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O Brother, Where Art Thou?: Difference between revisions
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Written and directed by [[The Coen Brothers]], three [[The Great Depression|Depression-era]] [[Deep South|Mississippi]] prison fugitives go on a rollicking adventure in an attempt to reach the money buried by one of them in his back yard. They have only a short time to do this, though, as the backyard in question is in an area slated to be flooded by the damming activities of the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The story is (very) loosely [[Twice-Told Tale|based]] on Homer's ''[[
Bonus points if you recognize the title from the 1941 [[Preston Sturges]]' film ''[[
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** And by the end, he doesn't really seem sure of himself any more.
* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: "These boys is ''not'' white! Hell, they ain't even old-timey."
* [[At the Crossroads]]: The three meet Tommy here after he [[Deal
** It's actually based on Tommy Johnson, who originated the story. Robert Johnson stole this story (and is more famous), but thats not a bad thing to say about bluesmen at all.
* [[Baleful Polymorph]]: Not really, but it's what Delmar believes the sirens do to Pete.
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* [[Burn, Baby, Burn]]
* [[The Cast Showoff]]: Real-life blues singer Chris Thomas King plays Tommy, and at one point gets to sing (in his own voice) a rendition of Skip James' "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues."
* [[Censorship
* [[Chained Heat]]
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Everett's pomade, particularly its distinctive smell, which lets the Sheriff track them down.
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* [[Corrupt Hick]]: The insanely corrupt Big Dan Teague. Who is channeling the cyclops Polyphemus.
* [[Cult Soundtrack]]: The soundtrack album is [http://blog.rhapsody.com/2009/11/countdec.html regarded] as one of the most important Country and Bluegrass albums of the decade and sold over 7 million copies. It also won the [[Grammy Award]] for Album of the Year in 2002, making it one of only three soundtracks to ever win that award.
* [[Deal
* [[Deep South]]
* [[Defictionalization]]: The Soggy Bottom Boys.
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* [[Empty Piles of Clothing]]: This (and a toad) cause the other two to assume Pete's been turned into a toad.
* [[Enthralling Siren]]: The three washerwomen are the siren stand-ins.
* [[Everything's Better
* [[Eyepatch of Power]]: Big Dan Teague.
* [[Fairy Tale Motifs]]: Well, more like Mythology Motifs, but whatever.
* [[Fake Band]]: The Soggy Bottom Boys.
* [[Fat Sweaty Southerner in
* [[First Father Wins]]
* [[Friend to All Living Things]]: Delmar, or butterflies at the least.
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** Also, Pete's gloriously goofy dancing during Delmar's rendition of "In the Jailhouse Now."
** Background singing - in ''Man of Constant Sorrow'', Everett finishes singing a depressing stanza that ends in the line "perhaps I'll die upon this train..." and Delmar and Pete chime in with a cheery "Perhaps he'll die upon this train!"
* [[Genre Busting]]: It's a musical/comedy/social commentary/retelling of ''[[
* [[Go Out with a Smile]]: George Nelson. We don't see him killed but his last scene is him having been caught by a mob and being lead to his execution. He's more then happy with it however, the mob was even nice enough to give him some violinists as a funeral march.
* [[Historical In-Joke]]
* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]: [[Office Space|Stephen]] [[King of the Hill|Root]] as Mr. Lund, the blind radio <s> DJ</s> RJ(?). This is probably an [[Actor Allusion]], [[News Radio|as well]].
** [[Malcolm in
* [[Hobos]]
* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: {{spoiler|Just before he's executed, Everett prays to God to let him see his daughters at least one more time. When the dam breaks and saves him, he starts going on about reason. The other two immediately call him out on it.}}
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* [[Magic Realism]]: There are more than a few downright mystical occurrences in the film, such as the prophet, the sirens, and the strong implication that the Warden is Satan.
** The way the movie is framed - it starts with a scene of a generic chain gang with no main characters in it, singing as they break rocks, then cuts to black before the actual movie begins - gives rise to [[Wild Mass Guessing|the theory]] that the entire story is being presented as a myth, a subject of chain gang songs, as opposed to "real" events. The pointedly non-realistic bent of many of the movie's events (the KKK marching in a chorus line?) would seem to indicate this.
* [[Meaningful Name]]: In a story based off ''[[
* [[Musical World Hypotheses]]: Diegetic all the way through, making its classification as a musical to begin with dubious to some.
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: There really was a Depression-era Governor named Pappy O'Daniel, but his given name was Wilbert Lee O'Daniel; in the film the governor's real first name is Menelaus (another Homer reference). Also the real O'Daniel was governor of Texas, not Mississippi.
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* [[Politically-Incorrect Villain]] {{spoiler|Homer Stokes, candidate for governor by day, Klansman by night.}}
** Note that in 1932 Mississippi, {{spoiler|being a Klansman}} would have been politically ''correct''. It would have been almost impossible for {{spoiler|Stokes}} to {{spoiler|be a serious candidate for governor}} ''without'' being one.
* [[Pop Culture Osmosis]]: The Coens have claimed that they've never actually read ''[[
* [[Produce Pelting]]: What the audience does when Homer Stokes ends up interrupting the Soggy Bottom Boys performance to get them arrested, that as well as ride him out of town on a rail.
* [[Real Is Brown]]: Pursued with a vengeance, given that a substantial portion of the film's post-production budget went into extensive color-correction. The Coens wanted every frame of the film to reflect the dingy, withered dustbowl look, and in some cases took entire fields of green flora and turned them yellow.
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* [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]]: Everett. Also Big Dan Teague. For example, from the [[Funny Background Event]] described above:
{{quote| "Say, any of you fellas happen to be smithies? If not smithies ''per se'', perhaps you trained in the [[The Blacksmith|metallurgical arts]] before straitened circumstances led you to a life of [[Hobos|aimless wandering]]?"}}
* [[Shout-Out]]: Tommy's [[Deal
** And [[wikipedia:Tommy Johnson (blues musician)|Tommy Johnson]], also a real blues musician, who spread the same rumor about himself, to enhance his fame.
** The title of the movie is itself a [[Shout-Out]], to [[Preston Sturges]]' ''Sullivan's Travels''.
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* [[Stout Strength]]: Big Dan Teague.
* [[Stern Chase]]: The Warden's search for the three convicts.
* [[Surrounded
* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]: "Who is that man?" "Not my husband." Also doubles as a [[Shout-Out]] to the source material.
* [[The Vamp]]: The three sirens
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** {{spoiler|Nelson gets better}}...sort of.
** "MY NAME IS GEORGE NELSON, AND I'M FEELIN' TEN FEET TALL!"
* [[Villain
* [[Working
* [[X Meets Y]]: [[The Three Stooges]] meets ''[[
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