
2000 O Brother, Where Art Thou?
2001 The Man Who Wasn't There
2003 Intolerable Cruelty
2004 The Ladykillers
2007 No Country for Old Men
2008 Burn After Reading
2009 A Serious Man
2010 True Grit
2016 Hail, Caesar!
You're missing Blood Simple (1984 - their first film and a huge critical success), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), starring Oscar Isaac, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018).
@@jessicaross7288 Wow. Blood Simple is one of my all time favs... how did I miss it?
*Coen
They also came up with the story of Bad Santa and executive produced it.
@O. B. the original true grit was HILLARIOUS!
One of the best movie soundtracks ever created.
"Redneck mermaids".
Freaking EPIC.
I'm forever blown away by the fact that this movie, shot by the BRILLIANT Roger Deakins (look him up. not a single ugly film. guy's an actual genius), was one of the first big budget films to use completely digital color grading/correction. All that dustbowl-era yellow and beige was actually VERY green irl because production was in the south around spring and summer. So without completely tinting the whole film with one flat filter, they were able to make the bright green scenery look the way it does in the movie. Still looks seamless and beautiful. I adore this film and everything about it, even on a technical level.
You're right. It was filmed in and around Vicksburg, MS which is my hometown...I was in HS at the time. We knew they were filming a movie, some people actually got to meet goodman. I got to see the cars (real 30's era bodies with modern engines) and that Radio Station was built up in a clearing and its still there. But when the film came out we were all mighty confused cause we knew it was filmed in Summer and everything was yellow lol.
It was great for this movie but started an incredibly bad trend of color grading every movie. I mean Twilight's blue tinge was so distracting that I had to turn it off less than an hour in. Apparently, that's a good thing.
@@vapoet yeah it was way out of hand until Lord of the Rings kind of perfected it
I'm so glad you watched this movie! Not just because it's a great movie, but because of the impact of the soundtrack. It brought bluegrass music back into the mainstream. The movie and the soundtrack have shaped my life in a way. So much so that my parents attended a concert of the soundtrack when my mom was 7 months pregnant with me and my dad was tapping along to the music on my mom's wrist, next thing my mom knows I'm kicking to the same beat in the womb 😂. Also, this movie gives my family a lot of pride because Tishomingo (the town Tommy wants to go to) is the tiny town in Mississippi where my family is from so my nana LOVES this movie.
"We thought.... you was... a toad" Love that line! 😄
I love the look Pete gives him for a few seconds as he lets that statement settle in just to say, "Do. Not. Seek. The. Treasure!"
Man this is a timeless classic ❤ If you're still confused at the concert scene. It's a southern thing if there's someone who's hated by the whole town they'll get run out of town sitting on a wood post for the whole town to humiliate him/her.
It's called "run out of town on a rail"
@@rayevarney Yeah, I was gonna say. "Sitting on a wooden post" does not have the same ring to it.
@Raye Varney I'm aware lol I was describing it for Ashleigh.
Good times! We should totally resurrect that tradition!
@@rayevarney or in this case r-u-n-n-o-f-t on a rail.
5:25 That came unexpected! As a German I was very surprised and pleased at the same Time, hearing an "Oh Scheisse" from Ashley.😂
I only learned that word from American Horror Story series lololol
@@awkwardashleigh Well, at least you learned the most used Word in Germany. 😁
@@patrickhein6986 So it ain't A-hole anymore? A xennial Jute asking ;-)
I was surprised to hear an American besides me saying that.
My mother used to say that when I was a kid, so I wouldn't hear her saying "shit". But then I started repeating it and she had to explain to me that it meant the same thing.
One of my absolute favourites, the whole movie is so freaking quotable.
The movie is such a magical blend of the legends of the Odyssey mixed with American folklore. I adore this movies so much!
John Goodman as the Cyclops was a brilliant touch
@@Blazingstoke The tying in of the KKK (who have a rank called Grand Cyclops) was a good move. The Coen brothers also faked out viewers by having Goodman grab the pointy flagpole just before it reached his eye, as viewers familiar with The Odyssey would expect the Cyclops to be blinded.
@@sartanawillpay7977 According to a documentary I watched, the Coen brothers hadn't actually read The Odyssey when they were developing the script for the film. I'm not sure how much truth there is to that. Very surprising if that's really the case.
My 5th grade teacher would play the soundtrack while we took tests. Coolest teacher EVER.
"'Course it's Pete. Look at him."
This film is infinitely quotable. So good.
And, of course, the music.
Well I'll only be 82 :)
FYI Ashleigh, the hated politician was "ridden out of town on a rail" and was also "tarred and feathered".
Both are very painful punishments also intended to humiliate and shame the target. Physical punishment was more common in societies that couldn't afford to jail every one.
I couldn't click on this fast enough! I love this film so much. I don't know how much you know about Homer's Odyssey but this movie is a clever retelling of his epic journey. When I taught literature, I often had my students watch movies based on the stories we studied. This one was so much fun to watch after reading and then watching the classic Odyssey film. The kids loved recognizing the key elements and being able to pick up on the symbolism.
Side note: The black guitarist they called Tommy Johnson was supposed to represent the legendary Robert Johnson, a famous blues musician from the 1930's. There's an amazing film based around his story called "Crossroads" that I know you will love. Please consider reacting to that one as well. It stars Ralph Macchio (My Cousin Vinnie/The Karate Kid) **I only mention this so you don't confuse it with another film of the same name that stars Brittany Spears. Trust me... you don't want to grab that one by mistake. **💕😃
20:14 It’s the *adamant-no* headshaking for me. 😂🙌🏾
My late dad was a great fan of both country music and witty, irreverent humour, so this was one of his favourites. It was a great pleasure one year to get him the DVD/CD boxset of the movie and soundtrack for Christmas - the OST won more awards than the film itself. Thanks for reacting to it, Ashleigh - I'm pleased you enjoyed it every bit as much as he used to 😊
I love this movie so much. I own both the DVD, and the soundtrack. Years ago, I used to go to church. I was a bass in the choir. When this movie came out, I wanted to perform one of the songs for the congregation. I chose Down In The River which the was in the baptism scene. I figured out what each part would sing, and I wrote the lyrics down. I taught the sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses their parts. Then we sang it on stage one Sunday. It was one of the proudest musical achievements of my life.
I was in the Army when this movie came out. It didn't sound too appealing to me so I had little interest in watching it. But one night on CQ (basically 24 hour barracks guard duty, but we were allowed to watch movies to stay awake at night) the Sergeant I was working with played it. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. Glad to see you loved it.
Just had my Mamaws funeral and had some tunes from the soundtrack playing at ceremony. This movie was very special to her ❤️
I too couldn't stop laughing at the
"Of course it's Pete, look at him."
13:55 "course it's Pete, look at him"
Damn...we're in a tight spot!
I love that Ashleigh is reacting to this...I can't wait to see what she laughs at, and what she does not. LOL
I can’t hear that without smiling. You could tell me a loved one just died, then say, “Damn, we’re in a tight spot” & I’d probably laugh..
@@goldenageofdinosaurs7192 I would have a hard time resisting the urge myself...especially if the person who said did a really good impression of Clooney saying it as Emmet. LOL
"Course it's Pete, look at him!" Is my favorite line from the whole movie 😂🤣😂
The clearest memory I have going to the movies as a kid was going to this movie.
I was 8 and my grandparents gathered all of the grandkids and we went to see this.
Surprisingly, I loved it and still love it despite it not really being a kids movie.
The book is a timeless classic taught in many schools.
"Riding the rail (also called being "run out of town on a rail") was a punishment most prevalent in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries in which an offender was made to straddle a fence rail held on the shoulders of two or more bearers."
This movie is a victim of horrible marketing because this was such a sleeper. Me and my dad absolutely LOVED this movie. Years later he would to the Soggy Bottom Dance when acting a fool 🤣🤣🤣. Like you so accurately said; its witty, fun suspenseful, whimsical, etc. I wish this would air more often. Keep up the great work! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
The very reason physical media is still important. Watch it whenever you want vs waiting for it to pop up on streaming.
I didn't realize it was a sleeper but I mainly remember it being very popular on my college campus after the DVD came out.
This is without question, my favorite movie of all-time! And I've seen A LOT of movies.
I don't recall this being a "sleeper", perse. I remember the marketing and previews. I remember the soundtrack breaking records. And, I remember every karioki bar in the country playing Man of Constant Sorrow at least 2 or 3 times a night while people quoted lines over, and over, and over again, especially down south. Nearly every person I know has a copy on DVD or Blueray, and I've lost count of how many posters I've seen in people's houses. But, I don't know what the box office numbers were. I just remember it being immensely popular.
I think nobody knew how to market Cohen Brother Movies until, maybe, Fargo. And even after that, most of their movies have been sleepers.
Tim Blake Nelson won a Grammy from appearing on the O Brother soundtrack, performing "In the Jailhouse Now"
Love this movie! I'm quite fond of randomly saying, "And stay outta the Woolsworth!" It's one way you can spot a potential friend among random strangers.
"I'm a Dapper Dan man!" is one of my favorites.
Is it just the one Woolsworth, or all of them?
I say this often to myself! It's just such a funny line 🤣
@@jessodum3103 All of them.
It’s totally The Odyssey and I didn’t realize that until the Sirens, because I missed the opening credits. Fell in love with it instantly as The Odyssey was the 2nd book I actually enjoyed reading in high school.
The more you watch this movie, the better it gets. Every time I watch this the laughs just keep coming!
It's why you had so many requests from me and apparently just about everyone else. Thank you
This is the best movie review channel. Ashleigh is so much better than she thinks.
I also know depressions. It comes in waves with me but as you get older you learn to recognize it and deal with it (with the help of a little medication for me)
There is a very funny story about George Clooney attempting to sing and the crew was like "ummmm. No."
Apparently he did NOT inherit his Aunt Rosemary's singing talent. 😂
My grandparents were young adults during the Great Depression.
This movie is filled with the stories that they used to tell.
My maternal grandmother would sometimes talk about how she missed Billy Graham's revivals and river baptisms.
Ok, the Rihanna comment got me. Almost made me spill my drink. Love the reaction and your expressions as always.
22:40 I believe that's what used to be called "runnin' him outta town on a rail."
One of my favorite movies of all time. It is so well written and acted to perfection.
I was lucky enough to watch this in the theaters all those years ago. It was a film experience unlike any other. It still has one of my all-time favorite soundtracks. I still have Hard Time Killing Floor Blues on my daily walking playlist, and it's perfect for those hot, cloudless summer days that seem to stretch on forever. Also, the Gifford Homestead gift shop in Utah's Capitol Reef National Park plays I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow. It was so weird to randomly encounter that song again, but a nice memory.
I was thrilled for Total Recall. I am ecstatic for Arsenic and Old Lace.
That has been my favorite movie since I was a kid
Arsenic and Old Lace is fantastic!!!
8:34 No, it's Dan Tyminski , definitely search youtube for the live performance, it is AWESOME!
The "Odyssey" references are so well woven in. Some are very obvious, some very subtle.
The title AND "Man of Constant Sorrows" are both references to the Odyssey.
"I'm the damn Paterfamilias!", kill's me every time!..Lol!
But you ain't bone-a-fide...
But you ain't Bona fide...
My mom absolutely loved this movie in her late years, and that soundtrack is beyond amazing
I once had a boss reserve a conference room and make us watch the entire movie one Friday after lunch. Nice work if you can get it! 😄 I'm happy to know your Mom loved this movie, mine did too. 🥲
"Friend, some of yer foldin' money has come unstoled."
Holly Hunter was great in her tv series "Saving Grace."
The cast of that show stayed at the hotel I work at, and I almost ran over Ms Hunter because she's so tiny I didn't see her.
One of my all time favorites. I saw in the theater twice, and got the soundtrack album and DVD as soon as they came out. I lent the DVD to a friend who had to watch it with subtitles because he wasn’t used to their southern accents.
The soundtrack was so popular Alison Krause and all the rest of the musical performers actually went on tour called Down From the Mountain. My brothers and I took our parents to see them here in St. Louis. Great concert!
This film pretty much burned a hole through my old DVD player back in the day. So many good memories surrounding this movie with old friends. For a year or more after it came out the crazy quotable lines dominated pop culture. It's rare for a non Pixar film to be so universally loved, but this one is right up there. I think most of us were as sure as anything that you would love it like we do. That said, our fingers were still crossed that you would. The music weaved into this still sings in my soul all these years after. I'm going to bet that even after editing that these songs will stick with you for a long while.
Another fun fact is the story behind the title of this film. The Coen Brothers were paying tribute to one of their favorite movies, the 1941 Preston Sturgess film, Sullivan's Travels, in which Joel McRae's character sets out on a journey to experience life as a hobo and write a movie called, O Brother, Where Art Thou. The Coen Brothers fulfilled his dream!
This is one of my favorite movies of all time, and we quote it around the house constantly!!! SO GOOD
Same. When I first watched it I couldn't breathe while laughing at "We thought. You was. A toad." My favorite line for sure.
The singing voice for Clooney was done by Dan Tyminski - guitarist and backup vocalist (sometimes lead) for Allison Kraus and Union Station.
The guitarist Tommy is real blues musician Chris Thomas King, he really did the guitar work and singing for his parts.
The singers at the political rally is bluegrass family group The Whites (singing "Keep on the Sunnyside"). The lead singer is wife of country/bluegrass star Ricky Skaggs.
Tim Blake Nelson (Delmar) was really singing for "In the Jailhouse Now".
Another musical cameo was made by Gilian Welch, she is a folk/country/bluegrass singer and was the lady with the glasses trying to buy a Soggy Bottom Boys album. She also provided the singing voices for the sirens along with Allison Kraus and Emmylou Harris.
The grave diggers at the end are members of the Fairfield Four, a gospel quartet.
The singing voice in the cross burning scene was Ralph Stanley - a country music legend going back to the '50's. He was probably mid 70's when this movie came out. Also he is singing "Angel Band" in the end credits, one of my personal favorites.
"My latest sun is sinking fast,
My race is nearly run
My strongest trials now are past
My triumph has begun
Oh come, angel band,
Come and around me stand
Oh bear me away on your snow-white wings
To my immortal home"
0:50 Oh boy is Deliverance a VERY different film to this!
😂😂😂
I watched this for the first time with my nan. She loved it so much she then brought the soundtrack for her car.
Her and my pops song was You are my sunshine, he sang it to her when they were courting. Down in the river was one of her funeral songs
It’s Monday morning at 7 am so I get to wake up with Ashley. The only reason I love Mondays.
Ashley is my regular Monday and Friday and Perun is my regular Sunday.
This was the first movie soundtrack to win a Grammy for album of the year!
Saturday Night Fever, 1979.
14:32 When you said "look at his little tie" I laughed hard. I've seen this movie a million times and never noticed. Thank you for that.
I'm so glad you enjoyed this!!! I think the reason people were confused that you hadn't seen it is that, for a lot of small-town Southerners, this feels very authentic to the way we grew up. You and I are the same age (both 29 😊), but growing up in East Tennessee in the 90s and 2000s was still super similar to how this movie presented Georgia and Tennessee in the 20s/30s. We all got baptized in the river, there was one store in the center of town, cows were everywhere, bluegrass and country were all anyone played, and (waaaaaay less pleasantly) we had to deal with a lot of racism. But it still gives off a sense of nostalgia. (Also, the deal with the flood at the end is because this movie is set at the time when the TVA dammed up the rivers for electricity production. Like you said, Everett built his house in one of the valleys the TVA turned into a lake.)
Racism has never been bad in East Tennessee. Those people will shoot anybody they don't know for trespassing. Mountain boys don't take kindly to strangers.
The wife and I still quote bits of in daily life.
Carrying in groceries and one starts to slip: "And that's... All I got." Bags fall.
When one of us is eating a snack and offers some to the other: "Gopher, Ev'ert?" Sometimes we'll respond with the rest.
"This town is a geographical oddity" come sup less often, but still often enough.
"We thought you was a toad" comes up randomly as well.
2000 was a good year for old timey music; with this film and Songcatcher; an indie release about a musicologist in the early 1900s; Doctor Lily Penleric, who discovers ancient Scottish/Irish ballads being sung by the Appalachian mountain folk and tries to record them for posterity. The soundtrack is amazing, performed by some of the best women singers of country music; including Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Patty Loveless, Sara Evans, and even Emmy Rossum(who while known more these days as an actress; was trained at a young age as a classical singer.) For both this movie and O'Brother, very successful road tours followed.
Never heard of it. I will have to check it out. Thanks for the recommendation 😃
My little local town is known for their word-famous Bluegrass festival, the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. I remember after this movie came out, suddenly everyone was playing the songs from the movie at their camp or on a camp stage. It's a tradition now for several years to screen this movie outdoors in the Pecan Grove.
Ashleigh, you already saw another movie directed by the Coen Brothers, "Raising Arizona" with Nicholas Cage and also John Goodman.
There are a few more classic Coen Brothers films that are highly recommended:
The dark comedy "Fargo," the intense nail-biting "No Country for Old Men" and the crime thriller that put the brothers on the Hollywood map "Blood Simple."
"Is that Rhianna at the Super Bowl?"...😅😂 ...had me rolling!
This is the ONLY movie I have seen in theaters more than once! I saw this 3 times when it came out and absolutely loved it! George Clooney isn’t singing but Tim Blake Nelson and John Turturro are actually singing in the music scenes. I’m so happy you loved this movie! It really is a great piece of cinema history!
"John Totoro" ...lol, the image that conjured in my mind is freakin' hilarious!
That corn popping out of Everett's mouth when Big Dan whops him just kills me. The Gov walking up to the radio station in the middle of nowhere, "We ain't one-at-a-timin' here. We're MASS communicating!" So great. So many fun lines.
Also Clooney, Turturro, and Nelson play the best idiots ever. The slack jawed look on Delmar's face throughout this is HILARIOUS 😅
This soundtrack hit #1 on the Billboard charts. It is amazing! From Wikipedia article on the soundtrack:
O Brother, Where Art Thou? won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2002, the Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals (for singer Dan Tyminski, whose voice overdubbed George Clooney's in the film on "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow", Nashville songwriter Harley Allen, and the Nashville Bluegrass Band's Pat Enright), and the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for "O, Death" by Ralph Stanley.
The album won the Album of the Year Award (only the second soundtrack to ever do so) and Single of the Year Award for "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" at the Country Music Association Awards.[18] It also won the Album of the Year Award at the 37th Academy of Country Music Awards and took home 2 International Bluegrass Music Awards: Album of the Year and Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year (for Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch on "I'll Fly Away").[19]
In 2006, the album ranked No. 38 on CMT's 40 Greatest Albums in Country Music. In 2009, Rhapsody ranked it No. 8 on the "Country's Best Albums of the Decade" list.[20] Engine 145 Country Music Blog ranked it No. 5 on the "Country's Best Albums of the Decade" list.[21] In 2010, All Songs Considered, a program on NPR, included the soundtrack album on their list of "The Decade's 50 Most Important Recordings".[22]
Some of the artists on the soundtrack album played a concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, which was recorded in the 2000 documentary film, Down from the Mountain.
On August 23, 2011, a 10th anniversary edition was released featuring a bonus disc with 14 new tracks that were not included in the original album, all but two of which were previously unreleased songs from Burnett's original sessions.[23][24]
Yup! U2 fans were upset that their band's comeback album didn't win, but Bono was elated. He loved the soundtrack!
The man behind the voice on that (and the acapella performance at the Oscars) was my cousin, the late Dr. Ralph Stanley.
@Laurette LaLiberte..I took my mom to see Ralph Stanley at a small but popular venue in Tampa around 2013. It was wonderful to hear the music my mom grew up listening to and I became even more in love with Bluegrass because of Mr. Stanley!
@@lisaclark1181 I'm more of a rocker, but bluegrass is in my blood. :)
@@edwardmartin4788 Thanks for that link.
Absolutely 100% love this film and I am so glad you reviewed it. I was in a shitty mood today and when I saw your new upload I air grabbed and sat with a cuppa with my feet up and had a blissful half hour. Thanks for cheering me up x.
Now I would dearly love for you to view JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS from 1963.
This is one of my all time favorite period-piece films. The soundtrack is amazing and the acting was on point. So glad to see you get into it!
Everybody loves this film cause deep down they love us Southerners and eccentric southern charms.
My cousin is in this movie, he plays the suitor that Clooney's characters wife is seeing.
He's a suitor!
He's Bona Fide
One of our favorites!! Never fails to make us belly laugh no matter how many times we watch! We quote from this movie on the regular, too. I am so happy that you loved it, Ashleigh!
Ashleigh's drawl got more pronounced on the commentary for this one - same thing happens to me every time :D
George Clooney nearly didn't get this role because casting didn't think he could pull off the southern accent. Clooney was born in Kentucky but spent time in Cincinnati. He mimics his tobacco farmer uncle's accent for this movie proving he can do it. Clooney's original dream was to play for the Reds.
The sirens scene is amazing. no idea why i like it so much.... *wink* im not much for singing in movies but these songs are infectious.
Redneck mermaids! lmao
So were those mermaids...😮
The hardest I've ever laughed in my life was a funny moment in an old junky video game my wife was having me play that I won't go into now. The second hardest I've ever laughed was the first time I heard Delmar say "Well I'll only be 82!"
2:13 That’s the opening of Homer’s Odyssey, I believe.
2:54 If you’re ever in the mood to see a *serious* movie with chained-together fugitives, check out “The Defiant Ones” with Sydney Poitier.
4:08 Hey, you ever see his wife? He definitely *got* it!
12:57 Lead siren is Musetta Vander, whom I always remember as the Mantis Teacher from the fourth episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
Lead Siren is also Syndal from Mortal Kombat 2
The whole movie is a reimagining of Homer’s The Odyssey…you’ve got the cyclops (Big Dan), the sirens who lure men to an island where they get turned into animals, and all other manner of perils and semi magical encounters. Fantastic adaptation of a classic.
22:40 This was an old practice they called "running (somebody) out on a rail."
This is perfect with you watching this movie and my favorite bass singer Geoff Castellucci released his LOW Bass cover of "Man Of Constant Sorrow". His bass voice could melt butter and is not hard on the eyes either. When he drops those deep bass notes it is instant Geoffgasm. If I was thirty years younger as you say " He could totally get it".
YAY, FINALLY "ARSENIC AND OLD LACE" IS COMING UP!
Also in regards to this particular review, it's one of the few films I actually went and bought the soundtrack for, because it is AWESOME.❤