O Brother, Where Art Thou
This is almost a variety act: singing and dancing is the bulk of it, but there’s also some drama, theatricals, and even space for political points (either more towards philosophy, or straight up politicking).
The intro credits mention this is based on Homer’s Odyssey, which is just a big joke. Sounds like a retcon over having sirens seducing the protagonists, or a cyclopic Bible salesman. It’s present in the bulk of the character names: Ulysses, Homer, Penny (short for Persephone?), Menelaus. Definitively a joke.
Our three protagonists are one of a kind, running the gamut from dumb as rock Delmar, to street smart Pete, so high-falutin’ conman Everett. Tommy, the guitar player who sells his soul to the devil at a crossroads, just tags along when music is required.
They escape from the chain gang and visit Pete’s cousin, who rats them out for the bounty. They are saved by his kid.
Some of the scenes are simply immortal: when Pappy O’Daniels is arriving at the radio station and chides his kid for one-at-a-timing instead of mass communicating. Absolutely incredible, I can see it clearly in my mind even years after seeing it for the first time.
The music fits the scenes to a T: when the sirens are seducing our protagonists, they sing “go to sleep you little baby” and “you and me and the devil makes three”, which they do.
The soundtrack is so goddamn amazing, Jesus wept. Makes me want to jump into a stage and belittle my political opponent for his reformist KKK attitude.
This is my place for ramblings about sequences of images that exploit the human visual limitation know as persistence of vision.