O Brother Where Art Thou Songs of Salvation to Soothe the Soul

♫ I am a man of abiding sorrow,
I've seen problem all my days...♫

"You seek a great fortune, you three who are now in chains. Y'all will notice a fortune, though information technology will not be the one y'all seek. But first... start y'all must travel a long and hard road, a road fraught with peril. Mm-hmm. You shall see thangs, wonderful to tell..."

—The Blind Railman

O Blood brother, Where Art Thou? is a 2000 comedy film written and directed by The Coen Brothers, (very) loosely based on Homer's The Odyssey.

The story follows three 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 take a chance in an attempt to attain a huge stash of coin that Ulysses buried in his lawn. They have simply a brusque time to exercise this, though, as the backyard in question is in an area slated to be flooded by the Tennessee Valley Authorization to build a reservoir.

On their journey they meet, amongst 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 reach the money, they wind up recording a hit song, robbing a banking company with George "Baby Face" Nelson, encountering the KKK, and inadvertently getting mixed upwardly in the land gubernatorial election. And on tiptop of all that, Ulysses must grapple with the prospect of reuniting with his lover and their children...

It was noted for the tremendous success of its soundtrack, nigh of which was recorded by Alison Krauss & Spousal relationship Station and other country-bluegrass acts (Dan Tyminski provided Everett'southward singing voice).

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

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O Brother, Where Art Thou? provides examples of:

• Added Alliterative Appeal: "Songs of salvation to save the soul."
• Agent Scully: Everett, who despite existence pursued by Satan, meeting a prophet, being seduced by sirens, and beingness apparently saved from execution by divine intervention, still insists that at that place is a reasonable caption for everything. At least it'south Lampshaded. And past the finish, he doesn't really seem certain of himself any more after seeing the cow on the roof of a shed, which the prophet told them that they would run into back at the beginning.
• Ambiguous Disorder: George Nelson shows symptoms of bipolar disorder. He's in an farthermost manic episode when the protagonists meet him, and lapses into a deep depression after someone calls him "Babyface." So when he's captured and facing the electric chair, as Delmar puts it, "Looks like George is back on top!"
• Anachronism Stew: The Confederate flag did not go associated with the KKK and racists in general until the civil rights movement in the 1960s. In the 1920s and 30s, they still used the American flag.
• And Your Little Dog, Besides!: 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!

• Pointer Catch: It looks like Big Dan Teague is going to get skewered past the pole of a falling Confederate flag... merely and then he stops the pointy tip inches from his face by catching it with both hands. All the same, a flaming cross does him over simply after.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • Some of Homer Stokes' accusations about the heroes near the stop of the movie: "These boys is non white! Hell, they ain't even onetime-timey."
  • One of the people attending George Nelson's march toward the electric chair is virtually upset about his having shot a cow with a tommy-gun.
• At the Crossroads: The iii meet Tommy here later he sold his soul to the devil ("I wasn't usin' it for nothin'") to get a famous musician; this is based on the real life Tommy Johnson who was the originator of the story. Yes, he did it earlier Robert Johnson.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Pappy's son offers one of his brighter options to beat Stokes in that they could get a dwarf even stumpier than his. Pappy angrily shoots information technology down, pointing out that Follow the Leader at this bespeak would just make them look similar even bigger laughingstocks and pathetically desperate for any points, assuming that they could even find a stumpier dwarf.
• Belief Makes Yous Stupid: Everett repeatedly chides people for their religious faith. Examples:
  • When Everett witnesses a riverside baptism service, he comments: "Well, I gauge hard times flush out the chumps; everybody's lookin' for answers."
  • After Everett's travel companions get baptized themselves, Everett remarks; "Baptism! You two are dumber than a bag of hammers."
  • Toward the end of the film, when facing his ain death, Everett falls on his knees and repents of his sins before God. After he is delivered from death (thanks to a sudden and massive flood of water), Everett discounts his conversion by noting that "whatever human being will cast about in a moment of stress." When his companions proclaim that the flood was an act of God, Everett comments, "Again, yous hayseeds are showin' your want for intellect." (Annotation: Everett's watery salvation functions equally a clever twist on Decease by Irony. Deliverance by Irony, perchance? Miraculous Baptism?)
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't call George Nelson "Babyface" ("He's a live wire, ain't he?"). Truth in Television with the real George Nelson.
    • Possibly an inverted trope, equally he'southward already an established madman, and calling him "Babyface" really shatters his ego, lowering his self-esteem.
  • Also, Pete doesn't take kindly to people stealing from his kin.
  • Don't bother offering Everett Fop. He'south a Dapper Dan man!
• Bewitched Amphibians: Delmar is at one point convinced that Pete was transformed into a frog.
• Bitch in Sheep's Habiliment: Homer Stokes seems like a prissy enough guy and possibly a better governor than Pappy O'Daniel. And and so we run into him leading a Ku Klux Klan rally...
• Black-and-Grey Morality:
  • The protagonists exist on the gray 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 there was treasure so they would help him escape prison in time to cease his wife from remarrying. Pete is loyal to his friends and family unit, though he is a bit violent. Delmar and Tommy are genuinely nice fellows, but Delmar did in fact rob a Piggly Wiggly and lie almost it, while Tommy ran off on his own when at that place was trouble.
  • Pappy O'Daniel and Penny are slightly farther downward, simply still gray. Pappy is rude, selfish, and opportunistic. However, according to him, he tried everything he could to help the people that now support Homer Stokes. He too has no problem with the Soggy Bottom Boys including a black guitarist, even grinning when he notes "folks don't seem to mind they's integrated." Penny told her daughters that their father was hit past a train. Only, 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 black side of things. The Sheriff does a bully deal of impairment in his pursuit of the protagonists, threatening to hang Pete if he doesn't give up his friends' destination. He also tries to hang them fifty-fifty later they were pardoned, and includes Tommy in the hanging just for associating with them. Also, he might be Satan. Big Dan Teague is a conman worse than Everett: he assaults Everett and Delmar for their money, and later participates in a lynch mob. Homer Stokes presents himself as the "servant of the little human being", only it turns out that he'south a K Dragon of the KKK, leading the lynch mob to kill Tommy. And, finally, how on globe did Waldrip know that Tommy had sold his soul to the devil?
• Blatant Lies: "That ain't your daddy. Your daddy was hit past a train."
• Blind Seer: Lampshaded past Everett, who insists that the human has a Inability Superpower.
• Bookends: The picture opens with a chain gang together working about a railroad rails and singing. Shortly after escaping the chain gang, the protagonists come across the bullheaded prophet on a push-motorcar. The film closes with Everett and Penny'south daughters tied together past twine walking over a railroad rail and singing. And the blind prophet can exist seen passing by on the tracks.
• Break Away Pop Hit:
  • The soundtrack had its ain sequels.
  • In-movie also, since the Soggy Bottom Boys' singing is so good that it helps resolve the plot.
• Brick Joke:
  • After mocking Delmar and Pete for existence baptized early in the movie, skeptic Everett admits his failings and begs for mercy in a Not-So-Final Confession at the gallows. He is then forcibly immersed by the floodwaters, and everyone is saved. Literally.
  • Early in the movie Everett, Delmar and Pete meet a blind prophet who claims, "You will come across thangs, wonderful to tell. You shall run across a cow on the roof of a cotton fiber house." At the end of the movie, they practise indeed encounter a cow on a cotton house roof.
• Censorship past Spelling: Sort of. One grapheme wants to prevent his son from knowing that his mother left the family, and then he just says "Mrs. Hogwallop up and R-U-Northward-N-O-F-T." Subverted after, in that the kid knew exactly what he was talking nigh, anyway.
• Chained Heat: The 3 convicts are chained together for awhile at the showtime.
• Chekhov's Gun: Everett'south pomade, especially its distinctive odor, which lets the Sheriff rail them down.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Delmar "We Thought You lot Was a Toad" O'Donnell.
• Color Wash: The hue and saturation of the motion picture was messed with until everything was an intensely colorful brown, imitating the look of sepia-toned photos. Without this, the Mississippi (and South Carolina, for some scenes) summer mural would have been a brilliant green, which the creators said was as well vivid for the Low era Dust Basin-type feel they were going for.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • Afterward they get escape and don't quite brand it onto the train, Everett and Pete both think they should be the one in accuse.

  Pete: Well, I remember information technology should be yours truly!
  Everett: Well, I remember it should be yours truly, too!
  Vanquish They plow 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 assistance him escape, Pete realizes that fifty 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 one-time. Delmar happily chimes in, "Well, I'll just be 82!"
  • Also, when Pete responds to Delmar'due south whispered "Nosotros idea you 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 But Sane Human (compared to the other two, at least).
• Customs-Threatening Structure: Ulysses Everett McGill needs to retrieve a treasure cached in the backyard of his old house. However, the area is scheduled to be flooded by Tennessee Valley Potency's damming action. In this case, Ulysses doesn't always try to forestall the structure (in fact, he sees it as the Dawn of an Era) — information technology simply serves every bit an inexorable deadline for Ulysses and his partners to reach the homestead.
• Contrived Coincidence: Of class the guy the KKK decides to lynch is the one our heroes know and are on friendly terms with. Non too contrived, though, if you know your history. Existence an unemployed blackness man was a crime only slightly worse than being an employed black human in the South.
• Decadent Hick: The insanely decadent Big Dan Teague. Who is channeling the cyclops Polyphemus.
• Crush the Keepsake: Big Dan attacks Ulysses and Delmar to encounter what it is they're conveying. When he sees it'southward just a toad (they thought Pete had been turned into 1), he crushes it in front of them.
• Cult Soundtrack: The soundtrack album is regarded as ane of the most important Land 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 simply three soundtracks to e'er win that accolade.
• Dawn of an Era: Everett's 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 so they tin can hydroelectric upwards the whole durn state. Yes, sir, the Southward is gonna modify. Everything's gonna be put on electricity and run on a paying basis. Out with the old spiritual mumbo jumbo, the superstitions, and the backward ways. Nosotros're gonna see a brave new world where they run everybody a wire and hook united states of america all up to a grid. Yeah, sir, a veritable historic period of reason. Similar the one they had in France." *He sees the cow that the blind soothsayer prophesized* "Not a moment too before long..."

• Deal with the Devil: Tommy Johnson traded his soul to the devil at the crossroads for his guitar skills.
• Death by Childbirth: Pappy mentions that Junior'southward female parent died giving birth to him.
• Deep Due south: Much of the film takes place in Dust Bowl-era Mississippi.
• Deliberately Monochrome: Of the sepia variety, see Real Is Brown beneath.
• Deliberate Values Noise: The nigh notable beingness the scene where Pappy is considering using the Soggy Bottom Boys to help his entrada and snub Homer Stokes, his son points out that the ring'due south integrated and they're a Deep South state. Subsequently a moment to scout the auspicious oversupply, Pappy decides to go ahead with it by noting it seems the public doesn't care nigh the integration.
• Deus ex Machina: The flooding happens at exactly the right time to save them all from being hanged. Possibly a literal example, but it'due south foreshadowed plenty that it doesn't break the plot fifty-fifty if the viewer doesn't interpret it as spiritual.
• Did Not Dice That Style: He didn't dice at all, Everett finds out his wife has told his daughters that he got hit by a train, rather than tell them he was sent to jail.
• Disney Expiry: Pete was believed to take transformed into a Toad by the launderer sirens, so they take him in a box. The toad was so killed by Large Dan Teague by being crushed, and his friends were physically incapable of stopping his decease because they were browbeaten to bloody pulps. It was later revealed that the toad was actually not Pete, nor was he fifty-fifty transformed into a toad. Turns out those "launderer sirens" actually delivered him to Sheriff Cooley's men for the advantage, and is now a prisoner back at the subcontract.
• The Ditz: Delmar.
• Empty Piles of Vesture: This (and a toad) causes Delmar to assume Pete's been turned into a toad.
• Eyepatch of Power: Large Dan Teague.
• Expy: A number of characters serve as references to characters out of the Odyssey or Greek mythology more by and large: Ulysses Everett McGill is of class Odysseus (Ulysses being the Roman version of the name Odysseus) who is trying to get home 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, Large Dan Teague is the cyclops Polyphemous, and the blind human being in the beginning is the blind prophet Tiresias. There's even a homo named Menelaus! But he's not an expy (meet Historical Domain Character beneath).
• Simulated Band: The Soggy Lesser Boys.
• Fan Disservice: The Sirens, in addition to being generally cute, all wear wet dresses so you tin see their lingerie. However, combined with the creepy song they keep singing, and the fact that one of them is forcing a drug downwards Everett's throat, you tin't assist but experience there's something off well-nigh the whole thing. That'due south because they're seducing them to betray them to the Sheriff.
• Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit: Several. Well-nigh notably, Governor Pappy O'Daniel (for the mildly corrupt version) and Large Dan Teague (for the insanely corrupt version).
• Fake Affably Evil: Big Dan Teague, who engages the boys in friendly chat before chirapsia them up and robbing them. He'due south also a 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 way and win them back before she marries a successful but stodgy political counselor.
• Flat "What": A silent ane from Pete when Delmar tells him he thought 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 as a peacekeeper between the two).
• Funny Groundwork Event:
  • Everett, Delmar, and Pete are all chained together, and try to escape past boarding a moving train. In the foreground nosotros see Everett (on the railroad train) introducing himself to some hobos. In the groundwork, Pete trips before he can climb in...
  • Likewise, Pete'due south 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 "peradventure I'll die upon this railroad 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 The Odyssey... that's ready in The Great Depression.
• Skilful Old Fisticuffs: Vernon gives Ulysses a good former-timey donkey-whoopin' in the Woolworth'south. Vernon apparently has some training in the pugilistic arts, whereas Ulysses... non and so much.
• Historical Domain Character: Several appear in the film, though the details of their lives are skewed for the sake of the story. They include depository financial institution robber George "Babyface" Nelson, Blues musician Tommy Johnson, and politician Westward. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel. The latter arguably undergoes the well-nigh changes, having his get-go name changed to Menelaus as a nod to The Odyssey and being governor of Mississippi rather than Texas, while the former died 3 years before the film'south setting and was The Napoleon in real life ("George Nelson" was too an alias, for what it's worth).
• Historical In-Joke: A great bargain of the humor in this moving-picture show is derived from these.
• Hobos: "Any of you fellas smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were y'all otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced yous into a life of aimless wanderin'?"
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Everett, clearly touched by his meet with the bullheaded seer, goes on at length about how the blind are perhaps attuned to the future and concord the gift of prophecy, to account for their lack of vision. When Pete points out that the future he foretold was one where they wouldn't become the treasure they sought, Everett shoots back in frustration, "Well, what the hell does he know?! He'south an ignorant old man!"
  • Just as he is about to be executed, Everett prays to God to let him run into his daughters at to the lowest degree one more than time. When the dam breaks and saves him, he starts going on about reason. The other two immediately call him out on it.
• Implacable Man: The Sheriff. Null will stop him from bringing downwardly the main trio. Not fifty-fifty a pardon from the governor himself.
• Inspector Javert: The Sheriff characterizes himself this style at the very stop, claiming that the boys take only been pardoned by the law of man.
• Informed Aspect: 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 run into that much of the Governor, never sees him practice much beside swear at and assault his aides with his hat.
• Insane Troll Logic: Committed past Everett, called out by Pete.

  Pete: You stole from my kin!
  Everett: Who was fixin' to betray us.
  Pete: Y'all didn't know that at the time!
  Everett: So I borrowed information technology '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 Baby" Also a rare case of erotic horror.
• Jerkass: Pappy O'Daniel, oh so much. Fifty-fifty though he's the i who pardons our main characters, meaning they no longer take to exist outlaws, information technology's solely for his own reelection entrada.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Everett. He's greedy, deceitful, sneaky, and big-headed but truly does care for his friends and loves his daughters dearly. When all hope seems lost and he starts praying; Everett prays for everyone else'south rubber and happiness, only asking that his own life be spared so that his daughters can accept a begetter to await after them.
• Kick the Dog: Big Dan beats up Everett and Delmar, steals their money, 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 called-for barn when Boy Hogwallop bursts through the barn door in his dad'south car and offers them a lift. Since Boy is quite small-scale, he uses a brick to weigh downwards the accelerator. Later, Everett steals the car, leaving Boy to curse him, Pete and Delmar as he walks dorsum to his dad'south farm.
• The Klan: Appears as enemies virtually the end of the pic, as Everett, Pete, and Delmar must rescue their friend Tommy from the Klan.
• The Lancer: Pete.
• Large and in Accuse: Governor Pappy O'Daniel. "We're mass communicatin'!"
• Large Ham:
  • Homer Stokes. It's especially noticeable in the scene where he leads a KKK rally. Of course, it makes sense, given that he'southward running for governor and a talent for public oratory would aid him a lot.
  • George "Babyface" Nelson. "I'G FEELING X Feet TALL!"
• Louis Cypher: The Sheriff who is chasing after them is unsaid, and even theorized to be by the characters, to be this. His Scary Shiny Glasses reflect fire a lot.
• Lyrical Dissonance: The Soggy Lesser 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 as 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 character's name is Ulysses.
  • Likewise the Governor, whose name is Menalaus, although that'southward a trivial more The Iliad.
• Misspelling Out Loud: "Mrs. Hogwallop up and R-U-N-Due north-O-F-T."
• Mistaken for Transformed: Played for Laughs when the escaped convicts wake up after drinking with some strange women past the river, notice Pete gone and a toad in his abandoned apparel, and bound to the determination that he was Baleful Polymorphed. They go on the toad for a while before finding out that the women really sold Pete to the police force.

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

• Musical World Hypotheses: Diegetic all the style through, making its classification equally a musical to brainstorm with dubious to some.
• Mythical Motifs: While the moving-picture show doesn't follow The Odyssey to the letter, it does infringe some notable plot elements from it, such equally the Cyclops, the sirens, and one of the main characters trying to get abode to his married woman so she won't marry someone else.
• Mythology Gag: Big Dan the cyclops looks similar he's going to lose his eye to a flung Confederate flag spear, much similar Polyphemus, only he manages to take hold of it between his hands at the last moment. So the gang cuts downwardly the peppery cross, which falls on peak of him, most certainly burning his eye out and preserving a slice of the narrative.
• Never Trust a Title: No, the iii master characters are not brothers, nor are they trying to find their long-lost brother. The title is really a reference to an old film.
• No Animals Were Harmed: The cow that was run over by 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. Whatsoever scenes showing animals in jeopardy were faux."
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: In that location really was a Depression-era Governor named Pappy O'Daniel, but his given name was Wilbert Lee O'Daniel; in the film the governor'south real first proper noun is Menelaus (another Homer reference). Also the existent O'Daniel was governor of Texas, not Mississippi.
• Not His Sled: The expected fate of John Goodman's "cyclops" is deliberately referenced and so avoided. Then happens slightly differently anyway.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Teague'southward reaction when he realizes that the fiery cross was coming downwardly direct at him.
  • Homer Stokes' reaction when he realizes that the town, after his attempt at getting the Soggy Bottom Boys arrested failed, is now going to run him out of town on a track as revenge for interrupting the operation.
  • Finally, the slow, 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, too, murder Tommy, merely for being there.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Toward the end of the moving picture, the fugitive "Soggy Lesser Boys" perform "In the Jailhouse At present" and "Man of Constant Sorrow" while disguised with false beards. Lampshaded afterwards, when their performance wins over the crowd and Everett deliberately yanks his beard off for a moment to testify Penny who he is.
• The Pardon: Granted but 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's more than, the automobile tin't become very fast anyhow, and then breaks down shortly later on their escape.
• Politically Correct History: Zig-zagged. The white heroes refer to Tommy equally a "male child," but otherwise treat him equally an equal. The radio station managing director insists that he won't play "colored songs," but once the "Soggy Lesser Boys" get popular he's ecstatic most them and signs them. Pappy O'Daniel doesn't seem to care that "they's integrated" afterwards seeing how a crowd adores them and boots out his gubernatorial opponent for interrupting them. The KKK is shown in all its theatrically racist glory, only is also portrayed as a fringe arrangement that is not looked upon favorably by the common townsfolk. This portrayal has some basis in reality, as past the 1930s the second 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 exit in droves; membership continued to pass up until the Civil Rights Movement started gaining momentum in the 1950s, but they have never come shut to the level seen in the twenties. It should be noted, however, that Homer Stokes feels perfectly comfortable announcing to a roomful of people that he belongs to an organization, wink-wink-nudge-nudge, that engages in cross-burning and lynching, and expects the audience to sympathize with him when he attacks people for stopping a lynching. It's non difficult to gauge that the but reason he'south booed is because the people he's accusing happen to be a very popular music band, not because of full general principle.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Homer Stokes, candidate for governor by day, Klansman by dark.
• 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 audition does when Homer Stokes ends up interrupting the Soggy Lesser Boys performance to become them arrested, that as well every bit ride him out of town on a rail.
• Real Is Brown: Pursued with a vengeance, given that a substantial portion of the picture'south post-production budget went into extensive color-correction. The Coens wanted every frame of the pic to reflect the dingy, withered dustbowl wait, and in some cases took unabridged fields of greenish flora and turned them yellow.
• Reduced to Ratburgers: Pete and Delmar melt a gopher and offer it to Everett. He doesn't seem very enticed past the notion — not because of their selection of food, but because splitting such a small animal three ways wouldn't be much of a meal. Delmar heads him off with news that they really caught and cooked quite a few gophers, so Everett tin have the whole affair.
• Retirony: Of a sort. Pete was two weeks from being released from prison anyway. Now that he's escaped, he'll have to serve another l years and won't go out until nineteen87.
• Road Trip Plot: The convicts are trying to go from their escape from the chain gang to Everett'southward hole-and-corner stash, encountering many obstacles and interesting characters forth the style.
• 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'due south obsession with his Dapper Dan pomade too counts, as well as his reflexive worrying about his hair whenever something wakes him in the center of his sleep.
  • The constant reference to Everett supposedly existence hit by a train once he reunited with some of his daughters.
• Satanic Archetype: Sheriff Cooley fits Tommy Johnson's description of the Devil exactly: "He's white, every bit white as you folks, with empty eyes and a big hollow vocalization. He likes to travel around with a mean old hound." Still, upon seeing him at the end of the movie, Tommy doesn't seem to notice.
• Saved by the Coffin: After the valley floods, the protagonists cling to one of the coffins the sheriff was planning to bury them in.
• Scary Shiny Spectacles: The Sheriff/Warden/Devil wears these.
• Seinfeldian Conversation:
  • This charming instance:

    "He'southward gonna paddle our little backside."
    "Ain't gonna paddle information technology — gonna boot it. Real hard."
    "No, I believe he's gonna paddle information technology."
    "I don't believe that's a proper description."
    "Well, that's how I'd narrate it."
    "I believe it's more of a kickin' sitchiation."

  • The give-and-take of a "grease spot on the Fifty&North" and a "bona-fide" suitor ranks right upwards in that location too.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness:
  • Everett. For instance, from the Funny Background Event described to a higher place:

    Everett: Say, whatsoever of y'all fellas happen to be smithies? If non smithies per se, perhaps you trained in the metallurgical arts earlier straitened circumstances led yous to a life of bumming wandering?

  • Also Big Dan Teague:

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

• Shout-Out:
  • The picture's title is itself a Shout-Out to Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels.
  • The unabridged plot contains various shout outs to the Greek epic verse form The Odyssey by Homer. The principal protagonist is named Ulysses in both stories, has to get home to prevent his wife from marrying someone else, and they see singing women who seduce them (the Sirens) and a one-eyed behemothic man (the cyclops). The reform candidate is named Homer Stokes, referencing the author Homer. The blind railroad man predicting events references Tiresias, while the blind radio station manager references Homer again, who was also said to be bullheaded.
  • Tommy'south Deal with the Devil is a reference to a similar deal supposedly made by real-life bluesman Robert Johnson. (Or maybe Tommy Johnson, depending on whom yous ask.) And the vocal that Chris Thomas King performs during the campfire scene is "Hard Fourth dimension Killing Floor Blues," originally past Johnson's contemporary Skip James.
  • Not to mention that a human being 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 endeavour to sneak into the witch'southward castle. The guards are chanting the fashion the KKK does and even doing a similar dance, and the 3 heroes steal disguises from the guards/KKK.
  • The Soggy Bottom Boys are a reference to the Low-cal Chaff Doughboys, who were featured on the real-life Pappy O'Daniel's radio show, and/or the Foggy Mountain Boys (founded by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs).
  • There's a coffin floating on a flooded river at the end, which is most certainly a Shout-Out to William Faulkner'due south As I Lay Dying. And they use it as a raft.
  • Sheriff Cooley looks and dresses very similarly to Dominate Godfrey in Cool Hand Luke, right downwards to his Scary Shiny Spectacles.
  • George Clooney'south operation every bit Everett owes more than a little to Clark Gable.
  • A throwaway gag may be a shout-out to Porky Squealer:

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

  • "Is you lot is, or is y'all ain't, my constituency?" ^note ...my baby
• Sold His Soul for a Donut: The main characters run across 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 fiddling.
• Something We Forgot: The trio arrive at the cabin in the valley to retrieve Penny's ring, forgetting that Sheriff Cooley had earlier learned of the location by torturing Pete and is now lying in await for them.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Many of the characters in a patchily educated way, but generally Everett. "I'k the goddamn paterfamilias!"
• Source Music: All the music in the motion-picture show is diegetic.
• Stout Strength: Big Dan Teague.
• Stern Chase: The Warden'south search for the three convicts.
• The Stool Pigeon: Pete ends up becoming a Lacerated Larry after the "Sireens" basically turned him over to the sheriff's men for a bounty (which initially led them to believe that Pete was actually turned into a frog due to information technology being in his clothes).
• Surrounded by Idiots: Pappy O'Daniel's cronies and son are sycophantic yeah-men who are a flake boring on the uptake, and Pappy is painfully aware of this. This is well-nigh probable the reason he tries to convince Vernon T. Waldrip to leave Stokes' campaign and bring together his.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: "Who is that man?" "Not my married man." Likewise doubles every bit a Shout-Out to the source material.
• Symbolic Baptism: Played for Laughs when the escaped convicts Pete and Delmar stumble onto a grouping baptism in a river and leap at the gamble to starting time over with a clean slate... which generally means doing exactly what they were earlier. They're likewise a chip dislocated to hear that it doesn't really exercise anything for their criminal records.

  Delmar: But they was witnesses that seen us redeemed.
  Everett: Even if it did put yous square with the Lord, the state of Mississippi's a little more difficult-nosed.

  • Everett is then even more symbolically baptized when he gives his Non-So-Final Confession, on his knees praying for conservancy... when the damming of the river floods the valley and sweeps away not but sins, but sinners, and houses.
• Those Two Guys: Pappy'southward ii advisors, come across the Seinfeldian Conversation above.
• Trail of Staff of life Crumbs: How the sheriff keeps finding Everett. Everett's a Dapper Dan homo, going through obscene amounts of the stuff whenever he can go a agree of it. The sheriff's bloodhound can rails him easily.
• Travel Montage: We get a serial of scenes showing the trio making their way across Mississippi, stealing a automobile, stealing a pie (Delmar pays for information technology), telling scary stories around the bivouac (hook-handed man)...
• Truthful Companions: Everett, Pete, Delmar, and Tommy.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
  • The bank customers at the robbery seem to be rather non-plussed past all the shooting.
  • Everett himself is rather not-plussed by Big Dan beating the hell out of Delmar with a tree branch until Big Dan starts attacking him.
• Upper-Form Twit: Pappy O'Daniel's son.
• The Vamp: The 3 sirens.
• Villainous Glutton: Big Dan Teague, as befits his correspondence with the cyclops Polyphemus.
• Villainous Breakdown: "Babyface" Nelson and Homer Stokes.
  • Nelson gets meliorate...sort of.
  • "MY Name IS GEORGE NELSON, AND I'Grand FEELIN' TEN Anxiety 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 hunt downwards Everett, Pete, and Delmar (because of them being fugitives), he goes for overkill tactics like burning down a befouled with them inside. He insists that he answers to a higher law than man's (so he volition just continue coming no thing what), and the moment he makes information technology clear that he will see them all hang even if they are at present pardoned (and he volition impale Tommy for no reason other than him being there with the fugitives), he crosses the Moral Event Horizon hard. That he is a Satanic Classic doesn't help any.
• Warm Place, Warm Lighting: The film uses an extreme yellowish filter throughout that makes what were green fields await xanthous. While information technology gives the picture a cornball sepia feel, it also accentuates the fact that the story takes identify in sweltering rural Mississippi in the middle of summer.
• Wedding Ring Removal: Equally the guys run across the singing sirens, Everett, in the background, pulls his wedding ring off right earlier the girls come over and start getting cozy with them.
• Whole Plot Reference: Loosely, to The Odyssey.
• Working on the Chain 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 dorsum to work on the chain gang and has to be cleaved out of prison once more.

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

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