Film After 11 Podcast | O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

Having saddled myself with the arbitrary gimmick of choosing titles for the Film After 11 podcast this year in alphabetical order, I find myself struggling with the “O” this week. Most of the movies I own beginning with that letter are either inappropriate for a 12-year-old or just not something he’d enjoy. I wound up settling on O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the Coen brothers’ quirky comedy about fugitives from a chain gang during the Great Depression.

I knew full well going in that this wouldn’t be the type of movie my son Thomas would particularly go for, but he was a good sport about it and says he liked the picture overall, which is better than I expected. However, given his low-key reaction in the discussion afterward, this was obviously not one of his favorites.

I still love the movie, though. It’s a perfect manifestation of the Coens’ off-kilter sensibilities with some surprisingly heavy themes of racial injustice and social inequality mixed in. All that vintage bluegrass music is also a delight.

O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000) - The Sirens
Title:O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Year of Release: 2000
Directors:Joel Coen
Ethan Coen
Watched On: Blu-ray
Also Available On: Various VOD rental and purchase platforms

The Blu-ray

Disney, by way of its Buena Vista Home Entertainment label, brought O Brother, Where Art Thou? to Blu-ray in 2011. As of this writing, no plans for a 4K Ultra HD edition have been announced.

O Brother was photographed on Super 35 film, and has the distinction of being the first feature to utilize an end-to-end Digital Intermediate for its entire running time, created then at 2K resolution. Cinematographer Roger Deakins used the format to manipulate colors in unusual ways, more precisely than could be achieved with traditional color timing.

As the first of its kind, the DI process may not have worked out all the kinks yet. I seem to recall some talk around the time of the Blu-ray release that Deakins had rebuilt a new DI from the underlying film elements, but I can’t find a reference to back that up right now, and judging by the look of it, I’m skeptical. Even if that were the case, the newer DI would be 15-years-old by now and could probably use another update.

I’m not saying that the Blu-ray looks bad, mind you, just that it has some limitations due to its age and origins. The 2.35:1 image (no, not 2.39:1 or 2.40:1) is a little soft and the digitized grain is sometimes quite noisy. Contrast is mostly good in night scenes, but in the daytime regularly clips or crushes highlights.

Colors are desaturated on purpose and the film has a persistent yellow bias in most scenes. Those effects are clearly intentional, but I’m not sure the original grading gives much latitude to take advantage of HDR or Wide Color Gamut should the movie be remastered for 4K, unless everything were indeed redone from scratch. That would then of course run the risk of revisionist manipulation from filmmakers now a couple decades older and who may wish to rethink their original decisions. I’d hate for O Brother, Where Art Thou? to come out looking like the travesties of the Godfather or Terminator 2 so-called 4K “restorations.” Perhaps it’s best to just leave it as-is.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) Blu-ray

The movie’s soundtrack is provided only in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 format. The 5.1 mix makes good use of the surround channels, with an enveloping musical presence and fun use of effects like gunfire rattling around the back of the room. Bass rumbles once or twice (a car exploding hits pretty nicely), but the track in general doesn’t have much dynamic range. That gunfire in particular could use more depth.

The limited bonus features on the disc are very promotional in nature, such as the 8-minute making-of featurette straight from the Electronic Press Kit, some storyboard-to-screen comparisons, one music video for “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow” comprised entirely of clips from the movie, and a trailer.

The disc also annoyingly opens with a trailer for the forgotten sci-fi family flick Real Steel before the main menu. Thankfully, it can be skipped.

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