Muzak’s Music

April 23, 2009 at 6:23 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

I actually wrote about how the music in Raising Arizona created the characters in the film so it’s funny that it does the same with O Brother.  And it does.  Raising Arizona used the banjos and down home music to create a comedic tone for what was happening.  For example, during the robberies, which is a serious issue, they played banjos like you would hear at a country line dancing convention instead of loud, fast-paced action music.  O, brother uses alot of old hymn style music to show both happy and sad moments in the movie.  During the end of the film when the three men were about to be hanged, the old men digging the graves started singing.  They sang in a way that you would imagine a funeral and assume that these men were going to die.  Now, at the very end of the film when you find Ulysses gets his happy ending with his wife and children the girls start singing.  They sang in the same slow somber tone, but because of their girlish voices it gave the audience a sense of happiness and closure to the ending.  The two groups of singers could have sang the same exact song, but because of who was singing at that particular point of the film, it changed the who tone of how that moment was perceived.

I also would like to point out some of the irony in the film, which I think is what I will write about now.  Anybody else change their focusing questions a million times before writing?….I totally do.  It’s really annoying.  ANYWAYS……..I do find it funny that the leader of the KKK rally was the man who was supposed to lead Mississippi into a revolution and make it a better place:  Homer Stokes.  Anyone in their right mind knows that the KKK did the exact opposite and made the world a crappier place, but this was set during the depression era and people didn’t know any better.  I also thought it was funny watching the rally take place because the first thing I thought of was the Emerald City guards in the Wizard of Oz. 

I think that the sarcasm in this movie wasn’t as prominent as it was in Raising Arizona, but it was there.  Lines like, “He’s bonefied!,” and “We’re in a tight spot” brought out the humor of serious situation when in a real life scenario people wouldn’t react that way.  There are more, but I don’t want to write a 6-page blog.  I’ll save it for the 6-page essay.

P.S. Sorry this is late.  I had one of those nights where I was so tired I didn’t know I had fallen asleep until I woke up this morning….very weird sensation by the way…..

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