The Coen Brothers have one of the most diverse filmographies of whatsoever filmmakers and O Blood brother, Where Art Thou? is another crowning jewel in their bright 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 beyond Depression Era Mississippi.

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

x Opening Quote

The film forgoes the typical narration yous might usually observe in a Coen Brothers picture but does outset 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'due south Odyssey, the story of a warrior'due south long journey home. The Coen Brothers based this motion picture on the storyline of that epic tale. Though, in typical Coen Brothers mode, they admitted that neither of them has really read the epic poem and just know it through pop culture.

9 The Championship

While Homer's Odyssey served as the ground for the overall story structure of the motion-picture show, the title was taken from some other source. The 1941 motion picture Sullivan's Travels follows a director who wants to brand a picture that explores the suffering of real-life and attempts to live like the less-fortunate to gain experience. The proper noun of the film he aspires to make is called "O Brother, Where Fine art 1000?"

The Coen Brothers' film shares a few similarities with Sullivan's Travels, including a like scene in which convicts are brought into a theater to lookout man a film.

8 Chain Gang Chant

The flick is filled with all kinds of brilliant music from different eras of America, which helps bring the picture show to life. The starting time song we hear over the opening credits is a chant from a concatenation gang as they piece of 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 rails down one member of the chain gang and paid him $20,000 for use of the song in the motion picture.

vii Characters From The Odyssey

Though the Coen Brothers might be having a lilliputian fun past saying the picture show is based on Homer'due south Odyssey, they do include a number of references to the original story. Those who know the ballsy verse form well will likewise likely see some characters they recognize.

Ulysses Everett McGill evidently stands in for Odysseus, the hero who attempts to render 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.

vi Singing Voices

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

Clooney was given the chance to sing the atomic number 82 vocals on the song and took lessons to improve his singing voice. In the finish, he admits he was non the man for the job and was dubbed. Notwithstanding, Tim Blake Nelson does actually provide vocals for his song, "In the Jailhouse Now".

5 Babe Face Nelson

One of the colorful characters that the trio of heroes run across is George Nelson, a deranged banking company robber who is depressed at non being taken seriously and having the nickname Babe Face Nelson.

Baby Face Nelson was indeed a banking company robber from this era who is responsible for a number of daring crimes. Notwithstanding, Nelson was killed in 1935, 2 years before the events of this pic. Also, he was killed in a shootout with police force rather than executed while in custody, as is said in the moving-picture show.

4 Cows

Though a fairly simple story, the moving-picture show 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 take been too convincing.

The scenes in which a cop automobile hits a cow looked then 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 announced to place an animate being in jeopardy were simulated."

3 Tommy Johnson

Another memorable grapheme that the trio of escaped convicts meets up with is Tommy Johnson, played by Chris Thomas Rex. When the heroes meet Tommy, he is continuing at a crossroads where he says he met the devil and traded his soul for the ability to play the guitar.

Apparently, there is some truth to the character 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, co-ordinate to folk legend.

2 Klan Rally

One of the most memorable scenes in the movie finds the 3 heroes sneaking into a Ku Klux Klan rally to save their new friend Tommy. The sequence is an elaborate one with a behemothic burning cross and hundreds of costumed extras.

The scene also features the Klan members performing an unusual formalism march of sorts. Ironically, the march is a military machine germination 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 motion-picture show, the three companions finally reach Everett's cabin, which is tucked away in the woods. Some horror fans might accept recognized the cabin from an iconic picture show of the genre.

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

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About The Author

Colin McCormick (2050 Articles Published)

Colin McCormick is a Senior Writer with Screen Rant and has been a proud member of the team since 2019. In improver to his work as Screen Rant, Colin is besides a writer of News, Characteristic 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 Rex in theaters. Along with movies, Colin stays upwards-to-date on the latest must-see TV shows. While he loves to notice interesting projects in whatever kind of genre, he has a special movie of crime stories that are infused with a little dark humour much like the piece of work of his favorite author, Elmore Leonard.

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