The Coen Bros.’ “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?”
    I think excellent art directs one, not just towards its own genre, but but also towards creativity in different mediums. Listening to a Smiths album may make you want to read an Oscar Wilde novel. Seeing a Warhol print may cause you to be curious about a Velvet Underground record. In the same way, seeing “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” sparked an entire generation’s interest in American traditional song. I never fully appreciated the culture of America as anything but derivative of other cultures until I saw this film. Who new an earthy, bluegrass tune like “Man of Constant Sorrow” would be on the Billboard Hitlist? This movie made it happen!
    Cultures are often defined by their hardships. The Great Depression was a defining moment in the cultural identity of America and I think it took the Coen’s retelling of the Homeric Odyssey through the depression’s lens to really show us that.
    Just the fact that the duo evoked such a direct interpretation of the first written epic in human history is reason enough to laud the creativity of this project. Add in the idea that the movie was well shot, had a genre resurrecting soundtrack, and humorously asked major questions about the nature of racism, faith, and greed in this country and anyone can see the endless merit of this film.
    For example, during the baptism of two of the three travelers (played masterfully by John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson) a generation of post-Jim Baker spiritual skeptics were encouraged to contemplate the simple beauty of American Christianity during hard economic times. Though we hear our own coldly calculating, atheistic voices in Clooney’s J. Everett McGill, we are also forced to confront the ludicrous duality of a faithless man calling out to God in moments of strife.
    This is a film that I would recommend to anyone, regardless of his or her predisposition to one genre or another.