|
Loosely based on Homer's
"Odyssey," this Coen Brother's
Depression-era comedy stars George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson as three
escaped convicts who encounter numerous obstacles on their way to finding some hidden
money. Also with John Goodman, Holly Hunter, Chris Thomas King, Charles Durning, Michael
Badalucco, Wayne Duvall, Ed Gale, Ray McKinnon and Daniel von Bargen. [1:46]
SEX/NUDITY 4 - Several instances of mild sexual innuendo. Three men find
three "sirens" (seductive, singing women) washing their clothes in a river and
wringing them out over their heads, causing their dresses to become wet and clingy (we
briefly see part of one woman's breast through her wet top); the women approach the men
and continue to sing while rubbing the men's faces and chests (the scene ends before
anything else happens; it's implied that two of the men pass out shortly afterwards, when
they wake up they talk about the third man supposedly having had intercourse with one of
the women). We see some shirtless men.
VIOLENCE/GORE 5 - Several instances of threatening with guns and gunfire: a
boy fires a few shots at three men, several police officers shoot at three men, gunfire is
exchanged between people in two cars, a man fires shots into the ceiling of a bank while
he's robbing it, and a man shoots at a herd of cows (we see one cow shot a few times;
black, bloodless holes are briefly seen on its side). A man with his hands tied above his
head is whipped in the back a few times while being interrogated by police officers (we
hear loud cracks and his screams, and we also see a long, bloody mark across his back). A
man hits two others in the head repeatedly with a large tree branch (though one of the men
gets a bloody nose and mouth, neither seems seriously injured). Three scenes involving
near-hangings/lynchings: we see an extended Ku Klux Klan ceremony during which an
African-American is being led toward a noose (he's rescued before anything happens), three
men's hands are tied and they're forced to stand underneath three nooses (we see their
freshly-dug graves to the side), and a noose is put around a man's neck before a scene
ends (it's assumed that he's been hanged until we see him in a later scene). A huge
flood/wave of water flattens a house and hits a group of people (we see lots of debris
floating underwater, as well as a swimming man and dog; we see that several people in the
group survive). We see a large, burning cross fall to the ground, and it's implied that it
hits and presumably kills a man (we only hear a loud thud). A man is nearly stabbed in the
face with the end of a flying flag pole (he catches it a few inches away from his face). A
man audibly crushes a frog in his hand and then throws it against a tree; also, we see the
impact of a car hitting one of many cows crossing a road. Police set a barn on fire with a
few people inside (they are rescued by a boy who drives a car though the barn wall);
during the same scene a truck filled with guns and ammunition also catches on fire and
eventually explodes (no one is injured). In another scene, police officers set an empty
barn on fire (they think people are sleeping inside). A man grabs and chokes another
before they roll down a hill together, a man climbs on another's back and is quickly flung
to the ground, two men fistfight (one hits the other repeatedly in the face, while the
other never lands a punch), a man is thrown out of a store, a man throws a rock at a boy,
a man swats others in the chest with his hat several times, and a man is pelted with food
by a crowd of people and then carried out of a room on a rail. We see the legs of someone
who's being dragged into some bushes; its implied that the person's clothes are stolen.
Three men are chained together at the leg for a few scenes; in one scene, two of the men
are pulled out of an open train car when the third fails to jump aboard. A criminal being
led through town by a large group of people talks excitedly about being electrocuted in an
electric chair. We see what's supposed to be a cooked gopher on a stick.
PROFANITY 4 - A few anatomical references, lots of mild obscenities, many
religious profanities, lots of insults, and several racial slurs. [profanity glossary]
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Escaped prisoners, 1920s/Depression Era, racism, the Ku
Klux Klan, lynch mobs, political campaigns, baptism and redemption (a couple
of men believe
in redemption and another ridicules it), selling one's soul to the devil (one man claims
to have done so), fake evangelists, seers, police brutality, divorce, deception.
MESSAGE - Life has a strange way of working out.
|
