I had heard good things about the sound track to "O' Brother, Where art Thou" so I rented the DVD and sat down to watch it.

While there were a couple of cute moments, on the whole, I was embarassed by it. It just couldn't stop from ridiculing Southerners and in the most stupid, banal, stereotypical manner possible.

As a society, we've made it clear that "Negro" jokes, Polish jokes, etc, etc are unsuitable for civil discourse and for good reason. Today, Hollywood thinks that Southerners and the Amish ("Kingpin") are fair game and outside any respect or deserving of dignity we otherwise expect to show everyone else and each other.

It burns me - and I'm neither.

The music was great and I look foward to picking up the SACD even though that will put a buck back in some Hollywood creep's pocket.

Joel and Ethan Coen have a tendancy to exaggerate stereotypes. Give "Fargo" a look-see sometime. They probably pissed off the entire state of Minnesota. However, I like "The Hudsucker Proxy" because it's a throwback to Howard Hawks zany comedies.

"Fargo" was much more humane and respectful of the characters in my view than "O Brother". I've been in Minnesota and in the Deep South and "Fargo" was a more accurate view.

A broad brush in parody can be fine and entertaining but this was just hateful in places.

It's been awhile seen I have seen "O brother" but I really enjoyed it. Curious as to what parts you found to be so offensive? I am from the south and nothing struck a cord with me.

I think it's a great movie!

Rednecks/Southern backwoods types are the last people we can still make fun of, & not get the PC Police riled up. Used to make me mad, until I realised how many damyankees & Canucks, etc, come here w/LOTSA green money to laugh at us....Shit, I'll put on a pair of bib overhauls on & stick my thumb up my arse if it'll make youse damyankees throw money at me....Be glad to ! Hehehehehehe...an' y'all hurry back next year.....-Sandy G.

I, too, am from the south, deep south delta country of arkansas to be exact, and I have seen movies that offended me in their portrayal of southerners. But, curiously, I rather enjoyed "O Brother, Where Art Thou". I can't really explain why it didn't come across as mocking and denigrating, but it didn't just the same. In the same way carricatures often grossly but accurately exaggerate reality, the movie portrayed a segment of southern life in it's time period that was accurate, but exaggerated. Growing up in the 60"s, I knew people whose carricatures would closely resemble the characters of the movie. Weird? Yeah, it was, but very entertaining and in ways historical. And to me not the least bit offensive.

Ghog

From MY perspective, a much more accurate representation of life here was "Driving Miss Daisy", & even it was a bit stereotypical.

... in it's time period...in ways historical...

To me, that was the "Get out of jail free card". If it hadn't been set 70 (or whatever) years ago I'd have been offended too. In the 1930s the whole world was a different place, and much behavior that was normal then would make caricatures today.

Take a look on A&E at Poirot, and see if the English don't seem caricatures, yet the portrayals are accurate for normal people of that era. Same for Nero Wolfe. Normal behavior from the early 1900s is seen here on AK purely for effect. How often do you see someone here referred to as a "Gentleman" or addressed as "Sir". When's the last time you heard that formality in a mall?

No one on this site is old enough to have lived through the 30s and still remember it, since if you were old enough to remember things in the 30s, you're too old to remember anything now.

Just think... in 50 years or less, we'll all be caricatures for some ancient decade, ya know, dude?

I loved it. I dont think it was meant to be a accurate portrayal of life but a satire. Homers Odessy take off. I laugh every time I see it. Great one liners "Damn, were in a tight spot!", "I nicked the census man." "Now, theres a good boy." The music is great too. Its only a movie.

I know how you feel. You should rent "Raising Arizona" sometime, and then try comparing the two movies. It seems that both of these movies are suprisingly similar, in terms of the characters used (Cage's and Clooney's characters are very similar) and the theme of redemption.

In 1987, I didn't know who the Coen brothers were when I sat down in a theater with some friends to watch this movie. As the only person from my group from Arizona, I was a bit squeamish at the outset of this movie. They had Nicholas Cage's character living in a trailer in the middle of Papago Park in Tempe, about 10 minutes from where I lived, so believe me, I empathize with you.

But after the 1st 10-15 minutes, I bought into the movie, and by the end of the movie, I wasn't embarrassed at all by any of the portrails. I was 'in' on the joke, and I ended up laughing my ass off.

It seems that the characters in Raising Arizona had much more of an edge to them than the one's in 'O Brothers', though they are all sympathetic.

I didn't know until a few years after I saw it that it was based on Homer's epic, "The Odyssey". I have friends who have a lake house in Tishamingo, Mississippi, where the great flood takes place. The flooding of this manmade lake actually submerged the small town there and is a popular diving site. A beautiful lake, home to many bald eagles.

I agree that "Driving Miss Daisy" was a more representative and a more enjoyable film. But then, so was "Gone with the Wind"!

What was offensive? Well, I too spend some years of my youth in the Deep South so knew people like the characters. Dumb, uneducated, yes, but still warmly human.

For example, the road camp guards. My best friend in high school got in trouble afterward and spent a year in a road camp, wearing chains and swinging a pickaxe. Later, my mother remarried a retired road camp guard (following his 25 years in the Navy). When I told my friend about him, he said "Cap'n Hank! He saved my live and straightened me out!" Today, my friend is a lawyer. My stepfather is one great guy. So are road camp guards pure evil and hideous? What if some badass breaks loose and robs your house?

Their treatment of religion was also downright hostile. I'm in no way part of any organized (or unorganized) religous faith but I at least respect people of other faiths.

Sorry, but I saw this movie as an attack on red-state Americans and part of the "culture wars." Guess I see a hidden agenda, like a lot of Hollywood's recent output.

But there were some cute jokes - the "rolltop desk" gag was one.

If you like it, so be it. I'll not have it in my house.

So what's your take on Cool Hand Luke then, speaking of chain gang films?

So what's your take on Cool Hand Luke then, speaking of chain gang films?

Great flick. :thmbsp: Eggs and Joy!

Guess I have little sympathy for anti-social criminals.

Remember that "Cool Hand Luke" was filmed during the civil rights clashes when the Yankees tried hard to make the South look unappealing. It too had a hidden political agenda.

Boys, there's a reason that road camps are not Club Med.

If you're looking for films that didn't exactly portray the South in the best light, it's tough to beat Deliverance and Easy Rider.

As far as O Brother goes, as was mentioned, any film that is set in the past would need to reflect the times, or it wouldn't be accurate.

It's a tad painful to be reminded of how we all thought 50-75 years ago.

Re: "Easy Rider"

"It's a tad painful to be reminded of how we all thought"

Yes, when I was a punk hippie teenager I thought a pair of f*cked-up, dope-dealing motorcycle criminals were too cool to kill too. Today, if they showed up in my neighborhood, I'd at least call the cops if not reach for my own gun.

As for "Deliverance", "Brokeback Mountain" won how many Oscars?

Sorry, but I saw this movie as an attack on red-state Americans and part of the "culture wars." Guess I see a hidden agenda, like a lot of Hollywood's recent output.

Having recently watched OBWAT again, hyperbolic & allegorical would best describe it, but not agendized. By your diktat, Paper Moon & Grapes of Wrath would also fall into that category. I just don't see an attack nor buy a wheels within wheels subversion either. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Whitehall - Bless your heart - You're thinking much too hard ol' son. I am from the south, I still live in the south (and wouldn't trade my little house for the Hearst Mansion). God willin', they'll bury me here. I loved the movie, and contrary to feeling insulted, I thought that it was (fantasy excepted) a fairly accurate representation of not only the south of the 1930's, but also the south of my youth as well.

I've known those people, I've been around those folks all my life. I was baptised in much the same manner as the movie shows. Chain gangs just like those in OBWAT were still active when I was a boy, and sad to say, the KKK isn't dead yet either, although they're a good deal deader than they were 70 or even 30 years ago. We had an outhouse until I was nearly grown, a blacksmith in the center of town, no air-conditioning, and I NEVER wore shoes till school started.

I was born poor, likely as not, I'l die in that same condition. But don't fret over us poor ol' southern fellers, we can take care of ourselves. Matter of fact, I don't recall ever hearing a southerner say he was offended by what people in other parts of the country thought of us. To tell the truth, I'm still trying to figure out how you could be embarassed or offended over something you know little to nothing about.

Thanks for the concern and all, but we're not a bunch of pitiful, backward children who need to be protected from our own reflection in a mirror, no matter how warped that mirror might be. Two of my Great-great Uncles fought at the battle of King's Mountain in October 1780 (about a hundred years after my family originally reached these shores), we KNOW who we are, we don't need anybody else to tell us. If you wanna concentrate on what pisses a southerner off, here's a starter; People from Hollywood using "ya'll" to address ONE person. See if you can get 'em to quit doin' that!

Thinking? Nay, just a gut reaction to an uncomfortable movie. My thinking is after the fact - why was this movie so irritating?

If nobody else sees or worries about the putdowns and the holier-than-thous behind it, then fine. Maybe I'm just too sensitive a soul.

Well, I got that impression from "The Grapes of Wrath." The message was larded on thick 'n' heavy in THAT one-when they get to the Gov't Camp, it's like they've died & gone to Heaven. And the guy who ran the Gov't Camp-Hoo, boy ! Talk about the Great White Father....I guess that's what people were lookin' for in the late '30s-early '40s...an all powerful, paternalistic Government to save them from themselves.-Sandy G.

Rednecks/Southern backwoods types are the last people we can still make fun of, & not get the PC Police riled up.

There is certainly some truth to that. I would go further and say that white males have become the last acceptable target of jokes, resentment, and misaimed hostility.

But two things we should all remember:

1. Although they do, people should NEVER get their information from movies. Movies are entertainment, which in itself is a distortion of reality. A good movie can spark in an interest in something, but it will never replace self-investigation and research.

2. The South runs the nation, with some help from the West. No matter what your personal politics are, it is clear that every major politician comes from the South: Clinton, Bush II, Carter, Gingrich, Frist, Gore, LBJ, Edwards, etc. Even big time non-Southerners, like Bush I and Cheney, made their bones in the South. The days of New York state producing a candidate for the White House are over.

So, stand tall Southern Man. This Yankee likes y'all (we do say that in DC).

Well, another thing about us Southern boys-and this is something we will NEVER overcome-is that we are from a "defeated" country. That one simple fact tugs on us all our lives, even if we never admit it. We can make up all this blather about tradition, chivalry, etc, etc, but it will never overcome the fact that we lost, & the damyankees won, no matter how reprehensible & undeserving they may be today. And most Yankees are -Gulp-as fine & decent people as any in the South. I still think the South had a very good point-the concept of States' Rights vs. the Mighty Imperial Federal Government- but this really isn't the place to debate it.-Sandy G.

Yes, but often victory comes out of defeat. Can any sane person claim that Germany is worse off today than before 1945? Technically, Canada was on the losing side of the Revolutionary War, but nobody can claim that Canada is not a very successful nation. Sometimes a group can lose and lose and lose again, yet not lose a chance at success (the Palestinians).

Sure the South lost, but the country as a whole is much better for it.

But I digress...

To all concerned,

For some reason this thread really struck a cord with me. It kept me thinking late into the night about how the South is (sometimes) portrayed for cheap laughs and the like. I'm a Boston Mass resident, but have spent time travelling and have stayed in 33 states. I never personally felt or viewed the Southern states as full of yokels or dummies, and never noticed this big dramatic "change" in intellegence or integrity when crossing borders. Sure, there were on occasion bonafide almost comical living caractures of the perceived southerner, but come to Boston and I'll match this- I'll bring you to Southie to see some stereotypical Southie Irish (I have enough Irish blood in me to take offence but I don't) or to the North End to see some decendants of italian blood that are just as easily caracaturized.

From my personal experience, many of the "southie" and "north enders" exhibit no dramatic decrease in intellegence as thought nor are they any different integrity-wise than folk from other parts of Mass- many are clever, resourceful and successfull business owners, raising wonderful children, just carrying a bit of an accent picked up from their folk or exhibiting some personality traits nurtured from birth and ingrained in heritage. Same with Southerners. I didn't go down there as a superior northerner carpetbagger and use smoke and mirrors and cleverly fleece 'em of all they have, or whip them at poker or a brisk game of Scatagories or Trivial Persuit without ever breaking a sweat. Most experiences with general conversations or socializing in the south, whether Texas (which I love dearly) or Tennesse (which I'm incredibly fond of) or other states, were not significantly different than when I spent time in New York (Manhattan) or Boston, or California. It might just take place around grabbing dinner at a steakhouse or Burrito joint instead of a sushi bar, and ending up at a music show at a roadhouse or Grand Ol' Opry instead of a nightclub and The Appollo. So what?

Here in Boston I do see some comics at the comedy clubs cruelly make fun of southerners, and some folk around the water cooler goofing on the "rednecks" in an unkind way. I say shame on them. It doesn't take too much to see who the ignorant folk really are. Here in Boston, there is actually a music fest called the "Redneck Fest" where, in all honesty boys, the southern states are honored, with a big, usually 3 day southern-style BBQ and great hard hitting rock and roll (with touches of country and blues inbedded). It's where meat and potatos, big open spaces, and the blue collar working man are honored, with pride, and not with irony.

Whitehall, although I personally didn't take offense to "Oh Brother...", I commend you for your concern and sensitivity to this issue. It just goes to show the quality of your mettle. And I can see where you could get upset by the film.

fotno, you make some interesting, and I'd say accurate observations. It was good to read your post.

And Sandy, if I ever get back to travelling, I'd like to stop by your house and have a sodapop or a beer with you. Tennessee is one of my favorite states- in my humble opinion, the kindest, nicest people in all of the states (although there's 17 more states I still need to visit). The Smokey Mountains, Dollywood, Memphis, and Nashville, always a great experience. Well, there was one weird experience in Memphis, but i digress....

Well said. Mark me down as a big fan of Tennessee as well. Great place, great people.

I agree that "Driving Miss Daisy" was a more representative and a more enjoyable film. But then, so was "Gone with the Wind"!


I'm sorry if am mis-reading your point. And, with all my respect.

I hear this often, but take issue with it. Driving Miss Daisy, while representing those people in society at that time, was far from representative of the South. It was a small Jewish sub-culture of suburban Atlanta. Probably most Southerners were unaware it even existed. I agree, the actors were dead-on for those parts.

Gone With The Wind was just entertainment at best. Very little accurate history. As much as many would like to believe it, there was very little of this life in the South. If it did exist, it was confined to the sugar and rice plantations along the coast and in the New Orleans area. The life that was portrayed in GWTW was one that required breeding. This did not exist to any great extent. Breeding requires money and time. Both of which were in short supply in the South. These folks worked hard. They were farmers. Men, women and children all had dirty hands. No need for hoop skirts.

So, yes it may have existed, but it was far from being a window into Southern life.

Incidentally, I live in the South. I am a proud graduate of the University of Georgia. My wife is Southern (I kind of like her). My kids were all born in the South. I was born in TX, but moved away early. I am not so foolish as to believe that I am Southern. I think there is a multi-generational requirement to be Southern. There has been a lot of pain, suffering and hard work. I have too much respect for that, to dare claim it.

My two favorite books, regarding this beautiful part of our country: John Grisham's "A Painted House", and Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird". I don't believe they are wholly representative either, but definitely accurate.

"Fargo" was much more humane and respectful of the characters in my view than "O Brother". I've been in Minnesota and in the Deep South and "Fargo" was a more accurate view.

A broad brush in parody can be fine and entertaining but this was just hateful in places.

You have certainly NOT been in any area of Minnesota that I've been to and I've lived here just about all my life.

If you're in Silicon Valley, there is a news guy out in LA by the name of Paul Majors who just came from Minnesota. I can name 4 or 5 news people on CNN that came from Minnesota and a whole lot more other National TV news, or large market area news people that came from Minnesota. Have you heard ANY of them sound like a character from the movie Fargo??? Nah, I didn't think so....

I really don't know where you got that "Fargo was a more accurate view" from, buts it's pure BS. There might be an old Scadanavian village or two waaaaay up by the Canadien border that might talk like that, but nothing south of Fargo, where 99% of the Minnesota population is.

Because a small percentage of people down in the southern bayous speak a form of French, everyone down there talks that way? No.

You really shouldn't make inaccurate generalizations. :nono:

One more thing, I liked both Fargo and O' Brother because I knew they were NOT accurate portrayals of what either of these two places are really like today.


Retro

I should hope "Fargo" wasn't representative of Minnehaha...Everybody in it was portayed as either 1) Psychotic, 2) an Idiot, 3) or both, w/the exception of Francis McDermott's character. An' y'all think WE talk funny...Jeez, Louise ! What WAS that they were speakin' ?!?-Sandy G.

Hmmm... reading this whole thread, three things become evident:

1. Even people who live in a place don't always agree on what it's like.

2. The south is a much nicer place than it's usually portrayed to be.

3. Movies affect everyone differently, and it's ok that we disagree.


Great post, Fotno!

FWIW, I second what Fotno said. I couldn't say it any better.

OTOH, "Oh Brother" IS Homer's Odessey, set in a different time. We do it in Theatre Education all the time - bring Shakespeare (or any classic) into the modern age to try to help students relate better to the story. Last fall we produced "Two Gentlemen of Verona" at the High School level using a "Goth" theme for the Verona inhabitants, and a counter-culture hippie throwback style for the residents of Milan. The bandits were hackers/geeks, and the kids and audiences loved it.

Take "Oh Brother" for what it is - Entertainment.

Concerning GWTW, I showed the DVD at my home to my daughters (13 and 10) recently, since we're considering a move to the Carolinas.

My wife is a decendent of General Sherman, so when the party scenes at the big plantation houses were on, I told them, "Your great-great-great grand-uncle burned that house down."

Certainly got their attention!

Sounds like "Fargo" got some rises too from up about Frostbite Falls. I didn't say "accurate" - I said "more accurate." I did find that the Sheriff's accent was familar to my ear from my travels to Minnesota.

I think my point is that the Coen Brothers stoop to cheap shots against everyone. They seem to insult people in the South, the North, and the West. What next? A comedy about Puritans?

Shouldn't we, the audience, be embarressed to share those cheap, demeaning, negative shots? Can't we find more wholesome, constructive entertainment?

Shouldn't we, the audience, be embarressed to share those cheap, demeaning, negative shots? Can't we find more wholesome, constructive entertainment?

I think I get your point. But, I think satire sells. The Brothers' movies do take it to an extreme though. When Garrison Keillor does it, there is an endearing quality to it. We love to laugh at ourselves at his level.

Whitehall:

So I'd guess you're not a fan of SouthPark, either?

There is plenty of wholesome, constructive entertainment -- whatever your definition of that is. You just have to look for it -- but not in the U.S. mass market movie industry, or most any mass marketed media these days, which paints with a broad brush. That is a futile quest. Certainly, the Coen brothers use a 2 x 12 as their brush -- subtle they ain't.

But there are other directors and movies that have nuance, constructive and wholesome entertainment values, and are evocative of a certain period and region. Did you see the recent Johnny Cash biopic?

YMWillVary -- and we're lucky to live in a country that gives us the choices.

I am from Minnesota and was very pissed about the way the movie Fargo made us look and talk funny but I went to see it twice. The second time was with an open mind and I found it really funny and discovered that some of us do talk like that, ya know. You betcha, Eh.

While there were a couple of cute moments, on the whole, I was embarassed by it. It just couldn't stop from ridiculing Southerners and in the most stupid, banal, stereotypical manner possible.

As a society, we've made it clear that "Negro" jokes, Polish jokes, etc, etc are unsuitable for civil discourse and for good reason. Today, Hollywood thinks that Southerners and the Amish ("Kingpin") are fair game and outside any respect or deserving of dignity we otherwise expect to show everyone else and each other.

I think this is sorta missing the idea of the movie. Exaggerating characters has been a part of literature since...well...forever! Just read anything by Mark Twain. When characters are so completely over the top as in O' Brother and Kingpin (or any Mel Brooks movies for that matter), it is impossible to equate that with any type of defamation.

The true targets of ridicule were characters like the Klansmen.

What the Coen Brothers did so magnificiently was take these Depression-era stereotypes and blow them up into bigger-than-life characters with qualities, however outrageous, that the viewer can relate to in one way or another.

I think your claim that Hollywood pulls no punches with mocking Southerners is as untrue as saying Hollywood pulls no punches when mocking Jews or Canadians or Blacks. Yes, there are Comedies that mock/satirize different peoples (South Park Movie as anti-Canada propaganda?), but to say they do that outright without a sense of satire or self-criticism (from the perspective of the writer & viewer) isn't true in my view.

Just my 4 kopeks.

What next? A comedy about Puritans?

Sorry, already done.

Arthur Miller's, "The Crucible" starring Daniel Day Lewis & Winona Ryder.

What I liked about "Driving Miss Daisy" is that it showed the LOVE that was there between "the help"-slaves- & the Bosslady-"massuh". That is something that is rarely shown, but us Southerners knew about it all along. More than a few of us were raised, to a degree, by servants-for the most part elderly black ladies. I was a little, & I have a great deal of love & respect for them.-Sandy G.

Hell, I look like the people in movie, act like them and live like them.

But I lived in Silicon Valley for 7 years... it wasn't much better... they just dressed nicer and drove BMW's...

Concerning GWTW, I showed the DVD at my home to my daughters (13 and 10) recently, since we're considering a move to the Carolinas.

My wife is a decendent of General Sherman, so when the party scenes at the big plantation houses were on, I told them, "Your great-great-great grand-uncle burned that house down."


You really might want to keep that under your hat when you get down here. Them's still fightin' words.

A 7th Generation Southerner here (five of those in Texas...which is just BARELY the South, and even then only the most eastern part of the state).

OBWAT is a wonderful film, and every Southerner I know who has seen it loves it, even all my fellow wacky Evangelicals. There's big stuff going on in that film. I actually thought the characters were developed LOVINGLY, with a real tenderness and feel for people.

P.S. WH, you sure didn't dislike it just because George Clooney was in it? ;-)

I thought it was a great movie. I also bought the soundtrack.


"Sure you don't want some gopher Everet?" :D

Russ

Clooney was a times very charming in the film.

And yes, the line about the gopher was a hoot.

As to Sherman, I recently flew out of Atlanta and passed over Columbia, S.C. Sherman burnt that one down too.

Vell der, I growed up nort of Fargo. Ven I wus in school you vould be suprised how many kids had tick scandanavian brogue. Den after I graduated it vus comical to go to da licker store and listen to da old timers talk. My grrumpa had a really tick von. Fargo vus pretty accurate to me. Ok der den. Ya sure you betcha. :lmao: :lmao: :lmao: :screwy:

i think we should go back to the days when no one was off limits...
also i dont see how anything that is compleatly untrue could hurt...
it just makes whoever is saying it sound stuped...
i live in the UP the upper penninsula of michigan... yes there are two...
we are one of the most forgeten parts of the country... and saw as some of the most backwords... when i was in U.S. geogrophy in middle shcool we were shown as part of canada... when i went to D.C. on my 8th grade class trip we were not on the gigantic map on the wall in the lobby of the FBI building... a few years ago jeff danials (sp?) made a movie about going to deer camp in the up... it was called "escanaba in da moonlignt" i found lots of the satire to be funny if not very very overblown, however some of it they must have pulled out of thinair because i dont have any idea where it came form, but it did not offend me... if you cant take people poking fun at you or others just avoide all comedy... i think we have to move past the point were we get stuck on words and move on to let are actions define us, and speak for themselfs

I am from NC and this movie far from offended me. I loved it. Clooney was fantastic and definately BonaFide! The soundtrack was very good also. This movie wasnt a statement about the south. It was only a comedy that surely wasnt trying to make any social statement. At least from my point of view.

You guys remember the mean sherif in "O' Brother, Where art Thou"

Well his name is Daniel and he lives just a few miles from me. He hangs out at the same bar I do. He always tries to give me Tequila. Im a vodka and miller lite kind of guy, but I can't be mean and say NO all the time.

Last time I drank tequila I tripped and fell down and knocked myself out for about 3 seconds ( So says the buddy that was with me). It was actually kinda funny because I don't remember too much about the whole fall, just that my jaw hurt like a bitch once I sobered up.

:withstpd:

OK, so I'm just a sensitive guy.... Guess it's from living too long in the San Francisco Bay Area.

If so many Southerners loved it, who am I to complain?

I thought I was the only one who was annoyed by the broad stereotypes in O Brother.But then again,the collegiate,winking satire in most of their films really gets on my nerves.Yes,we get it:Jennifer Jason Leigh is doing Kate Hepburn in Hudsucker,etc.Real people dont inhabit their films,just parodies of film characters,basically.
BTW,if no one else mentioned it,in Preston Sturges' great film Sullivan's Travels,the succsessful film writer and director sets out to make an earnest drama all about the "common man".And hes going to call it "O Brother Where Art Though."
Jimmy

Does anybody think that The Soprano's accurately reflects the average middle aged guy in Jersey? Of course not. I myself only know, maybe a thousand guys like Paulie Walnuts.

Does anybody think that The Soprano's accurately reflects the average middle aged guy in Jersey? Of course not. I myself only know, maybe a thousand guys like Paulie Walnuts.

When I was 30, I realized that I didn't WANT to be a middle aged guy from Jersey....so I moved to Brooklyn!

It's just a movie....sheeesh.

Does anybody think that The Soprano's accurately reflects the average middle aged guy in Jersey? Of course not. I myself only know, maybe a thousand guys like Paulie Walnuts.


...and you think I should have moved there? :D

As a 10th generation Mississippian, I wasn't offended in the least. The store where Clooney tries to get Dapper Dan looks just like my Grandads country store. Bible salesman that rob you blind, I've known a few. The crossroads scene, reminds of that night I hitchhiked outside Greenwood on a dirt road surrounded by soybean fields. Klansmen that are "pillars of the community, HAHA! Funny and pretty damned accurate. No, I'd say they got a lot of the steroetypes just right. We all gotta come from somewhere and this movie just brings back some neat memories for where I once called home.

It's one of the funnier movies I've seen in years. I find it far less offensive and stereotypical than the usual "redneck" comedies such as the "Smokey and the Bandit" series or the more recent "Joe Dirt."

And that fabulous music doesn't hurt.