| Notes | Tired of churning out lightweight comedies, Hollywood director John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea) decides to make "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"—a serious, socially responsible film about human suffering. After his producers point out that he knows nothing of hardship, Sullivan hits the road disguised as a hobo. En route to enlightenment, he encounters a lovely but no-nonsense young woman (Veronica Lake)—and more trouble than he ever dreamed of. This comic masterpiece by Preston Sturges is among the finest Hollywood satires and a high-water mark in the career of one of the industry’s most revered funnymen.
SPECIAL FEATURES
New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Audio commentary from 2001 by filmmakers Noah Baumbach, Kenneth Bowser, Christopher Guest, and Michael McKean
"Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer" (1990), a seventy-five-minute documentary made by Bowser for PBS’s American Masters series
New video essay by film critic David Cairns, featuring filmmaker Bill Forsyth
Interview with Sandy Sturges, the director’s widow, from 2001
Interview with Sturges by gossip columnist Hedda Hopper from 1951
Archival audio recordings of Sturges
PLUS: An essay by critic Stuart Klawans
New cover by Maurice Vellekoop |
