O Brother, Where Art Thou? Totally Explained

Everything about O Brother Where Art Thou totally explained

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a comedy film made by the Coen Brothers. Released in 2000, the film is set in Mississippi during the Great Depression (specifically, 1937).
   The film is loosely based on the story of Homer’s Odyssey and the 1989 novella A Dozen Tough Jobs by Howard Waldrop, which sets the labors of Hercules in July 1937 in Mississippi.
   By its very title, the film displays a sly reference to another type of mythmaking: filmmaking, specifically the 1941 satire Sullivan's Travels by Preston Sturges, in which the title character sets out to make a grim, socially conscious film to be called O Brother, Where Art Thou? After the privileged director experiences hardships of his own, he decides that comedic films are of more value than self-important dramas. Similarly, the Coen brothers' movie also has the tone and imagery of Depression-era realism interlarded with the comedic element.
   The film stars George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning. The American roots soundtrack won a Grammy for Album of the Year in 2001.

Plot

O Brother, Where Art Thou? tells the story of a trio of escaped convicts. Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), known as Everett, Pete Hogwallop (John Turturro), and Delmar O’Donnel (Tim Blake Nelson) escape from a chain gang and set out to retrieve the $1.2 million in treasure that Everett claims to have stolen and buried before his incarceration. Early on in their escape they encounter a blind man on a manual railroad car. They hitch a ride and he foretells their futures similar to the oracle of Homer's The Odyssey.
   The group sets out for the treasure, and when they pass a congregation on the banks of a river, Pete and Delmar are enticed by the idea of baptism. As the journey continues, they travel briefly with a young guitarist (real-life blues musician Chris Thomas King). He introduces himself as Tommy Johnson and, when asked, reveals that he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for being able to play guitar. Tommy describes the devil as being 'White, white as you ol boys...with empty eyes and a big hollow voice. He loves to travel around with a mean old hound.', a description which also matches the policeman who is pursuing the trio. This episode has been noted to be similar to real life bluesman Robert Johnson who purportedly sold his soul for his musical ability.
   The four of them record "Man of Constant Sorrow" at a radio broadcast station, calling themselves the Soggy Bottom Boys. While they initially record the song for some easy money, it later becomes famous around the state. The trio parts ways with Tommy after their car is discovered by police, and they continue their adventures on their own. Among the many encounters they have, the most notable are a car trip and bank robbery with one George Nelson (who hates being called Baby Face Nelson), a run-in with three sirens who seduce the group and lull them to sleep (using a similar technique to those in the Odyssey) before turning Pete in for the bounty and a mugging by a cyclopean Bible salesman named Big Dan. After all this, Everett and Delmar arrive in Everett’s home town only to find that his wife, Penny, is engaged to Vernon T. Waldrip, and refuses to take Everett back. When in a cinema, they discover that Pete is still alive, and when they later rescue him he tells them that he gave up the location of the treasure. Everett reveals that there was never any treasure. He only mentioned it to persuade the other men (to whom he was chained) to escape so he could reconcile with his estranged wife. Pete is outraged at this news, not least because he only had 12 days of his sentence left to serve when he escaped. Instead, he's now been given a sentence which will keep him behind bars until 1987. Although he's escaped a second time, he'll be forced to live as a fugitive for the rest of his life - with no treasure to compensate for it. Pete is so angry with Everett that the two men get into a fight.
   During the scuffle they stumble upon a Ku Klux Klan lynch mob that's about to hang Tommy. They disguise themselves and attempt a rescue. Big Dan, a Klansman, reveals their identities and chaos ensues. The 'Grand Wizard' reveals himself as Homer Stokes, a candidate in the upcoming election. The trio flees the scene with Tommy and they cut the supports of a large burning cross, which falls on a group of Klansmen, including Big Dan.
   Everett convinces Pete, Delmar, and Tommy to help him win his wife back. They sneak into a dinner that she's attending, disguised as musicians. Everett tries to convince his wife that he's 'bona fide', but she brushes him off. The group begins a performance of "Man of Constant Sorrow." The crowd recognizes them as the Soggy Bottom Boys and goes wild. Homer Stokes, on the other hand, recognizes them as the group who disgraced his mob. He shouts for the music to stop, angering the crowd. After he reveals his white supremacist views, the crowd runs him out of town on a rail. Pappy O’Daniel, the incumbent candidate, seizes the opportunity and endorses the Soggy Bottom Boys. He then asks the men if it's trouble with the law that inspires their music, and when Everett answers yes, Pappy awards them all full pardons, while the entire event is being recorded and played on the radio. Penny accepts Everett back, but she demands that he find her original ring if they're to be married. This series of events is similar to the return of Odysseus to Ithaca and his task of winning his wife Penelope from her suitors.
   The group sets out to retrieve the ring, which is at a cabin in the valley that Everett originally claimed to have hidden the treasure in. When they arrive the police order their arrest and hanging. Everett protests that they'd been pardoned on the radio, but the leader of the police force tells them that it's of no consequence. He claims that whether or not they've been pardoned, their actions are now above the law, which is a human creation. Suddenly, the valley is flooded and they're saved from hanging. Tommy finds the ring in a desk that's floating on the new lake, and they return to town. However, when Everett presents the ring to his wife she tells him it’s the wrong one, and demands that he get her ring back. The film closes with a shot of the blind prophet the trio met at the beginning of the film, still on the railway handcar.

Cast

George Clooney as Ulysses Everett McGill. A dapper, fast-talking man, Everett was imprisoned for practicing law without a license. He escapes from prison so that he can stop his wife from marrying another man and preventing him from seeing his children. Ulysses is the Latin language form of the name of Odysseus, the hero of Homer's Odyssey.
Tim Blake Nelson as Delmar O'Donnell. Delmar is good-natured but simple-minded. He was imprisoned for robbing a Piggly Wiggly supermarket in Yazoo City; he claims at first that he's innocent, but later admits to the crime. Delmar says that he'll spend his share of Everett's non-existent $1.2 million buying back his family farm, believing that "you ain't no kind of man if you ain't got land."
John Turturro as Pete. A crude, brutish criminal, Pete reveals little about his past. He believes in being true to your "kin", even when his cousin Wash betrays the group. He dreams of moving out west and opening a fine restaurant, where he'll be the maître d'. He agreed to go along with the break out even though it's revealed that he only had 2 weeks left on his sentence.
John Goodman as Daniel 'Big Dan' Teague. Big Dan is one of the main enemies of the trio in the film. Masquerading as a Bible salesman, he cons Everett, then robs him. Later, he reveals the true identity of the trio when they're in disguise at a Ku Klux Klan rally. Big Dan has one eye, just as Polyphemus the Cyclops does in the Odyssey. It has been suggested that the character is based on the itinerant bible salesman who exploits a naive woman in the short story Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor.
Holly Hunter as Penny McGill née Wharvey. A demanding woman, Penny Wharvey is fed up with Everett's previous behavior and divorces him while he's in prison, telling their children that he was hit by a train. She is engaged to Vernon T. Waldrip until Everett wins her back. Her name is believed to be taken from Odyseus's wife, Penelope.
Charles Durning as Governor Menelaus "Pappy" O'Daniel. Pappy O'Daniel is the incumbent Governor of Mississippi. He is frequently seen berating his son and his campaign managers, who are depicted as simpletons. Pappy O'Daniel's first name, Menelaus, is the name of the king of Sparta who fought alongside Odysseus in the Trojan War.
Chris Thomas King as Tommy Johnson. Tommy Johnson is a very skilled blues musician. He is the accompanying guitarist in the band that Everett unwittingly forms, the Soggy Bottom Boys. He claims that he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his skill on guitar. He seems to be based on the actual blues guitarist of the same name.
Daniel von Bargen as Sheriff Cooley. The sheriff pursues the trio for the duration of the film. He eventually captures them after they've been pardoned on the radio; he proposes to hang them regardless of this. He fits Tommy Johnson's description of the devil in that his sunglasses look like "big empty eyes" and he travels with a bloodhound. He further indicates his otherwordliness when, advised that it would be illegal to hang the pardoned fugitives, he sneeringly opines that "the law is a human institution."
Wayne Duvall as Homer Stokes. Homer Stokes is the reform candidate in the upcoming election for the position of Governor of Mississippi. His travels the countryside with a midget mascot, who depicts the "little man," and with a broom, with which he promises to "sweep this state clean." He is secretly a Grand Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan.
Ray McKinnon as Vernon T. Waldrip. Vernon T. Waldrip is Penny Wharvey's 'bona fide' suitor. He is a weaselly campaign manager, working for Homer Stokes in his campaign against Pappy O'Daniel. It has been suggested that the character's name is a subtle nod to novelist Howard Waldrop whose novella A Dozen Tough Jobs is one of the inspirations behind the film. The character's name can also be taken as an allusion to William Faulkner's If I Forget Thee Jerusalem, which includes a character named Vernon Waldrip.
Michael Badalucco as George Nelson. He dislikes being called Baby Face Nelson (a real-life bank robber in the 1930s.) His character is depicted as being manic-depressive.
Stephen Root as Radio Station Man. He is the blind radio station manager that originally records the Soggy Bottom Boys' hit, "Man of Constant Sorrow".
Lee Weaver as the Blind Seer. An important character in the film, the Blind Seer accurately predicts the outcome of the trio's adventure, as well as several other happenings. In the Odyssey, a similar role in the story is played by the shade of Tiresias.

Southern politics

A major theme of the film is the connection between old-time music and political campaigning in the southern U.S. It makes reference to the traditions, institutions and campaign practices of Bossism and political reform that defined Southern politics in the first half of the twentieth century.
The Ku Klux Klan, at the time a political force of white populism, is depicted burning crosses and engaging in ceremonial dance. The character of Menelaus "Pappy" O'Daniel, the Governor of Mississippi and host of the radio show 'The Flour Hour', is similar in name and demeanor to W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel, one-time Governor of Texas and later U.S. Senator from that state. W. Lee O'Daniel was in the flour business, and used a backing band called the Light Crust Doughboys on his radio show. In one campaign, W. Lee O'Daniel carried a broom, an oft used campaign device in the reform era, promising to sweep away patronage and corruption. His theme song had the hook, "Please pass the biscuits, Pappy", emphasizing his connection with flour.
While the film borrows from real-life politics, there are obvious differences between the characters in the film and historical political figures. The O'Daniel of the movie used "You Are My Sunshine" as his theme song (which was originally recorded by real-life Governor of Louisiana, James Houston "Jimmie" Davis) and Homer Stokes, as the challenger to the incumbent O'Daniel, portrays himself as the "reform candidate", using a broom as a prop.

Music

Much of the music used in the film is folk music from the period the film is set in or earlier, including that of Virginia folk/bluegrass singer Ralph Stanley. The music selection is drawn from spiritual music of this region (including that of the Primitive Baptist Church) and other popular religious music. ("Oh Death", "Lonesome Valley", "Angel Band") in contrast to bright or corrective songs ("Keep On the Sunnyside", "You Are My Sunshine") in other parts of the movie.
   The lead guitarist character of the Soggy Bottom Boys is an intended reference to the Delta Blues artist Tommy Johnson, who is known to have claimed that he sold his soul to the devil in return for being able to play the guitar. To many viewers, Robert Johnson would be a more familiar name, and a similar soul-selling story has been attached to him (though not promulgated by himself), but T-Bone Burnett has explained that the character wasn't meant to represent Robert Johnson. but also a humorous name given the two backup singers who were wet from being baptized earlier in the film. The Soggy Bottom Boys’ hit single is Dick Burnett's "Man of Constant Sorrow", a song which had already enjoyed much success in real life.
   After the film's release, the fictional band became so popular that the actual talents behind the music (who were dubbed into the movie) Ralph Stanley, John Hartford, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Dan Tyminski and others, performed music from O Brother, Where Art Thou? in a Down from the Mountain concert tour and film.
   The voices behind the Soggy Bottom Boys are well-known bluegrass musicians: Union Station's Dan Tyminski (lead on "Man of Constant Sorrow"), Nashville songwriter Harley Allen, and the Nashville Bluegrass Band's Pat Enright The three won a CMA Award for Single of the Year and only charted at #35 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts in 2002.
   In 2003, the band Skeewiff remixed "Man of Constant Sorrow." The song was so popular in Australia that it featured at number 96 on the Triple J Hottest 100 in 2003.

Similarities between the film and the Odyssey

The similarities between O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Homer's Odyssey are numerous, ranging from the obvious to the obscure. While the Coens didn't originally intend to base the film on Homer's epic, Joel Coen has been quoted as saying:
While the overall plot is only vaguely similar to that of the Odyssey, there are certain "episodes" which closely mirror the film's classical influence. ==

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