O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a 2000 satirical comedy-drama written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Charles Durning, Michael Badalucco, John Goodman, and Holly Hunter. The film loosely adapts the story of The Odyssey by Homer, but sets it in 1937 Mississippi.
Synopsis[]
In the deep south during the 1930s, three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them.
Plot[]
In 1937 Mississippi, three men, Ulysses Everett McGill, Pete Hogwallop, and Delmar O'Donnell, break free from the chain gang while working on the railroad. They manage to outrun the authorities before arriving at a train and hopping on. Unfortunately, due to them still being attached to each other, Pete trips and the three are yanked back out. As they grumble amongst each other about their predicament, they end up hitching a ride with a blind man using a handcar. The blind man begins to prophetically inform the three that they will go on a journey for a great fortune, though it is not the one they seek and that they will see "a cow on the roof of a cotton house".
Everett has convinced Pete and Delmar that he has treasure hidden away and that he will share it among the three of them for a better life. In actuality, he is trying to get back with his wife Penny after learning that she plans to remarry following his incarceration. They happen upon Pete's cousin Wash and his son who house and feed them and break their chains. In the middle of the night, Wash rats out the trio to Sheriff Cooley who arrives with the rest of the police. They burn down the barn, but Wash's son rescues the three, along with a pig, in their car. Afterwards, the three ditch the boy and pig and take the car, but they need to fix the engine.
In a nearby town, Everett buys the necessary parts, but is forced to buy Fop brand hair gel, against what he believes to be the far superior Dapper Dan. While sitting with Pete and Delmar, he reveals that he stole Wash's fob watch so that they can help pay their way to Everett's old home, which they must reach before they flood the area to make a new lake. Pete is upset over Everett's theft, but they are quickly distracted by a procession of Baptists who are congregating at a nearby lake. Delmar and Pete are overcome with hope of washing away their sins and decide to get baptized with the rest of them, while Everett refuses as he finds the act pointless.
At a crossroads, the group comes across Tommy Johnson, a young black man and guitarist who claims that he sold his soul to the devil so that he could learn to play, adding that the devil was "as white as you folks, with empty eyes, and a big hollow voice," indirectly making comparisons to Cooley. Tommy is headed to Tishomingo so that he can get paid for playing music at a radio station. The three decide to join him and meet the blind Mr. Lund who allows them to sing. Introducing themselves as Jordan Rivers and the Soggy Bottom Boys, they perform "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow", exciting Mr. Lund who pays them. They briefly run into Menelaus "Pappy" O'Daniel, the governor of Mississippi who is running for reelection against his rival Homer Stokes and currently falling behind.
Sometime later, Mr. Lund is visited by a music executive who reveals that their song has become a number one hit, something which the group is unaware of for the longest time. At night, Pete and Delmar reveal what they plan to do with the treasure, open a restaurant and buying back the farm, respectively, while Everett appears reluctant to talk about it. When their car is discovered, the group flees with Tommy parting ways with them. In the morning, they encounter outlaw George Nelson and end up riding with him away from the cops. They help him rob another bank, but when someone identifies him as "Babyface Nelson", he becomes offended and ends the robbery early. Later, Nelson also leaves the group in a depressed state, allowing them to keep the money, though Everett believes that they haven't seen the last of him.
The group continue traveling before stealing a car. While driving through a forest, the group stops upon hearing a trio of sirens who sing to them and give them corn whiskey. Everett and Delmar awaken later to discover Pete's discarded clothes and a frog in his place. Delmar is convinced that the sirens turned Pete into a frog and the two are forced to carry it with them. They stop by a restaurant where they grab the attention of the eye-patch wearing "Big Dan" Teague who offers to treat them to lunch. He turns out to be a mugger, beating the two and robbing them while also crushing the frog. It is revealed that Pete was actually dragged away by the sirens and turned over to the authorities.
Everett and Delmar hitch another ride and see that Pete is back on the chain gang, affirming that he is still alive. They briefly stop by Everett's hometown where he is reunited with his daughters who tell him that Penny is planning to remarry to Vernon T. Waldrip, an associate of Stokes and whom she calls "bonafide". They get into a fight, ending with Waldrip beating up Everett and kicking him out of a Woolworth. At the movies, Everett and Delmar once again encounter Pete who warns them to "not seek the treasure," as Cooley plans to lay a trap for them. They later break him out of prison and reunite.
Everett finally comes clean and reveals that there isn't any treasure and that he broke Pete and Delmar out simply because they were chained together and wanted to stop his wife from remarrying after he got a letter from her. Pete, angered over the fact that he would have been free in two weeks and might have more added to his sentence for escaping, attacks Everett and they and Delmar happen upon a KKK rally. They find that Tommy has been captured by them and sneak in to rescue him. They are found out by Big Dan, who is revealed to be a member, as well as seeing that Stokes is the Grand Wizard. The trio rescue Tommy and cut loose a flaming cross that falls and kills Big Dan.
The group arrive at Stokes' gala. In one final effort to win Penny back, Everett convinces the three to help him out. Donning beards they enter as the entertainment with Everett making one final plea to Penny who seems to be reluctantly won over. Pappy O'Daniel and his team arrive with the intent to try and win over Waldrip who refuses to switch over to his side for having "moral fiber". The group put on a performance of "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow", surprised that everyone is familiar with their record. Stokes breaks the performance by outing them as the ones who destroyed his KKK rally, inadvertently revealing that he is a member. He is promptly railroaded out of town and Pappy takes the opportunity to endorse the Soggy Bottom Boys by pardoning them.
Penny agrees to remarry Everett on the condition that he get the original ring back, something which infuriates him as the ring is back at the old house which is about to flooded. Before leaving, they see George Nelson happily getting dragged away by an angry mob. The group head back to the house, but find Cooley there along with a posse who readily arrest them to hang. Everett attempts to explain that they were pardoned as it was all over the radio, but Cooley tells them "we don't have a radio" and commences. Everett proceeds to pray to God for help and at that moment the valley is flooded, sweeping everyone up. Everett, Pete, and Delmar survive on furniture where they spot a cow on the roof of a flooded cotton house. They also encounter Tommy who has taken refuge on a roll top desk, the very desk that held the ring.
Sometime later, Everett is back with Penny and his daughters and presents the ring to her where she tells him that it is not the correct ring, but her aunt's. They bicker over their predicament as the blind man drives his handcar nearby.
Cast[]
- George Clooney as Ulysses Everett McGill, based on Odysseus.
- Dan Tyminski as Everett's singing and a mandolinist
- John Turturro as Pete Hogwallop, based on Odysseus' men.
- Harley Allen as Pete's singing
- Tim Blake Nelson as Delmar O'Donnell, based on Odysseus' men.
- Pat Enright as Delmar's singing
- Chris Thomas King as Tommy Johnson
- John Goodman as Daniel "Big Dan" Teague, based on the Cyclops.
- Holly Hunter as Penny Wharvey-McGill, based on Penelope.
- Charles Durning as Menelaus "Pappy" O'Daniel, named after Menelaus, but based on Zeus.
- Daniel von Bargen as Sheriff Cooley, based on Poseidon and the Devil.
- Wayne Duvall as Homer Stokes, named after Homer.
- Ralph Stanley as Homer's singing
- Ray McKinnon as Vernon T. Waldrip, based on Penelope's suitors.
- Frank Collison as Washington Bartholomew "Wash" Hogwallop
- Quinn Gasaway as Boy Hogwallop
- Michael Badalucco as Baby Face Nelson
- Stephen Root as Mr. Lund, based on Homer
- Lee Weaver as the Blind Seer, based on Tiresias.
- Mia Tate, Musetta Vander, and Christy Taylor as The Siren, based on the characters of the same name.
- Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, and Gillian Welch as The Siren's singing
- Welch also plays a record store customer
- Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, and Gillian Welch as The Siren's singing
- Ed Gale as Little Man
- Isaac Freeman as Gravedigger
- Wilson Waters Jr. as Gravedigger
- Robert Hamlett as Gravedigger
- The Cox Family as Themselves
- The Whites as Themselves
Soundtrack[]
The music for the film was developed during the scripting phases. The songs were fully recorded prior to the start of filming and then integrated into the film. The genre is primarily folk music with some gospel, country, bluegrass, and swing. The soundtrack was released December 5, 2000 while a 10th anniversary edition with 14 additional songs was released August 23, 2011.
Trivia[]
- This was one of the first feature films to use all digital color correction. This was because the Coens wanted the film to look dreary, as the sets were too green for their liking.
- The film's title is taken from the movie Sullivan's Travels, wherein the protagonist plans to direct a feature film titled O Brother, Where Art Thou?
- At the time this film came out, this was the fifth Coen Brothers movie to feature John Goodman, the fourth to feature John Turturro, the third to feature Holly Hunter and Charles Durning, and the second to feature Michael Badalucco.
- This is one of several co-productions that Disney did with another studio, in this case, Universal Pictures.
- While Homer is given writing credit on the film, the Coens admitted that they have never read The Odyssey and were only familiar with the various interpretations of it. As a matter of fact, Tim Blake Nelson was the only person on set who actually read it.
- George Clooney practiced singing to prepare for the film, but in the end, he was dubbed over. Tim Blake Nelson could sing, but the only time his real singing voice is heard is during "In The Jailhouse Now".
- Everett's childhood home is modeled after the cabin from The Evil Dead, which Joel Coen worked on early in his career.
- Despite Baby Face Nelson being featured in the film, in real life, he died three years before the film's setting.
- This was the first film that the American Humane Association added the disclaimer: "Scenes which may appear to place an animal in jeopardy were simulated." This was because they initially assumed that they really injured a cow, when in actuality it was a CGI cow.
- J.K. Simmons auditioned for the film, but backed out when they almost cast him as a character that he felt was too similar to Vernon Schillinger, his character from Oz. He would later get cast in The Ladykillers, Burn After Reading, and True Grit.
- The Coens referred to this film as a "rip-off" of The Wizard of Oz.
- Vernon T. Waldrip is named after Howard Waldrop, the author of A Dozen Tough Jobs, which served as inspiration for the film. The book was a retelling of the twelve labors of Hercules, but set in the Depression era.
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