The Coen Brothers have one of the about diverse filmographies of whatsoever filmmakers and O Blood brother, Where Art Thou? is another crowning gem in their brilliant body of piece of work. The film stars George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson as a trio of escaped convicts searching for a hidden treasure across Depression Era Mississippi.

The moving picture is a hilarious and unique risk that borrows from many inspirations to create a perfect comedy only the Coen Brothers could conceive of. And like most of their films, O Blood brother Where Art Thou? is filled with subconscious details.

10 Opening Quote

The motion-picture show forgoes the typical narration you might usually find in a Coen Brothers movie 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 terminate …"

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

9 The Title

While Homer's Odyssey served as the basis for the overall story construction of the film, the title was taken from another source. The 1941 flick Sullivan'due south Travels follows a manager who wants to make a movie that explores the suffering of real-life and attempts to live like the less-fortunate to proceeds feel. The proper noun of the motion-picture show he aspires to make is called "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

The Coen Brothers' film shares a few similarities with Sullivan'due south Travels, including a similar scene in which convicts are brought into a theater to watch a film.

viii Concatenation Gang Dirge

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

seven Characters From The Odyssey

Though the Coen Brothers might exist having a lilliputian fun by proverb the flick is based on Homer's Odyssey, they do include a number of references to the original story. Those who know the ballsy verse form well volition also likely see some characters they recognize.

Ulysses Everett McGill plain stands in for Odysseus, the hero who attempts to return to his wife who is being pursued past 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.

half dozen Singing Voices

O Blood brother Where Fine art M? has the rare distinction of having a soundtrack that has actually become more successful than the moving-picture show itself. And the about 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 pb 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. However, Tim Blake Nelson does actually provide vocals for his song, "In the Jailhouse At present".

5 Babe Confront Nelson

I of the colorful characters that the trio of heroes run into is George Nelson, a deranged bank robber who is depressed at not existence taken seriously and having the nickname Baby Confront Nelson.

Infant Confront Nelson was indeed a bank robber from this era who is responsible for a number of daring crimes. However, Nelson was killed in 1935, ii years before the events of this film. Also, he was killed in a shootout with police rather than executed while in custody, as is said in the pic.

4 Cows

Though a fairly unproblematic story, the film was praised for its utilise of visual furnishings and CGI. While not overly used in the film, the few cases are incorporated convincingly into the overall scene. In one example, it might take been too disarming.

The scenes in which a cop car hits a cow looked and then convincing that the American Humane Clan demanded proof that no existent animal was harmed. This as well led to a new disclaimer beingness added to the film that read, "Scenes which may appear to place an animal 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 grapheme 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, according to folk legend.

2 Klan Rally

One of the nearly memorable scenes in the pic 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 giant burning cross and hundreds of costumed extras.

The scene also features the Klan members performing an unusual ceremonial march of sorts. Ironically, the march is a military formation and the military troupe hired to wearing apparel as Klan members and perform the scene were largely African-American.

ane The Cabin

At the finish of the film, the 3 companions finally reach Everett's cabin, which is tucked away in the wood. Some horror fans might have recognized the motel from an iconic flick of the genre.

The Coens modeled the motel on the one featured prominently in Sam Raimi's The Evil Expressionless. This is not but 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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Near The Writer

Colin McCormick (2045 Articles Published)

Colin McCormick is a Senior Writer with Screen Bluster and has been a proud member of the squad since 2019. In addition to his work as Screen Rant, Colin is besides 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 first time he saw The Lion King in theaters. Along with movies, Colin stays up-to-date on the latest must-meet Boob tube shows. While he loves to discover interesting projects in whatsoever kind of genre, he has a special motion-picture show of criminal offense stories that are infused with a little dark humor much like the work of his favorite author, Elmore Leonard.

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