“O Brother, Where Art Thou?” - A Review Of The 2000 Coen Brothers Film - Now Reissued On An ‘All Regions’ BLU RAY In 2011.

*** THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE 2011 ALL-REGIONS BLU RAY REISSUE ***

"Hot Damn! It's The Soggy Bottom Boys!"

When the Coen Brothers unleashed "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" into cinemas in September 2000 - it was an audio and visual sensation. The DVD that followed in 2001 received equal praise. But little will prepare fans for this truly beautiful 2011 BLU RAY transfer - it's properly gorgeous to look at - and up there with the best this (often frustrating) format can offer...

When it was originally filmed on location - a 'lossless' digital process was used to fully realise the specific light and scenery of Depression-hit Mississippi in 1937 (beautiful gold and yellow hues). That process combined with the stunning cinematography of Roger Deakins both get to shine like never before. There are times when the visuals are quite literally breathtaking in their clarity. And the canvas to impress your eyes just keeps coming at you as the movie progresses from location to location - open fields, hay barns, twisted swamps, dust roads, river banks, inside period cars and beat-up trucks, the chain-gang detail, radio stations and bank interiors. Even in the notoriously difficult indoor scenes in ramshackle homesteads and around campfires at night - it all looks 'so' good. Add to this a blisteringly funny script full of savvy life-observations and brutal local colloquialisms - and it's hardly surprising that it was nominated for 2 Academy Awards in these areas (Best Script and Cinematography).

Defaulted to 2.35:1 aspect ratio - it has bars top and bottom of the screen - but even when stretched to full screen - it rarely loses any definition. And better news for fans around the world is that this issue is an 'ABC/All Regions' BLU RAY - so it will play on every machine (as well as PlayStation 3 consoles).

Written and Directed by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen - "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" comes across as a sort of Three Stooges Road Movie with song accompaniment. Roughly based on Homer's Greek tragedy "The Iliad" about a journey of salvation with many "ob-stack-les" along the weary way - its genius soundtrack also sparked a worldwide interest in Blues, Gospel and Old Timey Country music - much of which had been long forgotten and often derided as hick and corny (2011 saw a 2CD 'Deluxe Edition' reissue of this). The film was immediately followed by the DVD release of the "Down From The Mountain" concert in Nashville, Tennessee featuring live music played by musicians on the Grammy-winning soundtrack. Anyone who has seen it will know that it's an equally joyful and musically charged experience. This is America before the sadness and loss of 9/11 - enjoying itself and celebrating its heritage - and rightly so.

The large and varied cast is exceptional - especially the grotesque caricatures that pepper scene after scene. Quinn Gasaway as a gun-totting boy in filthy overalls, Stephen Root as the bug-eyed giggling recording studio boss, John Goodman as the dodgy Bible salesman Big Dan Teague whose ears pop up when he hears the crisp click of dollar bills in a restaurant. His eye-patch signals him as the club-wielding one-eyed Cyclops. Wayne Duvall as the hood-wearing racist Homer Stokes trying to get elected over Charles Durning - the portly but wily Governor of Mississippi - Pappy "Pass The Biscuits" O'Daniel who also hosts a radio show. So many great parts...

The story goes something like this - chained together as a trio of escaped convicts - they are driven to find a $1.2 million dollar treasure Everett is supposed to have hidden in a shack in a valley that is to be flooded in five days time to build a massive hydro-electric dam. But they are being pursued by the Devil in sunglasses with his mean dog - Sheriff Cooley (played with relish by Daniel Von Bargen). After visiting a relative of Pete's called Wash (a man who rarely does) - the boys are hounded off the farm yet again. They then meet a Negro called Tommy Johnson at a crossroads and give him a lift (superbly played by Louisiana guitarist Chris Thomas King). He explains that at midnight the night before he sold his immortal soul to the Devil in return for a guitar that he "sure can play" (like the folklore surrounding Blues legend Robert Johnson). Delmar is appalled but Everett sees a business opportunity. If they can get to a radio station on the outskirts of the State - there's a man there who'll give them money to "sing into a can". They eventually get there - pretend to be The Soggy Bottom Boys - do a charged rendition of "I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow" - and cut a record. But unbeknown to the hapless crew - a radio hit is born that will literally save their souls (and lives) in the end. But before they can get to that redemption of sorts - all sorts of journey hilarity ensues - including a reunion between Everett and his estranged wife Penny (Holly Hunter) and their 4-strong progeny of mouthy daughters. There are gun-battles with a madcap bank robber George 'Baby Face' Nelson who shoots livestock because he hates cows (a fantastic turn by Coens' favourite Michael Badalucco) and sexy Sirens by the river who turn Pete into a horny toad. It all ends with tins of Dapper Dan pomade floating by the screen when the big flood comes (along with everything else)...

The music deserves a special mention. While audiences expected to howl with laughter and cringe at the array of unhygienic ingrates displayed on screen - what they hadn't expected was to be so moved by the old-timey music - full of ballads about heartbreak, poverty and death. A perfect example is The Cox Family singing "I Am Weary (Give Me Rest)" on a truck at a town gathering - the melody and lyrics are genuinely moving. The congregation making their way through the trees to the river to be baptised as they sing (Acapella) "Down To The River To Pray". Country and Blues musicians also have on-and-off-camera cameos - Clooney lip-synching in the recording booth is really being sung by Dan Tyminski of Alison Krauss' band Union Station - Gillian Welch asking for a copy of the song in a record shop - Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch and Emmylou Harris provide the Acapella vocals as the seductive Sirens on the river - Ralph Stanley of The Stanley Brothers singing "O Death" as Tommy is led by a lynch mob to a gallows and a burning cross - The Fairfield Four Gospel group singing as they dig graves by a log cabin...

But the movie belongs to the three principal leads - John Turturro as the permanently moaning Pete Hogwallop and Tim Blake Nelson as the less than Mensa-material Delmar O'Donnell (a role he would revive to great effect in "Flypaper" - see review). There is a rare and completely believable chemistry between them. But the big revelation here is George Clooney playing the philosophy-jabbering Everett Ulysses McGill. While he doesn't quite reach the cult-inducing peaks of Jeff Bridges as 'The Dude' in the Coens incomparable "The Big Lebowski" (a part emblazoned into cinema lover's hearts forever) - Clooney shows a deftness of touch for comedy and pathos throughout that is quite fantastic. More importantly he seemed to finally park his devastatingly handsome good looks by taking a career chance and showing the world that he was more than just a pretty face. Clooney can act his soggy pants off if given the right part (something he's proved many times since).

The only real let down is the paltry extras (those that accompanied the initial DVD issue) which last only a few minutes and leave you craving more.

Still - this is a fantastic advertisement for what BLU RAY can offer. I only wish I had a humungous home-cinema system to watch it on.

To sum up - after they fail to catch a passing train full of men with "aimless lives of wandering..." Delmar is asked by the other two squabblers to give the deciding vote on who is leader of the trio. Delmar sappily says - "I'm with you fellas!"

I wholeheartedly agree.

BLU RAY Specifications:
VIDEO: 1080p High Definition - Aspect Radio 2.35:1
AUDIO: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital
SUBTITLES: English SDH (Hard Of Hearing), French and Spanish

EXTRAS:
1. The Making Of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"
2. Two Storyboard-To-Scene Comparisons
3. "I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow" Music Video
4. Theatrical Trailer

PS: Isaac Freeman - the bass vocalist with the legendary Gospel/Acapella group "The Fairfield Four" (mentioned above) - released his 1^st solo album at the age of 73 in 2011 on Lost Highway Records called “Beautiful Stars”. It’s a beauty. Check it out…

 

“Intolerable Cruelty”. A Review Of The 2003 Film Now Reissued On A 2011 BLU RAY.

"…It’s A Challenge…"

As Donovan Donaly (Geoffrey Rush) drives along a sun-drenched palm-tree-lined avenue in suburban California in his Jaguar Coupe, ponytail bobbing in the gentle breeze, he is smugly singing along to Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer”. The lyrics speak of loose ladies on Seventh Avenue in New York and the broke fighter partaking of their flesh in weaker moments. When he gets into his house, he finds his wife Bonnie (Stacey Travis) is doing just that - having it off with Ollie the pool man - a stoner with erection problems who says ‘man’ all the time. A fight ensues and Donovan has the spikes of his Daytime Television Lifetime Achievement Award rammed into his fleshy backside. Gunshots are fired…the guilty parties speed off…and as he giggles manically, Donovan takes Polaroids of his bloody posterior for divorce-battle evidence. It then goes into the opening credits - cartoon cupids tying each other to trees and behaving very badly indeed - as the cautionary words of Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” counter the cheesy yet somehow romantic Valentine’s Day visuals.
It’s very witty stuff…it’s very Coens.

And now in early 2011, “Intolerable Cruelty” arrives on a Universal Blu Ray - and I for one am loving it.

George Clooney plays Miles Massey, a legendarily effective but bored divorce lawyer - and Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Marilyn Rexroth – a beautiful and skilled socialite who marries rich older-men - and not necessarily for their conversational skills. When Miles encounters Marilyn in his offices with another divorce lawyer Freddy Bender (a superb Richard Jenkins - the father in Six Feet Under), there is an obvious fascination and attraction between them. Miles then exposes her scam with Rex Rexroth, Marilyn starts another one – and then ensues a game of mental cat and mouse. But in the ultimate game of 'life and love' - who is actually winning what?

Despite the mixed reviews it received at the time (and it still divides fans now), I’ve always liked “Intolerable Cruelty”. Even if you don’t think it works as a cohesive whole, there’s a lot to enjoy in the spaces in-between. To start with there’s rare and genuine chemistry between Clooney and Jones who both manage to be attractive, sappy, witty and ruthless all at the same time. Clooney in particular is fantastic. In his scenes with Stacey Travis and Edward Herrmann (dialogue above), he shows superlative comedic acting chops. When George is given good material like this, he’s just ‘so’ good at it - very Cary Grant.

The lesser roles too are many and brilliant. There’s a scene-stealing Cedric The Entertainer as Gus Petch (“I’m gonna nail yo’ ass!”), Edward Herrmann as Rex Rexroth the elderly executive who has a passion for women in underwear mimicking the sound of Choo Choo trains, Billy Bob Thornton as Howard D. Doyle the ah-shucks oil tycoon who eats a cast-iron marriage contract to prove his love to Marilyn (her next victim), Jonathan Hadary as the wonderfully camp Heinz, The Baron Von Espy (“is that silly man in this courtroom today…”) and Tom Aldredge as the truly grotesque Herb Myerson - owner of the law-firm Miles works for – who is on a life–support machine and still spluttering on about ‘billable hours’ through a voice box (what Miles fears he will become).

The dialogue is so cleverly choreographed too. Take the scene where Miles is sat beside a client in a courtroom with his long-suffering law associate Wrigley sat at the other end of the table (Paul Adelstein). While another lawyer cross-examines the stone-faced elderly wife of their client (a brilliantly cast Judith Drake), Miles is twittering on about boredom creeping into his life. The dialogue ping-pongs between his list of material wealth and its vacuous trappings back to her hilarious statements about claiming to be her husband’s “…sexual slave for 36 years…” The lawyer presses for more details, she replies ”…he made a gizmo out of the vacuum-cleaner called “The Intruder”…the vacuum-cleaner was unavailable to me for several months…” The other lawyer shakes his head in mock shock “… several months without the appliance…” It’s ball-breakingly funny stuff and very Joel and Ethan Coen.

Which brings us to the print – which I’m glad to say is a massive improvement over the DVD. It’s in 1.85:1 aspect so it immediately fills the screen (no stretching) and right from the opening shots of the sunlight glinting on Donovan’s front windscreen, the clarity takes you aback. Even when Clooney and Jones are having dinner in a restaurant at night (indoor night scenes are notorious for shading and blocking), the clarity is spot-on - and Catherine looks truly beautiful. The real shame is the complete lack of extras – but as it’s pitched at less than a tenner brand new – I’m still pleased with the purchase.

“Intolerable Cruelty” is a Coen Brothers movie you should ‘rediscover’ – and the new Blu Ray format is the place to do it.

And remember boys, the absence of a prenuptial agreement in a divorce settlement - is the gift that just keeps on giving…ouch!

PRINT:
1080p High Definition Widescreen, Aspect 1.85:1 (fills the screen immediately on play)
AUDIO:
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Latin American, Spanish DTS Surround 5.1
SUBTITLES:
English SDH (Deaf And Hard-Of-Hearing), French, Italian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, Greek, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish and Traditional Mandarin

“Fargo” on BLU RAY. A Review of the 1996 Film Now Transferred to BLU RAY in 2009.

“…You Should See The Other Guy!…”

Rewatching 1996's "Fargo" on Blu Ray is an odd experience - a bit like the film itself. It's both better and worse...

First - the Blu Ray print - I'd estimate that about 50% of the time, the picture is much, much better and the close-up shots in police cars in particular are beautifully clear. But unfortunately it's worse in other areas - there's a lot of blocking in the blizzard scenes, fuzziness indoors and the feeling of a low-budget Indie film is now accentuated rather than subdued...and although people will argue that's the nature of this independent movie, I'm not so sure it's such a good thing with the merciless exposure Blu Ray gives film stock.

The Special Features is a lone commentary by cameraman and photographer ROGER DEAKINS and it's funny and informative, but there was surely room for so much more...cast interviews?

Speaking of which...the casting is inspired. Both Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare (turned up as Satan in Constantine) are fabulous as the hapless and deranged kidnappers - a perfect foil to the bumbling William H Macy character Jerry. Macy is astonishing in Fargo - so brilliant that mere adjectives fail me. But he's matched in subtlety by Frances McDormand who plays the lovely, decent and upbeat highway copper Marge - pottering about in her huge comfy coat saying "Ya" and "Jeez" all the time, threatening to barf and chomping away on burgers and huge meals to keep herself and her advanced pregnancy stoked up... The dialogue is ball-breakingly funny, the slightly oddball characters surely drawn from real life and the violence arbitrary and a lot more ugly than you remember it. You have to love the Coens - you really do!

If you have affection for this grotesque, compelling and strangely human film - then the Blu Ray with it's improved depiction of sheet of paper attached to Steve Buscemi's gunshot cheek - is a good buy. And that look on Marge's face at the end as she tries to comprehend what psycho in the back seat did to his partner in the famous woodchopper scene...is priceless.

A good Blu Ray release then - but docked a star for not putting more extras on here (which will undoubtedly turn up on the "Ultimate" Edition a few years down the line)...