There are a lot of reasons why a considerable number of movies don't make it to the theatres here in Singapore. But the usual ones include the fact that the film in question didn't make big bucks in the US or worldwide box office and a certain board (of censorship) deems the film unsuitable because it contains "elements that are inappropriate" or "themes the local audience could not relate to". Another words, it'd be impossible for the film to be marketed to the en masse and make the dough from ticket sales. So let's not waste everyone's time by bringing in these misfit films, yah? Load of bull.

I've decided to come up with recurring posts to talk about some of the bolder, cooler and greater films that never saw the light of day on our shores or rather in our commercially choked cineplexes. Man, are we Totally Missing Out.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)



We see the posters, we see the trailers, hell...we even see a release date. I was disgruntled for the most of 2001 when it became more apparent that this rare gem would never make it to the screen, having heard a lot about it since 2000. Basically, almost everyone who'd caught it, in other countries, were raving aesthetically about it.

Penned by Ethan Coen and directed by Joel Coen (collectively known as The Coen Brothers, film makers extraordinare), O Brother is an offbeat comedy and their subversive take on the classical greek poem, The Odyssey by Homer. Set somewhere in the Mississipi state during perhaps the Great Depression, late 1920s-30s, the plot centers around three escaped convicts who embark on a journey to recover some buried loot hidden in a house of an abandoned town that is about to be turned into a new dam. Racing against time and dodging the authorities, Ulysses(George Clooney), Pete(John Turturo) and Delmar(Tim Blake Nelson) come face to face with some pretty unusual characters along the way, from a blind prophet to sexy sirens by the side of a lake, even a one-eyed Bible salesman. A great oddball funny movie on its own but familiarity with Homer's text will give the viewer an advantage to fully appreciate the allusions being made to The Odyssey. It's an anti-epic at its most dramatically-maimed...all done with a hillbilly accent to boot. Yee-haw!
For further information and to view a trailer, git yo'self oveh here!