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Home / White Light Song From Oh Brother Where Art Thou

White Light Song From Oh Brother Where Art Thou

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♫ I am a man of constant sorrow,
I've seen trouble all my days...♫

"Y'all seek a great fortune, you iii who are now in bondage. You will detect a fortune, though it volition not exist the ane you seek. But start... outset you must travel a long and difficult route, a road fraught with peril. Mm-hmm. You lot shall see thangs, wonderful to tell..."

—The Blind Railman

O Brother, Where Fine art Thou? is a 2000 comedy movie written and directed by The Coen Brothers, (very) loosely based on Homer'due south The Odyssey.

The story follows 3 escaped prisoners in Depression-era Mississippi — Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), Delmar O'Donnell (Tim Blake Nelson), and Pete Hogwallop (John Turturro). After fleeing the chain gang, they embark on a rollicking adventure in an attempt to reach a huge stash of money that Ulysses buried in his lawn. They take only a brusk time to do this, though, equally the backyard in question is in an surface area slated to be flooded by the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a reservoir.

On their journeying they meet, amidst others, a bullheaded prophet, sirens, a Cyclops, and a gifted black guitarist who "sold his soul to the devil". In their attempts to evade the authorities and attain the money, they wind up recording a hit song, robbing a banking concern with George "Baby Face up" Nelson, encountering the KKK, and inadvertently getting mixed up in the country gubernatorial election. And on height of all that, Ulysses must grapple with the prospect of reuniting with his lover and their children...

Information technology was noted for the tremendous success of its soundtrack, near of which was recorded by Alison Krauss & Matrimony Station and other country-bluegrass acts (Dan Tyminski provided Everett's singing vocalisation).

Bonus points if you recognize the title from Preston Sturges' 1941 picture Sullivan's Travels.

O Brother, Where Fine art M? provides examples of:

  • Added Alliterative Appeal: "Songs of conservancy to salve the soul."
  • Agent Scully: Everett, who despite being pursued by Satan, coming together a prophet, being seduced by sirens, and being apparently saved from execution by divine intervention, nevertheless insists that there is a reasonable explanation for everything. At least it's Lampshaded. And past the end, he doesn't really seem certain of himself any more after seeing the moo-cow on the roof of a shed, which the prophet told them that they would encounter dorsum at the get-go.
  • Cryptic Disorder: George Nelson shows symptoms of bipolar disorder. He's in an extreme manic episode when the protagonists meet him, and lapses into a deep depression after someone calls him "Babyface." And so when he'south captured and facing the electric chair, as Delmar puts it, "Looks like George is back on top!"
  • Anachronism Stew: The Confederate flag did not become associated with the KKK and racists in full general until the civil rights movement in the 1960s. In the 1920s and 30s, they even so used the American flag.
  • And Your Piffling Dog, Too!: George Nelson takes a break from shooting at the cops during his getaway drive to shoot some cows.

    George: Cows. I hate cows more than coppers!

  • Arrow Catch: It looks like Big Dan Teague is going to become skewered by the pole of a falling Amalgamated flag... simply and so he stops the pointy tip inches from his face by catching information technology with both hands. Even so, a flaming cross does him over only later on.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
    • Some of Homer Stokes' accusations about the heroes almost the stop of the movie: "These boys is not white! Hell, they ain't even quondam-timey."
    • Ane of the people attending George Nelson'south march toward the electrical chair is near upset most his having shot a cow with a tommy-gun.
  • At the Crossroads: The three meet Tommy here after he sold his soul to the devil ("I wasn't usin' it for nothin'") to become a famous musician; this is based on the real life Tommy Johnson who was the originator of the story. Yeah, he did information technology before Robert Johnson.
  • Vanquish Them at Their Own Game: Pappy's son offers ane of his brighter options to beat Stokes in that they could get a dwarf even stumpier than his. Pappy angrily shoots it down, pointing out that Follow the Leader at this point would only brand them look like even bigger laughingstocks and pathetically desperate for any points, bold that they could fifty-fifty find a stumpier dwarf.
  • Belief Makes You Stupid: Everett repeatedly chides people for their religious faith. Examples:
    • When Everett witnesses a riverside baptism service, he comments: "Well, I judge hard times flush out the chumps; everybody's lookin' for answers."
    • Later Everett's travel companions get baptized themselves, Everett remarks; "Baptism! You ii are dumber than a handbag of hammers."
    • Toward the stop of the motion-picture show, when facing his ain expiry, Everett falls on his knees and repents of his sins before God. Later he is delivered from expiry (thanks to a sudden and massive alluvion of water), Everett discounts his conversion by noting that "any human being will cast near in a moment of stress." When his companions proclaim that the flood was an act of God, Everett comments, "Again, you lot hayseeds are showin' your want for intellect." (Note: Everett's watery salvation functions every bit a clever twist on Decease by Irony. Deliverance by Irony, perchance? Miraculous Baptism?)
  • Berserk Button:
    • Don't call George Nelson "Babyface" ("He's a alive wire, ain't he?"). Truth in Television with the existent George Nelson.
      • Possibly an inverted trope, every bit he's already an established madman, and calling him "Babyface" actually shatters his ego, lowering his cocky-esteem.
    • Also, Pete doesn't accept kindly to people stealing from his kin.
    • Don't bother offering Everett Fop. He's a Dapper Dan man!
  • Bewitched Amphibians: Delmar is at one betoken convinced that Pete was transformed into a frog.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Homer Stokes seems like a dainty enough guy and possibly a ameliorate governor than Pappy O'Daniel. And and then nosotros run into him leading a Ku Klux Klan rally...
  • Blackness-and-Gray Morality:
    • The protagonists exist on the grayness side. Three escaped convicts and a musician who sold his soul to the Devil ("I wasn't using it"). Everett is a consummate liar who tricked the others into thinking that in that location was treasure so they would help him escape prison house in fourth dimension to cease his wife from remarrying. Pete is loyal to his friends and family, though he is a flake trigger-happy. Delmar and Tommy are genuinely nice fellows, simply Delmar did in fact rob a Piggly Wiggly and lie about information technology, while Tommy ran off on his own when in that location was trouble.
    • Pappy O'Daniel and Penny are slightly farther downwardly, but still gray. Pappy is rude, selfish, and opportunistic. However, according to him, he tried everything he could to help the people that now back up Homer Stokes. He also has no problem with the Soggy Bottom Boys including a black guitarist, even grin when he notes "folks don't seem to heed they's integrated." Penny told her daughters that their father was hit past a train. But, given that Everett is a conman and a convict, she is right that remarrying the wealthy and "bona fide" Waldrip is probably best for her daughters.
    • The antagonists are firmly on the blackness side of things. The Sheriff does a great deal of damage in his pursuit of the protagonists, threatening to hang Pete if he doesn't requite up his friends' destination. He also tries to hang them even after they were pardoned, and includes Tommy in the hanging simply for associating with them. Likewise, he might be Satan. Big Dan Teague is a conman worse than Everett: he assaults Everett and Delmar for their money, and after participates in a lynch mob. Homer Stokes presents himself as the "retainer of the footling homo", but it turns out that he'due south a One thousand Dragon of the KKK, leading the lynch mob to impale Tommy. And, finally, how on earth did Waldrip know that Tommy had sold his soul to the devil?
  • Blatant Lies: "That ain't your daddy. Your daddy was hit by a railroad train."
  • Blind Seer: Lampshaded by Everett, who insists that the man has a Disability Superpower.
  • Bookends: The film opens with a chain gang together working about a railroad runway and singing. Shortly after escaping the chain gang, the protagonists meet the blind prophet on a push-auto. The film closes with Everett and Penny'south daughters tied together by twine walking over a railroad track and singing. And the blind prophet tin be seen passing by on the tracks.
  • Break Away Pop Hit:
    • The soundtrack had its own sequels.
    • In-moving-picture show also, since the Soggy Lesser Boys' singing is so good that it helps resolve the plot.
  • Brick Joke:
    • Later mocking Delmar and Pete for beingness baptized early in the movie, skeptic Everett admits his failings and begs for mercy in a Not-So-Concluding Confession at the gallows. He is and then forcibly immersed by the floodwaters, and everyone is saved. Literally.
    • Early in the flick Everett, Delmar and Pete meet a blind prophet who claims, "You volition see thangs, wonderful to tell. You shall run into a cow on the roof of a cotton house." At the cease of the picture show, they do indeed see a cow on a cotton fiber business firm roof.
  • Censorship by Spelling: Sort of. I character wants to forestall his son from knowing that his mother left the family, so he just says "Mrs. Hogwallop up and R-U-Northward-North-O-F-T." Subverted later on, in that the kid knew exactly what he was talking almost, anyway.
  • Chained Heat: The three convicts are chained together for awhile at the beginning.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Everett'southward pomade, specially its distinctive smell, which lets the Sheriff track them downward.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Delmar "We Idea Yous Was a Toad" O'Donnell.
  • Color Wash: The hue and saturation of the film was messed with until everything was an intensely colorful dark-brown, imitating the await of sepia-toned photos. Without this, the Mississippi (and Southward Carolina, for some scenes) summertime landscape would have been a brilliant dark-green, which the creators said was too bright for the Depression era Dust Basin-blazon feel they were going for.
  • Comically Missing the Bespeak:
    • Subsequently they get escape and don't quite get in onto the railroad train, Everett and Pete both think they should be the one in charge.

    Pete: Well, I think it should be yours truly!
    Everett: Well, I call up information technology should be yours truly, also!
    Beat They turn and wait at Delmar.
    Delmar: Okay, I'm with yous fellers.

    • When Everett admits he made the treasure up to convince his chainmates — i.e., Pete and Delmar — to help him escape, Pete realizes that l years will be added to each of their sentences for fleeing the chain gang, and that he won't get out of prison until he's 84 years quondam. Delmar happily chimes in, "Well, I'll only be 82!"
    • Also, when Pete responds to Delmar'south whispered "We thought yous was a toad" line with a confused Flat "What", Delmar repeats the whisper more slowly and emphatically.
  • Comic Trio: Everett is The Leader, Delmar is The Fool, and Pete is the Only Sane Man (compared to the other two, at least).
  • Community-Threatening Construction: Ulysses Everett McGill needs to recollect a treasure buried in the backyard of his old house. However, the area is scheduled to be flooded by Tennessee Valley Authorisation'due south damming activity. In this case, Ulysses doesn't e'er try to prevent the construction (in fact, he sees information technology equally the Dawn of an Era) — it just serves as an inexorable borderline for Ulysses and his partners to reach the homestead.
  • Contrived Coincidence: Of course the guy the KKK decides to lynch is the one our heroes know and are on friendly terms with. Not as well contrived, though, if you know your history. Existence an unemployed black man was a law-breaking only slightly worse than existence an employed black man in the South.
  • Corrupt Hick: The insanely decadent Large Dan Teague. Who is channeling the cyclops Polyphemus.
  • Crush the Keepsake: Big Dan attacks Ulysses and Delmar to run across what it is they're carrying. When he sees it's just a toad (they idea Pete had been turned into 1), he crushes it in front end of them.
  • Cult Soundtrack: The soundtrack anthology is regarded as ane of the almost of import Land and Bluegrass albums of the decade and sold over vii 1000000 copies. It as well won the Grammy Award for Album of the Yr in 2002, making it i of simply three soundtracks to ever win that laurels.
  • Dawn of an Era: Everett'due south view of the building of a hydroelectric dam, which saves his and his friend's lives:

    Everett: No, the fact is, they're flooding this valley and so they can hydroelectric upward the whole durn land. Yeah, sir, the South is gonna alter. Everything'south gonna be put on electricity and run on a paying basis. Out with the old spiritual mumbo jumbo, the superstitions, and the backward means. We're gonna run into a brave new world where they run everybody a wire and hook us all upwardly to a grid. Yes, sir, a veritable age of reason. Like the one they had in France." *He sees the cow that the blind soothsayer prophesized* "Non a moment likewise shortly..."

  • Bargain with the Devil: Tommy Johnson traded his soul to the devil at the crossroads for his guitar skills.
  • Expiry by Childbirth: Pappy mentions that Junior's mother died giving birth to him.
  • Deep South: Much of the film takes place in Dust Bowl-era Mississippi.
  • Deliberately Monochrome: Of the sepia multifariousness, meet Real Is Brown below.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance: The most notable beingness the scene where Pappy is considering using the Soggy Bottom Boys to aid his campaign and snub Homer Stokes, his son points out that the band'due south integrated and they're a Deep South country. After a moment to watch the cheering crowd, Pappy decides to go ahead with it by noting it seems the public doesn't care virtually the integration.
  • Deus ex Machina: The flooding happens at exactly the right time to salve them all from existence hanged. Perchance a literal case, but it's foreshadowed enough that it doesn't break the plot fifty-fifty if the viewer doesn't interpret it as spiritual.
  • Did Non Dice That Way: He didn't die at all, Everett finds out his wife has told his daughters that he got hitting by a railroad train, rather than tell them he was sent to jail.
  • Disney Decease: Pete was believed to have transformed into a Toad by the launderer sirens, so they take him in a box. The toad was then killed by Big Dan Teague by being crushed, and his friends were physically incapable of stopping his death because they were beaten to bloody pulps. It was later revealed that the toad was actually non Pete, nor was he even transformed into a toad. Turns out those "launderer sirens" actually delivered him to Sheriff Cooley'south men for the advantage, and is at present a prisoner back at the farm.
  • The Ditz: Delmar.
  • Empty Piles of Wearable: This (and a toad) causes Delmar to assume Pete'southward been turned into a toad.
  • Eyepatch of Power: Big Dan Teague.
  • Expy: A number of characters serve as references to characters out of the Odyssey or Greek mythology more generally: Ulysses Everett McGill is of course Odysseus (Ulysses beingness the Roman version of the name Odysseus) who is trying to become dwelling house to his wife Penelope (Penny), Pete and Delmar are the notoriously fractious and uncontrollable crew of Odysseus, the three women bathing and singing in the river are the Sirens, Big Dan Teague is the cyclops Polyphemous, and the bullheaded homo in the beginning is the blind prophet Tiresias. There's even a man named Menelaus! Merely he's non an expy (come across Historical Domain Graphic symbol below).
  • Faux Ring: The Soggy Bottom Boys.
  • Fan Disservice: The Sirens, in add-on to being generally beautiful, all wear moisture dresses then you can see their lingerie. All the same, combined with the creepy vocal they go on singing, and the fact that i of them is forcing a drug down Everett's throat, y'all tin can't help just feel there's something off about the whole thing. That's because they're seducing them to betray them to the Sheriff.
  • Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit: Several. Most notably, Governor Pappy O'Daniel (for the mildly corrupt version) and Large Dan Teague (for the insanely corrupt version).
  • Faux Affably Evil: Big Dan Teague, who engages the boys in friendly chat before beating them up and robbing them. He'south likewise a fellow member of the KKK.
  • Outset Father Wins: Everett's ex-wife has told his daughters he's dead due to his lack of steady employment and criminal behavior, and Everett must find his fashion and win them back before she marries a successful simply stodgy political advisor.
  • Flat "What": A silent i from Pete when Delmar tells him he idea he turned into a toad.
  • Friend to All Living Things: Delmar, or butterflies at the least.
  • Freudian Trio: Everett (Superego, uses logic and reason); Pete (Id, relies mostly on instinct and opposes Everett); Delmar (Ego, acts every bit a peacekeeper between the two).
  • Funny Background Result:
    • Everett, Delmar, and Pete are all chained together, and endeavor to escape by boarding a moving railroad train. In the foreground we see Everett (on the train) introducing himself to some hobos. In the background, Pete trips before he tin climb in...
    • Also, Pete's gloriously goofy dancing during Delmar'south rendition of "In the Jailhouse Now."
    • Groundwork singing — in Human of Constant Sorrow, Everett finishes singing a depressing stanza that ends in the line "perhaps I'll die upon this railroad train..." and Delmar and Pete chime in with a cheery "Maybe he'll die upon this train!"
  • Genre-Busting: It's a musical/comedy/social commentary/retelling of The Odyssey... that's set in The Cracking Depression.
  • Skillful Onetime Fisticuffs: Vernon gives Ulysses a good old-timey ass-whoopin' in the Woolworth's. Vernon patently has some training in the pugilistic arts, whereas Ulysses... non so much.
  • Historical Domain Character: Several appear in the flick, though the details of their lives are skewed for the sake of the story. They include banking concern robber George "Babyface" Nelson, Blues musician Tommy Johnson, and politician West. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel. The latter arguably undergoes the well-nigh changes, having his first name inverse to Menelaus as a nod to The Odyssey and being governor of Mississippi rather than Texas, while the former died three years earlier the picture show's setting and was The Napoleon in existent life ("George Nelson" was likewise an alias, for what it'due south worth).
  • Historical In-Joke: A great deal of the humor in this movie is derived from these.
  • Hobos: "Any of yous fellas smithies? Or, if non smithies per se, were y'all otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you lot into a life of aimless wanderin'?"
  • Hypocritical Humor:
    • Everett, conspicuously touched past his encounter with the blind seer, goes on at length near how the blind are perhaps attuned to the future and hold the souvenir of prophecy, to business relationship for their lack of vision. When Pete points out that the future he foretold was i where they wouldn't get the treasure they sought, Everett shoots back in frustration, "Well, what the hell does he know?! He's an ignorant old man!"
    • Merely as he is about to exist executed, Everett prays to God to allow him see his daughters at least i more fourth dimension. When the dam breaks and saves him, he starts going on about reason. The other two immediately phone call him out on it.
  • Implacable Man: The Sheriff. Cipher will finish him from bringing down the principal trio. Not fifty-fifty a pardon from the governor himself.
  • Inspector Javert: The Sheriff characterizes himself this fashion at the very finish, claiming that the boys have only been pardoned by the law of human.
  • Informed Attribute: This applies to the Governor, while Homer Stokes runs on a reform platform, calling O'Daniel a tool of the interests. The audience, who doesn't see that much of the Governor, never sees him practise much abreast swear at and assault his aides with his hat.
  • Insane Troll Logic: Committed by Everett, chosen out by Pete.

    Pete: Yous stole from my kin!
    Everett: Who was fixin' to betray us.
    Pete: Y'all didn't know that at the fourth dimension!
    Everett: So I borrowed it 'til I did know!
    Pete: That don't make no sense!
    Everett: Pete, it's a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart.

  • Ironic Nursery Tune: The siren-seduction scene, to "Didn't Leave Nobody But The Infant" Also a rare case of erotic horror.
  • Jerkass: Pappy O'Daniel, oh so much. Even though he'south the ane who pardons our master characters, meaning they no longer take to be outlaws, information technology'southward solely for his own reelection campaign.
  • Wiggle with a Heart of Gold: Everett. He's greedy, deceitful, sneaky, and arrogant but truly does care for his friends and loves his daughters dearly. When all hope seems lost and he starts praying; Everett prays for anybody else's safety and happiness, only asking that his own life be spared and then that his daughters can have a male parent to look after them.
  • Kicking the Canis familiaris: Large Dan beats up Everett and Delmar, steals their coin, and crushes their frog whom Delmar thinks is Pete in front of them.
  • Kids Driving Cars: Everett, Pete, and Delmar manage to escape from a burning barn when Boy Hogwallop bursts through the barn door in his dad'southward car and offers them a lift. Since Boy is quite small, he uses a brick to weigh down the accelerator. Later, Everett steals the car, leaving Boy to curse him, Pete and Delmar equally he walks back to his dad's farm.
  • The Klan: Appears as enemies near the end of the movie, as Everett, Pete, and Delmar must rescue their friend Tommy from the Klan.
  • The Lancer: Pete.
  • Large and in Charge: Governor Pappy O'Daniel. "Nosotros're mass communicatin'!"
  • Large Ham:
    • Homer Stokes. It'southward particularly noticeable in the scene where he leads a KKK rally. Of grade, information technology makes sense, given that he's running for governor and a talent for public oratory would help him a lot.
    • George "Babyface" Nelson. "I'One thousand FEELING Ten FEET Tall!"
  • Louis Zip: The Sheriff who is chasing after them is implied, and even theorized to be past the characters, to be this. His Scary Shiny Glasses reverberate fire a lot.
  • Lyrical Noise: The Soggy Bottom Boys' extremely cheerful, upbeat rendition of "Man of Constant Sorrow".
  • Magic Realism: There are more than a few downright mystical occurrences in the film, such equally the prophet, the sirens, the strong implication that the Warden is Satan, and God saving the protagonists at the climax.
  • Meaningful Proper noun: In a story based off The Odyssey, the main grapheme's proper name is Ulysses.
    • Likewise the Governor, whose name is Menalaus, although that's a little more The Iliad.
  • Misspelling Out Loud: "Mrs. Hogwallop upwards and R-U-Due north-Northward-O-F-T."
  • Mistaken for Transformed: Played for Laughs when the escaped convicts wake up after drinking with some strange women by the river, find Pete gone and a toad in his abandoned dress, and bound to the conclusion that he was Baleful Polymorphed. They keep the toad for a while before finding out that the women actually sold Pete to the police.

    Delmar: Them si-reens did this to Pete! They loved him up and turned him into a h-horny toad!

  • Musical World Hypotheses: Diegetic all the way through, making its classification as a musical to begin with dubious to some.
  • Mythical Motifs: While the picture doesn't follow The Odyssey to the letter of the alphabet, it does borrow some notable plot elements from information technology, such as the Cyclops, the sirens, and one of the main characters trying to get home to his wife so she won't marry someone else.
  • Mythology Gag: Big Dan the cyclops looks similar he'due south going to lose his eye to a flung Confederate flag spear, much like Polyphemus, but he manages to grab it betwixt his hands at the last moment. And then the gang cuts down the fiery cantankerous, which falls on top of him, about certainly burning his eye out and preserving a piece of the narrative.
  • Never Trust a Championship: No, the 3 main characters are not brothers, nor are they trying to find their long-lost blood brother. The title is actually a reference to an old moving-picture show.
  • No Animals Were Harmed: The moo-cow that was run over past the cops in pursuit of Baby Face Nelson was CGI, which resulted in the rare addendum to the warning, "No animals were harmed in the making of this film. Any scenes showing animals in jeopardy were simulated."
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: In that location really was a Depression-era Governor named Pappy O'Daniel, but his given proper name was Wilbert Lee O'Daniel; in the pic the governor's real outset name is Menelaus (another Homer reference). Likewise the existent O'Daniel was governor of Texas, non Mississippi.
  • Not His Sled: The expected fate of John Goodman's "cyclops" is deliberately referenced then avoided. Then happens slightly differently anyway.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Teague'south reaction when he realizes that the peppery cantankerous was coming down straight at him.
    • Homer Stokes' reaction when he realizes that the boondocks, after his endeavor at getting the Soggy Bottom Boys arrested failed, is now going to run him out of town on a rail equally revenge for interrupting the performance.
    • Finally, the tiresome, dawning realization in the climax that the Warden fully intends to lynch them on the spot, despite the fact that they were given a pardon, and, likewise, murder Tommy, simply for being in that location.
  • Cardboard Disguise: Toward the end of the flick, the fugitive "Soggy Bottom Boys" perform "In the Jailhouse Now" and "Man of Constant Sorrow" while disguised with faux beards. Lampshaded later, when their performance wins over the crowd and Everett deliberately yanks his beard off for a moment to show Penny who he is.
  • The Pardon: Granted simply ignored.
  • Pedal-to-the-Metal Shot: Parodied. The boy who helps our heroes escape a burning barn in a Ford Model A has fruit crates strapped to his shoes. What'due south more than, the car tin can't become very fast anyway, and and then breaks down presently after their escape.
  • Politically Right History: Zig-zagged. The white heroes refer to Tommy as a "boy," only otherwise treat him as an equal. The radio station director insists that he won't play "colored songs," but once the "Soggy Lesser Boys" become popular he'southward ecstatic almost them and signs them. Pappy O'Daniel doesn't seem to care that "they's integrated" after seeing how a oversupply adores them and boots out his gubernatorial opponent for interrupting them. The KKK is shown in all its theatrically racist glory, but is also portrayed as a fringe system that is not looked upon favorably by the common townsfolk. This portrayal has some basis in reality, as by the 1930s the 2d Klan's membership had dwindled compared to its heyday in the mid-1920s note Specifically, the murder of Madge Oberholtzer in 1925 caused members to leave in droves; membership continued to turn down until the Ceremonious Rights Movement started gaining momentum in the 1950s, simply they have never come close to the level seen in the twenties. Information technology should be noted, still, that Homer Stokes feels perfectly comfortable announcing to a roomful of people that he belongs to an organisation, flash-wink-nudge-nudge, that engages in cross-called-for and lynching, and expects the audition to sympathize with him when he attacks people for stopping a lynching. Information technology's not hard to guess that the only reason he's booed is because the people he's accusing happen to be a very pop music ring, not because of full general principle.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: Homer Stokes, candidate for governor past day, Klansman past night.
  • Popculture Osmosis: The Coens have claimed that they've never actually read The Odyssey, but know the story through its various adaptations.
  • Produce Pelting: What the audience does when Homer Stokes ends upwardly interrupting the Soggy Bottom Boys performance to go them arrested, that too as ride him out of town on a rail.
  • Real Is Brown: Pursued with a vengeance, given that a substantial portion of the film'southward postal service-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 yellowish.
  • Reduced to Ratburgers: Pete and Delmar cook a gopher and offer it to Everett. He doesn't seem very enticed by the notion — not because of their choice of food, just considering splitting such a small-scale animal 3 ways wouldn't be much of a meal. Delmar heads him off with news that they actually defenseless and cooked quite a few gophers, so Everett can have the whole affair.
  • Retirony: Of a sort. Pete was two weeks from being released from prison anyway. Now that he'south escaped, he'll have to serve some other 50 years and won't go out until 1987.
  • Road Trip Plot: The convicts are trying to get from their escape from the concatenation gang to Everett's clandestine stash, encountering many obstacles and interesting characters along the way.
  • Stone Me, Asmodeus!: "And I have it from the highest 'thority, that that negra... sold his soul to the Devil!!!" note The townsfolk don't buy into it, though.
  • Running Gag:

    "Damn, nosotros're in a tight spot!"

    • Everett's obsession with his Dapper Dan pomade as well counts, as well as his reflexive worrying about his hair whenever something wakes him in the centre of his sleep.
    • The abiding reference to Everett supposedly being hit by a railroad train one time he reunited with some of his daughters.
  • Satanic Archetype: Sheriff Cooley fits Tommy Johnson's description of the Devil exactly: "He'due south white, as white every bit you folks, with empty eyes and a big hollow voice. He likes to travel around with a mean old hound." Still, upon seeing him at the finish of the motion picture, Tommy doesn't seem to notice.
  • Saved past the Coffin: Later the valley floods, the protagonists cling to one of the coffins the sheriff was planning to bury them in.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: The Sheriff/Warden/Devil wears these.
  • Seinfeldian Chat:
    • This charming instance:

      "He's gonna paddle our petty behind."
      "Ain't gonna paddle it — gonna boot it. Existent difficult."
      "No, I believe he's gonna paddle information technology."
      "I don't believe that's a proper description."
      "Well, that'due south how I'd characterize information technology."
      "I believe it's more than of a kickin' sitchiation."

    • The discussion of a "grease spot on the L&N" and a "bona-fide" suitor ranks right up there too.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness:
    • Everett. For example, from the Funny Background Event described above:

      Everett: Say, any of you lot fellas happen to exist smithies? If not smithies per se, perhaps you trained in the metallurgical arts before straitened circumstances led you to a life of bumming wandering?

    • Also Big Dan Teague:

      Large Dan Teague: And thank you for that conversational hiatus. I generally refrain from speech while engaged in gustation. There are those who attempt both at the same time; I find it fibroid and vulgar.

  • Shout-Out:
    • The moving-picture show'southward title is itself a Shout-Out to Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels.
    • The entire plot contains various shout outs to the Greek epic verse form The Odyssey past Homer. The main protagonist is named Ulysses in both stories, has to become dwelling house to prevent his wife from marrying someone else, and they meet singing women who seduce them (the Sirens) and a one-eyed behemothic man (the cyclops). The reform candidate is named Homer Stokes, referencing the writer Homer. The blind railroad homo predicting events references Tiresias, while the blind radio station manager references Homer again, who was likewise said to exist blind.
    • Tommy's Deal with the Devil is a reference to a like deal supposedly fabricated by real-life bluesman Robert Johnson. (Or possibly Tommy Johnson, depending on whom you ask.) And the song that Chris Thomas King performs during the campfire scene is "Hard Fourth dimension Killing Flooring Blues," originally by Johnson'due south contemporary Skip James.
    • Non to mention that a homo named Ulysses meets a guitarist at a Crossroads.
    • The KKK scene is based off of the scene in The Wizard of Oz where the Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Man try to sneak into the witch's castle. The guards are chanting the fashion the KKK does and even doing a similar dance, and the three heroes steal disguises from the guards/KKK.
    • The Soggy Lesser Boys are a reference to the Light Crust Doughboys, who were featured on the existent-life Pappy O'Daniel's radio show, and/or the Foggy Mountain Boys (founded by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs).
    • In that location's a coffin floating on a flooded river at the end, which is virtually certainly a Shout-Out to William Faulkner'southward As I Lay Dying. And they use it as a raft.
    • Sheriff Cooley looks and dresses very similarly to Boss Godfrey in Cool Hand Luke, right downward to his Scary Shiny Glasses.
    • George Clooney's operation as Everett owes more than a piffling to Clark Gable.
    • A throwaway gag may be a shout-out to Porky Pig:

      Everett: Well, we are negroes, sir. All except for our ac-c-c-c... our ac-c-c-c... uh, the human who plays the guitar.

    • "Is you lot is, or is y'all ain't, my constituency?" annotation ...my baby
  • Sold His Soul for a Donut: The main characters encounter a young musician who claims to have sold his soul to exist able to play the guitar really well. Delmar, who recently had a religious experience, is disappointed by the idea of selling a soul for so little.
  • Something We Forgot: The trio arrive at the cabin in the valley to retrieve Penny'south ring, forgetting that Sheriff Cooley had earlier learned of the location by torturing Pete and is now lying in wait for them.
  • Sophisticated every bit Hell: Many of the characters in a patchily educated way, just mostly Everett. "I'g the goddamn paterfamilias!"
  • Source Music: All the music in the motion picture is diegetic.
  • Stout Strength: Big Dan Teague.
  • Stern Hunt: The Warden'southward search for the three convicts.
  • The Stool Dove: Pete ends upwards becoming a Lacerated Larry after the "Sireens" basically turned him over to the sheriff'southward men for a bounty (which initially led them to believe that Pete was really turned into a frog due to it being in his clothes).
  • Surrounded by Idiots: Pappy O'Daniel'south cronies and son are sycophantic yes-men who are a bit dull on the uptake, and Pappy is painfully aware of this. This is most probable the reason he tries to convince Vernon T. Waldrip to get out Stokes' campaign and join his.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: "Who is that homo?" "Not my husband." Likewise doubles as a Shout-Out to the source material.
  • Symbolic Baptism: Played for Laughs when the escaped convicts Pete and Delmar stumble onto a group baptism in a river and jump at the chance to start over with a clean slate... which mostly means doing exactly what they were before. They're as well a fleck confused to hear that it doesn't actually do anything for their criminal records.

    Delmar: Simply they was witnesses that seen united states of america redeemed.
    Everett: Even if it did put y'all foursquare with the Lord, the state of Mississippi'due south a niggling more than hard-nosed.

    • Everett is then even more symbolically baptized when he gives his Non-And so-Concluding Confession, on his knees praying for salvation... when the damming of the river floods the valley and sweeps abroad not but sins, simply sinners, and houses.
  • Those Two Guys: Pappy's two advisors, see the Seinfeldian Chat higher up.
  • Trail of Bread Crumbs: How the sheriff keeps finding Everett. Everett'south a Dapper Dan human being, going through obscene amounts of the stuff whenever he tin can become a agree of it. The sheriff's bloodhound can track him easily.
  • Travel Montage: Nosotros get a serial of scenes showing the trio making their way across Mississippi, stealing a car, stealing a pie (Delmar pays for it), telling scary stories around the campfire (hook-handed man)...
  • True Companions: Everett, Pete, Delmar, and Tommy.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
    • The depository financial institution customers at the robbery seem to exist rather non-plussed by all the shooting.
    • Everett himself is rather non-plussed by Big Dan beating the hell out of Delmar with a tree branch until Big Dan starts attacking him.
  • Upper-Course Twit: Pappy O'Daniel'due south son.
  • The Vamp: The three sirens.
  • Villainous Glutton: Big Dan Teague, equally befits his correspondence with the cyclops Polyphemus.
  • Villainous Breakup: "Babyface" Nelson and Homer Stokes.
    • Nelson gets better...sort of.
    • "MY Proper name IS GEORGE NELSON, AND I'M FEELIN' TEN FEET TALL!"
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Homer Stokes, oh so much.
  • Wardens Are Evil: The Sheriff. While at the beginning he is in the right to chase downwards Everett, Pete, and Delmar (because of them being fugitives), he goes for overkill tactics like burning down a barn with them within. He insists that he answers to a college constabulary than man's (then he volition only keep coming no matter what), and the moment he makes it clear that he will see them all hang even if they are now pardoned (and he will kill Tommy for no reason other than him being at that place with the fugitives), he crosses the Moral Effect Horizon hard. That he is a Satanic Archetype doesn't assist whatever.
  • Warm Place, Warm Lighting: The film uses an extreme yellow filter throughout that makes what were green fields await yellow. While it gives the movie a nostalgic sepia feel, it as well accentuates the fact that the story takes place in sweltering rural Mississippi in the center of summer.
  • Wedding Band Removal: As the guys see the singing sirens, Everett, in the background, pulls his wedding ring off right before the girls come over and offset getting cozy with them.
  • Whole Plot Reference: Loosely, to The Odyssey.
  • Working on the Concatenation Gang: The story begins with Everett, Pete, and Delmar escaping from this while chained to each other. Pete, at one point, is recaptured and put back to piece of work on the concatenation gang and has to be broken out of prison over again.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou