We’ve heard any number of film scholars suggest that the films of the Depression Era were meant to be escapist entertainment, and that’s why screwball comedies and lavish musicals really took off during that period. People were having miserable lives, and for a couple of hours they could get away from all that.
1941’s Sullivan’s Travels essentially comes around to that point of view, but it takes pretty much the entire film to get there. Nevertheless, Preston Sturges has given us a fun bit of a romp…until it’s not. But even the point after the film takes a hard turn has some comedic moments in it.
We’re also spending some time on the Coen Brothers’ film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, from 2000. It’s also set during the Great Depression and it takes a very different look at that time while still providing a ton of entertainment. And while both films have wildly divergent approaches to that period—which could easily be attributed to the distance provided by time itself—there are many, many things which the two films have in common. In fact, we’d venture to suggest that we only barely scratched that particular surface, despite this being a rather long episode.
COMING ATTRACTIONS: In our next episode we look in on the lives of ex-spies and the things they do to keep busy. In that spirit we have 1998’s Ronin and Duplicity, from 2009.