The Coen Brothers accept one of the most various filmographies of whatsoever filmmakers and O Brother, Where Art Thou? is another crowning gem in their vivid body of work. The film stars George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson as a trio of escaped convicts searching for a hidden treasure across Depression Era Mississippi.

The film is a hilarious and unique run a risk that borrows from many inspirations to create a perfect comedy only the Coen Brothers could conceive of. And like most of their films, O Brother Where Fine art Thou? is filled with subconscious details.

ten Opening Quote

The film forgoes the typical narration y'all might usually find in a Coen Brothers flick but does start with a quote that reads, "O Muse! Sing in me, and through me tell the story of that human being skilled in the ways of contending, a wanderer, harried for years on end …"

The quote is the opening line from Homer's Odyssey, the story of a warrior's long journey home. The Coen Brothers based this moving-picture show on the storyline of that ballsy tale. Though, in typical Coen Brothers mode, they admitted that neither of them has actually read the epic verse form and just know information technology through pop culture.

9 The Title

While Homer's Odyssey served as the ground for the overall story structure of the movie, the title was taken from another source. The 1941 film Sullivan's Travels follows a director who wants to make a motion picture that explores the suffering of real-life and attempts to alive like the less-fortunate to gain experience. The name of the picture he aspires to brand is called "O Blood brother, Where Fine art Thou?"

The Coen Brothers' pic shares a few similarities with Sullivan'south Travels, including a similar scene in which convicts are brought into a theater to sentinel a film.

8 Concatenation Gang Chant

The moving picture is filled with all kinds of brilliant music from unlike eras of America, which helps bring the movie to life. The first song nosotros hear over the opening credits is a chant from a chain gang equally they work on the roads.

Remarkably, the chant heard is an actual recording of a chain gang singing the song, "Po Lazarus" in 1959. Even more remarkably, the Coen Brothers were able to track down one fellow member of the chain gang and paid him $20,000 for use of the song in the film.

7 Characters From The Odyssey

Though the Coen Brothers might exist having a piffling fun by maxim the film is based on Homer'south Odyssey, they do include a number of references to the original story. Those who know the epic poem well will also probable come across some characters they recognize.

Ulysses Everett McGill obviously stands in for Odysseus, the hero who attempts to return to his wife who is being pursued by a suitor. Other characters include Pappy O'Daniel who fills in for Zeus, the 1-optics Big Dan Teague who represents the cyclops, and the 3 singing girls who lure the heroes, representing the Sirens.

6 Singing Voices

O Brother Where Art Thou? has the rare distinction of having a soundtrack that has actually become more successful than the movie itself. And the nearly famous song from this soundtrack is "Man of Constant Sorrow", which is sung in the film by the three pb characters.

Clooney was given the chance to sing the lead vocals on the song and took lessons to better his singing vocalization. In the end, he admits he was non the man for the chore and was dubbed. However, Tim Blake Nelson does really provide vocals for his song, "In the Jailhouse Now".

five Baby Confront Nelson

1 of the colorful characters that the trio of heroes run into is George Nelson, a deranged bank robber who is depressed at not being taken seriously and having the nickname Infant Face Nelson.

Baby Face Nelson was indeed a bank robber from this era who is responsible for a number of daring crimes. Still, Nelson was killed in 1935, ii years before the events of this motion-picture show. Also, he was killed in a shootout with police rather than executed while in custody, equally is said in the movie.

four Cows

Though a fairly simple story, the film was praised for its utilise of visual effects and CGI. While non overly used in the film, the few cases are incorporated convincingly into the overall scene. In one instance, it might have been too convincing.

The scenes in which a cop automobile hits a cow looked so convincing that the American Humane Association demanded proof that no real animal was harmed. This also led to a new disclaimer being added to the film that read, "Scenes which may appear to place an fauna in jeopardy were faux."

3 Tommy Johnson

Another memorable graphic symbol that the trio of escaped convicts meets up with is Tommy Johnson, played by Chris Thomas King. When the heroes come across Tommy, he is standing at a crossroads where he says he met the devil and traded his soul for the ability to play the guitar.

Plainly, there is some truth to the graphic symbol or at least some real-life inspiration. There was a famed blues musician named Tommy Johnson who sold his soul to the devil to play the blues, according to folk legend.

two Klan Rally

I of the about memorable scenes in the film finds the three heroes sneaking into a Ku Klux Klan rally to salve their new friend Tommy. The sequence is an elaborate one with a behemothic burning cantankerous and hundreds of costumed extras.

The scene also features the Klan members performing an unusual ceremonial march of sorts. Ironically, the march is a military formation and the military troupe hired to dress as Klan members and perform the scene were largely African-American.

ane The Cabin

At the end of the moving picture, the 3 companions finally reach Everett'due south cabin, which is tucked away in the woods. Some horror fans might take recognized the cabin from an iconic picture show of the genre.

The Coens modeled the cabin on the i featured prominently in Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead. This is not just a random inclusion, but rather an in-joke with their friend Raimi since Joel Coen worked on The Evil Dead with him.

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Colin McCormick (2045 Articles Published)

Colin McCormick is a Senior Author with Screen Bluster and has been a proud member of the team since 2019. In addition to his piece of work as Screen Rant, Colin is also a writer of News, Feature and Review pieces at Game Rant. Colin has had a long passion and obsession with movies going back to the first time he saw The Lion King in theaters. Along with movies, Colin stays up-to-date on the latest must-come across TV shows. While he loves to detect interesting projects in whatsoever kind of genre, he has a special motion-picture show of crime stories that are infused with a fiddling night humor much similar the piece of work of his favorite author, Elmore Leonard.

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