Most embarassing movie - "O' Brother..." - Page 3 - Videokarma.org TV - Video

***Negotiableterms*** · #31 03-23-2006, 12:54 PM

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!

ozmoid · #32 03-23-2006, 01:06 PM

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.

Whitehall · #33 03-23-2006, 01:13 PM

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?

rocdad · #34 03-23-2006, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whitehall

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.

Wornears · #35 03-23-2006, 01:37 PM

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.

#36 03-23-2006, 02:02 PM

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.

mg196 · #37 03-23-2006, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whitehall

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.

soundmotor · #38 03-23-2006, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whitehall

What next? A comedy about Puritans?

Sorry, already done.

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

Sandy G · #39 03-23-2006, 06:27 PM

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.

Justen · #40 03-23-2006, 06:48 PM

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...

packratt · #41 03-23-2006, 06:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whitehall

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.

pmsummer · #42 03-28-2006, 06:26 PM

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? ;-)

RussinOhio · #43 03-28-2006, 07:59 PM

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

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

Russ

Whitehall · #44 03-28-2006, 11:01 PM

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.

daddydlb · #45 03-31-2006, 04:54 PM

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.