I'd like to thank the 10 or so FYS students that came over for the movie night last night. It was a nice excuse to watch O brother, where art thou? again, and you folks were wonderful guests. Thanks for making the time to join us!
John Hanson (the former FYS student that came a bit late and sat towards the back) stayed for quite a while after the movie while we listened to music and chatted. One of the things we talked about was the way they set up the two gubernatorial candidates. Pappy (the incumbent) might not be the "bad guy" at the beginning, but he's hardly the "good guy" and the reform candidate comes across pretty well (esp. if you ignore the slightly disturbing bit with the midget). Yet by the end we learn that the reform candidate is clearly major creepy bad news and that Pappy, while perhaps more opportunist than idealist, is a whole row better than his opponent. (I still remember how surprised I was when I first saw it and got to the part where we discover how awful the reform candidate truly is.)
One of the things I really love about that movie is the amazing breadth of the music they've included. There are lots of movies featuring lost of blues, or country, or gospel, etc., but the Coen brothers and T-Bone Burnett pulled together a really wonderfully broad collection of great music here. Great stuff!
It's also worth pointing out that the places they mention in the movie are real, and many of those cities/towns will pass by in our readings now and then. Tommy Johnson (the name of the African-American guitarist) was a real blues guitarist who (along with people like Robert Johnson) did claim some sort of deal with the devil. And watching Pappy dancing and then leading everyone in song at the end may have seemed far-fetched, but there were in fact more than one southern governor that had a significant music career either before or after being governor.
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