'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a potential top five most quotable film in the history of the medium.

It ran into several problems. First, it's a Coen brothers film which alienates about 65 percent of all people watching films. Coen brothers can make money and create great art, but this film among others may not get the wide appeal it deserves.

Secondly, and most damning, is that it's a film based on The Odyssey set in Despression-era Mississippi with a soundtrack full of bluegrass, roots, country and blues music that does not appeal to 90 percent of the country.

Maybe, over time, O Brother will get its just due and be quoted in drunken ramblings like movies before and after.

It's a fantastic film. Being a Coen brothers film, it's beautifully shot. The writing, great.

Plus, it includes a great performance from John Turturro, a good performance from Tim Blake Nelson and the only film in which George Clooney has even acted in. Add in fantastic peripheral jobs (Holly Hunter, Charles Durning, John Goodman, Stephen Root) and you've got an awesome movie.

Two other points:

1. A major theme is "answers." People throughout are seeking "answers" mainly due to the Depression that had taken its toll on an already-poor Mississippi. Everett mentions it when Delmar and Pete are baptized. Goodman's cyclops mentions it while explaining selling Bibles. Later, when Everett confronts his wife, she mentions that her daughters are looking to her for answers since their father was in prison.

2. Another reoccurring device are characters talking without thinking. While Everett is talking and Delmar is offering him gopher, a congregation of white-robed people walking to a pond for baptism. Clooney and Nelson are saying the lines, but their minds couldn't be further from that moment in time. It happens about a dozen times throughout the film.