The Coen Brothers have one of the well-nigh diverse filmographies of any filmmakers and O Brother, Where Art Chiliad? is another crowning gem in their brilliant torso of work. The film stars George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson equally 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 like well-nigh of their films, O Brother Where Art Thou? is filled with subconscious details.

10 Opening Quote

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

The quote is the opening line from Homer's Odyssey, the story of a warrior's long journey home. The Coen Brothers based this movie on the storyline of that ballsy tale. Though, in typical Coen Brothers style, they admitted that neither of them has actually read the ballsy verse form and only know it through pop culture.

ix The Title

While Homer's Odyssey served every bit the basis for the overall story structure of the film, the title was taken from another source. The 1941 flick Sullivan'south Travels follows a manager who wants to brand a movie that explores the suffering of real-life and attempts to live like the less-fortunate to gain experience. The proper name of the pic he aspires to make is called "O Brother, Where 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 spotter a motion picture.

8 Chain Gang Dirge

The film is filled with all kinds of vivid music from dissimilar eras of America, which helps bring the motion-picture show to life. The first vocal we hear over the opening credits is a chant 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 down 1 member of the chain gang and paid him $20,000 for use of the song in the moving-picture show.

7 Characters From The Odyssey

Though the Coen Brothers might exist having a little fun by saying the motion picture is based on Homer's Odyssey, they exercise include a number of references to the original story. Those who know the epic verse form well will also probable see some characters they recognize.

Ulysses Everett McGill plainly 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 3 singing girls who lure the heroes, representing the Sirens.

6 Singing Voices

O Brother Where Fine art Thou? has the rare stardom of having a soundtrack that has actually become more successful than the movie itself. And the almost famous vocal 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 lead vocals on the song and took lessons to improve his singing voice. In the end, he admits he was not the man for the task and was dubbed. Nonetheless, Tim Blake Nelson does actually provide vocals for his song, "In the Jailhouse At present".

5 Baby Face Nelson

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

Infant Face Nelson was indeed a bank robber from this era who is responsible for a number of daring crimes. However, Nelson was killed in 1935, two years before the events of this film. As well, he was killed in a shootout with law rather than executed while in custody, every bit is said in the film.

4 Cows

Though a fairly elementary story, the film was praised for its use of visual effects and CGI. While not overly used in the moving picture, the few cases are incorporated assuredly into the overall scene. In one instance, it might take been besides convincing.

The scenes in which a cop auto hits a cow looked and then convincing that the American Humane Association demanded proof that no real brute was harmed. This also led to a new disclaimer existence added to the pic that read, "Scenes which may appear to place an animal in jeopardy were simulated."

3 Tommy Johnson

Some other memorable character that the trio of escaped convicts meets up with is Tommy Johnson, played past Chris Thomas Male monarch. When the heroes meet 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, at that place is some truth to the character 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 blues, co-ordinate to folk legend.

2 Klan Rally

I of the about memorable scenes in the movie 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 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 formation and the armed forces troupe hired to wearing apparel every bit Klan members and perform the scene were largely African-American.

1 The Motel

At the end of the motion picture, the 3 companions finally achieve Everett'due south motel, which is tucked abroad in the woods. Some horror fans might have recognized the cabin from an iconic film of the genre.

The Coens modeled the cabin on the i featured prominently in Sam Raimi's The Evil Expressionless. This is not just 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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Nearly The Author

Colin McCormick (2045 Articles Published)

Colin McCormick is a Senior Writer with Screen Rant and has been a proud fellow member of the team since 2019. In add-on to his work as Screen Bluster, Colin is as well 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 starting time time he saw The Lion Rex in theaters. Forth with movies, Colin stays up-to-date on the latest must-see Tv shows. While he loves to find interesting projects in whatsoever kind of genre, he has a special movie of crime stories that are infused with a lilliputian dark humor much like the work of his favorite author, Elmore Leonard.

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