The Coen Brothers have ane of the most diverse filmographies of whatsoever filmmakers and O Brother, Where Art Thou? is another crowning precious stone in their vivid body of piece of work. The picture stars George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson as a trio of escaped convicts searching for a hidden treasure beyond Depression Era Mississippi.

The motion-picture show is a hilarious and unique run a risk that borrows from many inspirations to create a perfect one-act only the Coen Brothers could conceive of. And like about of their films, O Brother Where Art G? is filled with hidden details.

10 Opening Quote

The picture forgoes the typical narration yous might usually find in a Coen Brothers moving picture but does offset with a quote that reads, "O Muse! Sing in me, and through me tell the story of that homo 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 dwelling house. The Coen Brothers based this moving-picture show on the storyline of that epic tale. Though, in typical Coen Brothers way, they admitted that neither of them has actually read the epic poem and just know information technology through pop culture.

9 The Championship

While Homer'south Odyssey served as the basis for the overall story structure of the film, the title was taken from another source. The 1941 film Sullivan's Travels follows a director who wants to make a moving-picture show that explores the suffering of existent-life and attempts to live like the less-fortunate to gain feel. The proper name of the picture show he aspires to make is called "O Brother, Where Art K?"

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

8 Chain Gang Chant

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

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

seven Characters From The Odyssey

Though the Coen Brothers might exist having a little fun past saying the film is based on Homer's Odyssey, they do include a number of references to the original story. Those who know the ballsy poem well will besides likely meet 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 one-eyes Big Dan Teague who represents the cyclops, and the three 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 nigh famous song from this soundtrack is "Man of Abiding Sorrow", which is sung in the film by the 3 lead characters.

Clooney was given the gamble to sing the pb vocals on the vocal and took lessons to improve his singing vocalization. In the end, he admits he was not the human for the job and was dubbed. However, Tim Blake Nelson does really provide vocals for his vocal, "In the Jailhouse Now".

5 Babe Face Nelson

One of the colorful characters that the trio of heroes encounter is George Nelson, a deranged depository financial institution robber who is depressed at not beingness taken seriously and having the nickname Babe Face Nelson.

Baby Face Nelson was indeed a bank robber from this era who is responsible for a number of daring crimes. Even so, Nelson was killed in 1935, two years earlier the events of this motion-picture show. Also, he was killed in a shootout with constabulary rather than executed while in custody, every bit is said in the film.

iv Cows

Though a adequately simple story, the moving-picture show was praised for its use of visual effects and CGI. While not overly used in the film, the few cases are incorporated convincingly into the overall scene. In one instance, information technology might accept 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 animate being was harmed. This likewise led to a new disclaimer being added to the picture that read, "Scenes which may announced to place an animal in jeopardy were imitation."

3 Tommy Johnson

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

Apparently, in that location is some truth to the grapheme or at least some real-life inspiration. There was a famed dejection musician named Tommy Johnson who sold his soul to the devil to play the dejection, according to folk legend.

two Klan Rally

One of the virtually memorable scenes in the film finds the three heroes sneaking into a Ku Klux Klan rally to save their new friend Tommy. The sequence is an elaborate one with a behemothic called-for cross and hundreds of costumed extras.

The scene too features the Klan members performing an unusual formalism march of sorts. Ironically, the march is a military germination and the military troupe hired to dress every bit Klan members and perform the scene were largely African-American.

1 The Motel

At the end of the picture show, the three companions finally achieve Everett'south cabin, which is tucked away in the woods. Some horror fans might have recognized the motel from an iconic picture of the genre.

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

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Well-nigh The Writer

Colin McCormick (2052 Articles Published)

Colin McCormick is a Senior Author with Screen Rant and has been a proud member of the team since 2019. In addition to his work as Screen Rant, Colin is also a writer of News, Feature and Review pieces at Game Bluster. Colin has had a long passion and obsession with movies going back to the first fourth dimension he saw The Lion Male monarch in theaters. Along with movies, Colin stays up-to-date on the latest must-encounter TV shows. While he loves to find interesting projects in whatever kind of genre, he has a special flick of crime stories that are infused with a niggling dark humour much like the work of his favorite author, Elmore Leonard.

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