Plot
Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey", set in the deep south during the 1930's. In it, three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them.
Release Year: 2000
Rating: 7.8/10 (121,941 voted)
Critic's Score: 69/100
Director:
Joel Coen
Stars: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson
Storyline Loosely based on Homer's 'Odyssey' the movie deals with the picaresque adventures of Everett Ulysses McGill and his companions Delmar and Pete in 1930s Mississipi. Sprung from a chain gang and trying to reach Everetts home to recover the buried loot of a bank heist they are confronted by a series of strange characters. Among them sirens, a cyclops, bank robber George 'Babyface' Nelson (very annoyed by that nickname), a campaigning Governor, his opponent, a KKK lynch mob, and a blind prophet, who warns the trio that "the treasure you seek shall not be the treasure you find."
Writers: Homer, Ethan Coen
Cast: George Clooney
-
Everett
John Turturro
-
Pete
Tim Blake Nelson
-
Delmar
John Goodman
-
Big Dan Teague
Holly Hunter
-
Penny
Chris Thomas King
-
Tommy Johnson
Charles Durning
-
Pappy O'Daniel
Del Pentecost
-
Junior O'Daniel
Michael Badalucco
-
George Nelson
J.R. Horne
-
Pappy's Staff
Brian Reddy
-
Pappy's Staff
Wayne Duvall
-
Homer Stokes
Ed Gale
-
The Little Man
Ray McKinnon
-
Vernon T. Waldrip
Daniel von Bargen
-
Sheriff Cooley
(as Daniel Von Bargen)
Opening Weekend: £564,064
(UK)
(17 September 2000)
(132 Screens)
Gross: $45,506,619
(USA)
(5 August 2001)
Technical Specs
Runtime:|
Did You Know?
Trivia:
Another possible link comes from the William Faulkner short novel, "Old Man". In it a convict survives an Odyssey like adventure. The "tall convict" in the story is carried away on the flooding Mississippi of 1927 and struggles to return home. At the very end of the story he remembers the only sweetheart he had before being incarcerated and how she stopped visiting him in prison or returning his letters until finally sending him a postcard. "It was a postcard, a colored lithograph of a Birmingham hotel, a childish X inked heavily across one window, the heavy writing on the reverse slanted and primer-like too: This is where were honnymonning at. Your friend (Mrs) Vernon Waldrip."
Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers):
When Ulysses, Pete and Delmar wind up their recording of "Man of Constant Sorrow", but before the guitar fades out, Ulysses lets out a loud whoop. Since the recording was direct to disk, this would have effectively ruined the ending of the recording and necessitated another take.
Quotes:
[first lines]
Ulysses Everett McGill:
Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?
User Review
This film brought back memories.
Rating:
We lived through the depression and related to some of the conditions
portrayed. We have watched it perhaps a dozen times. Each time we see it
we
pick up on something we had missed because we were still laughing at, or
discussing, an earlier scene or line. The entire film was a collection of
photographically great faces. We are still asking ourselves whether the
entire cast were professionals or whether some were individuals found on
location. The film was rich with subtle tie-ins like the children tied
together with twine, as the prisoners were connected by chains. We still
think the cow may have been hit unintentionally. Fords of that era had
mechanical brakes. The driver of the car may not have been accustomed the
longer stopping distances required. The many allusions to Ulysses Odyssey
inspired us to do an inter-net search. We found a modern text version and
discovered more sly references. We appreciate blue grass and country music
as originally American and found it thoroughly enjoyable, along with the
authentic "Go To Sleep Little Baby" and "Down from the Mountain." We were
emotionally touched by this film because of our age, and find it totally
entertaining every time we view it. We are still amazed that someone not
of
our generation could have captured the essence of that period of United
States history.
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