Whats Everetts Odd Obsession in O Brother Where Art Thou

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

"You lot seek a nifty fortune, you three who are now in bondage. You will find a fortune, though it will not be the i you seek. But first... starting time you lot must travel a long and hard road, a route fraught with peril. Mm-hmm. You shall run into thangs, wonderful to tell..."

—The Bullheaded Railman

O Brother, Where Fine art Thou? is a 2000 one-act film written and directed by The Coen Brothers, (very) loosely based on Homer's The Odyssey.

The story follows iii 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 concatenation gang, they embark on a rollicking adventure in an attempt to reach a huge stash of money that Ulysses buried in his backyard. They accept only a short time to practise this, though, as the backyard in question is in an area slated to be flooded by the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a reservoir.

On their journey they meet, among others, a blind prophet, sirens, a Cyclops, and a gifted blackness guitarist who "sold his soul to the devil". In their attempts to evade the government and reach the coin, they wind upward recording a hit vocal, robbing a bank with George "Babe Face" Nelson, encountering the KKK, and inadvertently getting mixed up in the state gubernatorial election. And on height 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, most of which was recorded by Alison Krauss & Union Station and other country-bluegrass acts (Dan Tyminski provided Everett'due south singing vocalisation).

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

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O Brother, Where Art Thou? provides examples of:

• Added Alliterative Appeal: "Songs of salvation to salve the soul."
• Amanuensis Scully: Everett, who despite being pursued by Satan, coming together a prophet, being seduced by sirens, and existence apparently saved from execution by divine intervention, still insists that at that place is a reasonable explanation for everything. At to the lowest degree it's Lampshaded. And by the cease, he doesn't actually seem sure of himself any more after seeing the moo-cow on the roof of a shed, which the prophet told them that they would come across back at the beginning.
• Cryptic Disorder: George Nelson shows symptoms of bipolar disorder. He'southward in an extreme manic episode when the protagonists meet him, and lapses into a deep depression subsequently someone calls him "Babyface." Then when he'southward captured and facing the electric chair, equally 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 still used the American flag.
• And Your Little Domestic dog, Too!: George Nelson takes a pause from shooting at the cops during his getaway bulldoze to shoot some cows.

  George: Cows. I hate cows more than coppers!

• Arrow Take hold of: It looks like Big Dan Teague is going to get skewered past the pole of a falling Amalgamated flag... just then he stops the pointy tip inches from his confront by catching it with both hands. However, a flaming cross does him over just afterward.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • Some of Homer Stokes' accusations about the heroes near the end of the movie: "These boys is non white! Hell, they ain't fifty-fifty erstwhile-timey."
  • One of the people attending George Nelson'due south march toward the electric chair is most upset about his having shot a moo-cow with a tommy-gun.
• At the Crossroads: The iii 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. Yes, he did information technology before Robert Johnson.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Pappy's son offers ane of his brighter options to vanquish Stokes in that they could get a dwarf fifty-fifty stumpier than his. Pappy angrily shoots it down, pointing out that Follow the Leader at this signal would just brand 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 guess hard times affluent 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 handbag of hammers."
  • Toward the end of the film, when facing his own death, Everett falls on his knees and repents of his sins before God. After he is delivered from expiry (thank you to a sudden and massive alluvion of water), Everett discounts his conversion by noting that "any human beingness will cast nearly 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 as a clever twist on Death past Irony. Deliverance by Irony, possibly? Miraculous Baptism?)
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't call George Nelson "Babyface" ("He's a live wire, own't he?"). Truth in Television with the existent George Nelson.
    • Possibly an inverted trope, as he's already an established madman, and calling him "Babyface" actually shatters his ego, lowering his cocky-esteem.
  • Also, Pete doesn't take kindly to people stealing from his kin.
  • Don't bother offering Everett Fop. He's a Dapper Dan human being!
• Bugged Amphibians: Delmar is at one betoken convinced that Pete was transformed into a frog.
• Bitch in Sheep's Article of clothing: Homer Stokes seems like a dainty plenty guy and possibly a better governor than Pappy O'Daniel. And and then nosotros see him leading a Ku Klux Klan rally...
• Black-and-Gray 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 stop his married woman from remarrying. Pete is loyal to his friends and family, though he is a bit fierce. Delmar and Tommy are genuinely nice fellows, but Delmar did in fact rob a Piggly Wiggly and lie virtually it, while Tommy ran off on his ain when there was trouble.
  • Pappy O'Daniel and Penny are slightly further downwardly, only 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 smile when he notes "folks don't seem to mind they'south integrated." Penny told her daughters that their father was striking by a train. Just, given that Everett is a conman and a captive, 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 bargain of damage in his pursuit of the protagonists, threatening to hang Pete if he doesn't give up his friends' destination. He too tries to hang them even after they were pardoned, and includes Tommy in the hanging simply for associating with them. As well, he might be Satan. Large 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 niggling man", only information technology turns out that he'south a One thousand Dragon of the KKK, leading the lynch mob to impale 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 striking by a railroad train."
• Bullheaded Seer: Lampshaded by Everett, who insists that the man has a Disability Superpower.
• Bookends: The film opens with a chain gang together working near a railroad runway and singing. Presently afterward escaping the concatenation gang, the protagonists meet the blind prophet on a push-car. The film closes with Everett and Penny's daughters tied together by twine walking over a railroad track and singing. And the blind prophet tin can be seen passing by on the tracks.
• Suspension Away Pop Hit:
  • The soundtrack had its own sequels.
  • In-moving-picture show also, since the Soggy Bottom Boys' singing is and then skilful that it helps resolve the plot.
• Brick Joke:
  • After mocking Delmar and Pete for being baptized early in the motion picture, skeptic Everett admits his failings and begs for mercy in a Not-So-Concluding Confession at the gallows. He is then forcibly immersed by the floodwaters, and anybody is saved. Literally.
  • Early in the motion-picture show Everett, Delmar and Pete meet a bullheaded prophet who claims, "Y'all will meet thangs, wonderful to tell. You lot shall see a cow on the roof of a cotton fiber house." At the cease of the movie, they practice indeed see a cow on a cotton fiber firm roof.
• Censorship by Spelling: Sort of. I graphic symbol wants to prevent his son from knowing that his mother left the family, and then he just says "Mrs. Hogwallop up and R-U-N-North-O-F-T." Subverted afterwards, in that the kid knew exactly what he was talking most, anyway.
• Chained Oestrus: The three convicts are chained together for awhile at the offset.
• Chekhov'south Gun: Everett'south pomade, particularly its distinctive olfactory property, which lets the Sheriff track them down.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Delmar "We Thought Y'all Was a Toad" O'Donnell.
• Color Wash: The hue and saturation of the picture show was messed with until everything was an intensely colorful chocolate-brown, imitating the look of sepia-toned photos. Without this, the Mississippi (and Southward Carolina, for some scenes) summer landscape would have been a bright light-green, which the creators said was too bright for the Depression era Dust Bowl-type feel they were going for.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • After they get escape and don't quite make it onto the train, Everett and Pete both recall they should be the one in accuse.

  Pete: Well, I call up it should exist yours truly!
  Everett: Well, I call up it should be yours truly, likewise!
  Beat They plough and wait at Delmar.
  Delmar: Okay, I'm with y'all 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 fifty years will exist added to each of their sentences for fleeing the chain gang, and that he won't get out of prison until he'due south 84 years old. Delmar happily chimes in, "Well, I'll merely be 82!"
  • Also, when Pete responds to Delmar's whispered "We 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 Just Sane Man (compared to the other 2, at least).
• Community-Threatening Structure: Ulysses Everett McGill needs to call back a treasure buried in the lawn of his erstwhile house. However, the area is scheduled to be flooded by Tennessee Valley Authority'south damming activity. In this example, Ulysses doesn't e'er try to forestall the construction (in fact, he sees it every bit the Dawn of an Era) — it simply serves equally an inexorable deadline for Ulysses and his partners to accomplish 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 likewise contrived, though, if you know your history. Being an unemployed blackness homo was a criminal offence just slightly worse than being an employed black human in the Due south.
• Corrupt Hick: The insanely decadent Large Dan Teague. Who is channeling the cyclops Polyphemus.
• Trounce the Keepsake: Large Dan attacks Ulysses and Delmar to see what it is they're carrying. When he sees information technology's just a toad (they thought Pete had been turned into one), he crushes it in front of them.
• Cult Soundtrack: The soundtrack album is regarded as one of the most important Country and Bluegrass albums of the decade and sold over 7 million copies. Information technology also won the Grammy Award for Anthology of the Year in 2002, making it one of only three soundtracks to e'er win that award.
• Dawn of an Era: Everett's view of the edifice of a hydroelectric dam, which saves his and his friend'due south lives:

  Everett: No, the fact is, they're flooding this valley so they tin can hydroelectric upwardly the whole durn state. Yeah, sir, the South is gonna change. Everything's gonna be put on electricity and run on a paying basis. Out with the old spiritual mumbo colossal, the superstitions, and the astern ways. We're gonna see a brave new earth where they run everybody a wire and claw us all up to a grid. Yes, sir, a veritable age of reason. Like the one they had in French republic." *He sees the cow that the bullheaded soothsayer prophesized* "Not a moment besides soon..."

• Bargain with the Devil: Tommy Johnson traded his soul to the devil at the crossroads for his guitar skills.
• Decease by Childbirth: Pappy mentions that Junior's female parent died giving birth to him.
• Deep South: Much of the picture takes place in Dust Bowl-era Mississippi.
• Deliberately Monochrome: Of the sepia diverseness, see Existent Is Brown below.
• Deliberate Values Noise: The most notable beingness the scene where Pappy is considering using the Soggy Lesser Boys to aid his entrada and snub Homer Stokes, his son points out that the band'south integrated and they're a Deep South state. Later on a moment to watch the cheering oversupply, Pappy decides to go ahead with it by noting it seems the public doesn't care about the integration.
• Deus ex Machina: The flooding happens at exactly the right fourth dimension to save them all from being hanged. Possibly a literal example, but information technology's foreshadowed enough that information technology doesn't intermission the plot even if the viewer doesn't translate information technology as spiritual.
• Did Not Dice That Manner: He didn't die 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 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 past existence 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 not Pete, nor was he even transformed into a toad. Turns out those "launderer sirens" actually delivered him to Sheriff Cooley's men for the reward, and is now a prisoner dorsum at the farm.
• The Ditz: Delmar.
• Empty Piles of Wear: This (and a toad) causes Delmar to assume Pete's 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 mostly: Ulysses Everett McGill is of course Odysseus (Ulysses being the Roman version of the proper 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 iii women bathing and singing in the river are the Sirens, Big Dan Teague is the cyclops Polyphemous, and the bullheaded man in the get-go is the blind prophet Tiresias. In that location'due south even a man named Menelaus! But he's not an expy (run into Historical Domain Character beneath).
• Fake Band: The Soggy Lesser Boys.
• Fan Disservice: The Sirens, in add-on to existence by and large cute, all wear wet dresses and then yous tin can see their lingerie. Yet, combined with the creepy song they continue singing, and the fact that one of them is forcing a drug downwards Everett'southward throat, yous can't assist but experience in that location's something off about the whole matter. That'due south considering they're seducing them to betray them to the Sheriff.
• Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit: Several. About notably, Governor Pappy O'Daniel (for the mildly corrupt version) and Big Dan Teague (for the insanely corrupt version).
• Faux Affably Evil: Big Dan Teague, who engages the boys in friendly conversation before chirapsia them upward and robbing them. He'southward also a member of the KKK.
• First Father Wins: Everett's ex-married woman has told his daughters he's expressionless due to his lack of steady employment and criminal behavior, and Everett must detect his way and win them dorsum earlier she marries a successful but stodgy political advisor.
• Flat "What": A silent one 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 Event:
  • Everett, Delmar, and Pete are all chained together, and try to escape past 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 can climb in...
  • Too, Pete's gloriously goofy dancing during Delmar's rendition of "In the Jailhouse Now."
  • Background singing — in Man of Abiding 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 "Perhaps he'll die upon this railroad train!"
• Genre-Busting: It'due south a musical/comedy/social commentary/retelling of The Odyssey... that's ready in The Great Depression.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Vernon gives Ulysses a good onetime-timey ass-whoopin' in the Woolworth's. Vernon apparently has some training in the pugilistic arts, whereas Ulysses... not so much.
• Historical Domain Character: Several appear in the movie, though the details of their lives are skewed for the sake of the story. They include bank robber George "Babyface" Nelson, Blues musician Tommy Johnson, and politician W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel. The latter arguably undergoes the most changes, having his commencement name changed to Menelaus equally a nod to The Odyssey and being governor of Mississippi rather than Texas, while the former died iii years before the motion picture'due south setting and was The Napoleon in real life ("George Nelson" was too an alias, for what information technology's worth).
• Historical In-Joke: A nifty deal of the humor in this film is derived from these.
• Hobos: "Whatsoever of y'all fellas smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?"
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Everett, clearly touched by his see with the blind seer, goes on at length about how the blind are perhaps attuned to the futurity and hold the souvenir of prophecy, to account for their lack of vision. When Pete points out that the hereafter he foretold was ane where they wouldn't get the treasure they sought, Everett shoots dorsum in frustration, "Well, what the hell does he know?! He's an ignorant onetime man!"
  • Only every bit he is about to be executed, Everett prays to God to let him run into his daughters at least one more fourth dimension. When the dam breaks and saves him, he starts going on about reason. The other two immediately call him out on information technology.
• Implacable Man: The Sheriff. Nothing volition stop him from bringing downward the master trio. Not even a pardon from the governor himself.
• Inspector Javert: The Sheriff characterizes himself this fashion at the very end, challenge that the boys have 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 come across that much of the Governor, never sees him exercise much abreast swear at and assault his aides with his hat.
• Insane Troll Logic: Committed by Everett, called out past Pete.

  Pete: You stole from my kin!
  Everett: Who was fixin' to beguile united states.
  Pete: Yous didn't know that at the time!
  Everett: So I borrowed it 'til I did know!
  Pete: That don't brand no sense!
  Everett: Pete, it's a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human centre.

• Ironic Nursery Melody: The siren-seduction scene, to "Didn't Leave Nobody Only The Baby" Too a rare case of erotic horror.
• Jerkass: Pappy O'Daniel, oh so much. Fifty-fifty though he's the one who pardons our main characters, meaning they no longer have to be outlaws, it's solely for his own reelection campaign.
• Jerk with a Centre of Golden: 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 anybody else'south safe and happiness, but request that his own life be spared so that his daughters can accept a father to look after them.
• Kicking the Dog: Big Dan beats up Everett and Delmar, steals their coin, and crushes their frog whom Delmar thinks is Pete in forepart of them.
• Kids Driving Cars: Everett, Pete, and Delmar manage to escape from a burning befouled when Male child 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 downwardly the accelerator. Later, Everett steals the car, leaving Boy to curse him, Pete and Delmar as he walks dorsum to his dad's farm.
• The Klan: Appears as enemies near the end of the motion-picture show, 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'!"
• Big Ham:
  • Homer Stokes. It's particularly noticeable in the scene where he leads a KKK rally. Of course, it makes sense, given that he'south running for governor and a talent for public oratory would help him a lot.
  • George "Babyface" Nelson. "I'M FEELING TEN Feet Tall!"
• Louis Nothing: The Sheriff who is chasing subsequently them is implied, and even theorized to be by the characters, to be this. His Scary Shiny Glasses reflect fire a lot.
• Lyrical Dissonance: The Soggy Bottom Boys' extremely cheerful, upbeat rendition of "Human being of Constant Sorrow".
• Magic Realism: There are more than a few downright mystical occurrences in the film, such as the prophet, the sirens, the stiff implication that the Warden is Satan, and God saving the protagonists at the climax.
• Meaningful Name: In a story based off The Odyssey, the primary character's name is Ulysses.
  • Besides the Governor, whose name is Menalaus, although that's a little more The Iliad.
• Misspelling Out Loud: "Mrs. Hogwallop up and R-U-North-Northward-O-F-T."
• Mistaken for Transformed: Played for Laughs when the escaped convicts wake upwards after drinking with some strange women by the river, find Pete gone and a toad in his abased clothes, and jump to the determination that he was Calamitous Polymorphed. They keep the toad for a while earlier 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 film doesn't follow The Odyssey to the letter, it does borrow some notable plot elements from it, such as the Cyclops, the sirens, and i of the chief characters trying to go abode to his wife then she won't marry someone else.
• Mythology Gag: Big Dan the cyclops looks like he'southward going to lose his heart to a flung Confederate flag spear, much similar Polyphemus, simply he manages to grab it betwixt his hands at the last moment. Then the gang cuts downward the fiery cross, which falls on pinnacle of him, almost certainly burning his eye out and preserving a piece of the narrative.
• Never Trust a Title: No, the three chief characters are not brothers, nor are they trying to detect their long-lost brother. The title is really a reference to an old movie.
• No Animals Were Harmed: The moo-cow that was run over past the cops in pursuit of Baby Confront Nelson was CGI, which resulted in the rare addendum to the alert, "No animals were harmed in the making of this film. Any scenes showing animals in jeopardy were simulated."
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: At that place really was a Low-era Governor named Pappy O'Daniel, but his given name was Wilbert Lee O'Daniel; in the film the governor'due south existent starting time name 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 then avoided. And then happens slightly differently anyway.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Teague'southward reaction when he realizes that the fiery cross was coming downward directly at him.
  • Homer Stokes' reaction when he realizes that the town, after his endeavor at getting the Soggy Bottom Boys arrested failed, is now going to run him out of town on a rail as revenge for interrupting the functioning.
  • Finally, the tedious, 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, just for beingness there.
• Paper-Sparse Disguise: Toward the end of the picture show, the fugitive "Soggy Bottom Boys" perform "In the Jailhouse Now" and "Man of Abiding Sorrow" while disguised with imitation beards. Lampshaded later, when their performance wins over the oversupply and Everett deliberately yanks his beard off for a moment to show Penny who he is.
• The Pardon: Granted merely ignored.
• Pedal-to-the-Metal Shot: Parodied. The boy who helps our heroes escape a called-for barn in a Ford Model A has fruit crates strapped to his shoes. What's more, the car can't go very fast anyway, and and so breaks down shortly after their escape.
• Politically Correct History: Zig-zagged. The white heroes refer to Tommy as a "male child," but otherwise treat him as an equal. The radio station manager insists that he won't play "colored songs," but in one case the "Soggy Bottom Boys" get popular he's ecstatic near them and signs them. Pappy O'Daniel doesn't seem to care that "they's integrated" subsequently 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, 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, every bit by 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 leave in droves; membership continued to refuse until the Civil Rights Movement started gaining momentum in the 1950s, merely they have never come close to the level seen in the twenties. Information technology should exist 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 cantankerous-called-for and lynching, and expects the audience to sympathise with him when he attacks people for stopping a lynching. It's not hard to judge that the only reason he's booed is because the people he'southward accusing happen to be a very pop music ring, not because of general principle.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Homer Stokes, candidate for governor by day, Klansman by night.
• Popculture Osmosis: The Coens take claimed that they've never actually read The Odyssey, simply know the story through its various adaptations.
• Produce Pelting: What the audience does when Homer Stokes ends up interrupting the Soggy Bottom Boys performance to get them arrested, that likewise every bit ride him out of town on a rail.
• Existent Is Brown: Pursued with a vengeance, given that a substantial portion of the film's mail service-product budget went into all-encompassing color-correction. The Coens wanted every frame of the movie to reflect the dingy, withered dustbowl await, and in some cases took entire fields of green flora and turned them yellow.
• 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, merely because splitting such a modest 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 can have the whole thing.
• Retirony: Of a sort. Pete was ii weeks from existence released from prison anyhow. Now that he's escaped, he'll take to serve some other 50 years and won't get out until 1987.
• Road Trip Plot: The convicts are trying to get from their escape from the chain gang to Everett's secret stash, encountering many obstacles and interesting characters forth the way.
• Rock Me, Asmodeus!: "And I accept it from the highest 'thority, that that negra... sold his soul to the Devil!!!" ^note The townsfolk don't buy into information technology, though.
• Running Gag:

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

  • Everett's obsession with his Dapper Dan pomade likewise counts, also as his reflexive worrying about his hair whenever something wakes him in the middle 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, as white as you folks, with empty eyes and a big hollow vocalism. He likes to travel around with a mean old hound." All the same, upon seeing him at the end of the movie, Tommy doesn't seem to notice.
• Saved by the Coffin: Afterward 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 Conversation:
  • This charming example:

    "He's gonna paddle our little behind."
    "Ain't gonna paddle it — gonna kick it. Real hard."
    "No, I believe he'due south gonna paddle it."
    "I don't believe that's a proper clarification."
    "Well, that'due south how I'd characterize it."
    "I believe it's more of a kickin' sitchiation."

  • The give-and-take 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 Groundwork Event described higher up:

    Everett: Say, whatever of you fellas happen to be smithies? If not smithies per se, perhaps you lot trained in the metallurgical arts earlier straitened circumstances led you to a life of aimless wandering?

  • Also Big Dan Teague:

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

• Shout-Out:
  • The film's title is itself a Shout-Out to Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels.
  • The entire plot contains various shout outs to the Greek epic poem The Odyssey by Homer. The main protagonist is named Ulysses in both stories, has to go home to prevent his married woman from marrying someone else, and they encounter singing women who seduce them (the Sirens) and a ane-eyed giant 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 over again, who was also said to be blind.
  • Tommy's Deal with the Devil is a reference to a similar deal supposedly made 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 "Difficult Time Killing Floor Blues," originally past Johnson'south gimmicky Skip James.
  • Not to mention that a human 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 Can Homo try to sneak into the witch'south castle. The guards are chanting the way the KKK does and even doing a like trip the light fantastic toe, and the iii heroes steal disguises from the guards/KKK.
  • The Soggy Bottom Boys are a reference to the Light Crust Doughboys, who were featured on the real-life Pappy O'Daniel's radio show, and/or the Foggy Mount 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's Equally I Lay Dying. And they employ it as a raft.
  • Sheriff Cooley looks and dresses very similarly to Boss Godfrey in Cool Mitt Luke, right downwardly to his Scary Shiny Spectacles.
  • George Clooney's operation as Everett owes more than than a little to Clark Gable.
  • A throwaway gag may be a shout-out to Porky Sus scrofa:

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

  • "Is you is, or is you lot ain't, my constituency?" ^annotation ...my baby
• Sold His Soul for a Donut: The primary characters meet a immature musician who claims to accept sold his soul to exist able to play the guitar actually well. Delmar, who recently had a religious experience, is disappointed past the idea of selling a soul for so fiddling.
• Something Nosotros Forgot: The trio arrive at the cabin in the valley to recollect Penny's ring, forgetting that Sheriff Cooley had earlier learned of the location past torturing Pete and is now lying in wait for them.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Many of the characters in a patchily educated style, but by and large Everett. "I'm the goddamn paterfamilias!"
• Source Music: All the music in the film is diegetic.
• Stout Strength: Large Dan Teague.
• Stern Hunt: The Warden'due south search for the three convicts.
• The Stool Dove: 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 it being in his clothes).
• Surrounded by Idiots: Pappy O'Daniel'due south cronies and son are sycophantic yep-men who are a bit slow on the uptake, and Pappy is painfully aware of this. This is most probable the reason he tries to convince Vernon T. Waldrip to leave Stokes' campaign and join his.
• Suspiciously Specific Deprival: "Who is that man?" "Not my husband." Besides 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 make clean slate... which generally ways doing exactly what they were before. They're also a bit confused to hear that it doesn't actually do anything for their criminal records.

  Delmar: Simply they was witnesses that seen us redeemed.
  Everett: Even if it did put yous square with the Lord, the state of Mississippi'due south a little more than hard-nosed.

  • Everett is then even more than symbolically baptized when he gives his Not-So-Last Confession, on his knees praying for salvation... when the damming of the river floods the valley and sweeps away non just sins, but sinners, and houses.
• Those Two Guys: Pappy'southward two advisors, see the Seinfeldian Conversation higher up.
• Trail of Bread Crumbs: How the sheriff keeps finding Everett. Everett's a Dapper Dan man, going through obscene amounts of the stuff whenever he can become a hold of it. The sheriff's bloodhound can track him easily.
• Travel Montage: We become a series of scenes showing the trio making their way across Mississippi, stealing a car, stealing a pie (Delmar pays for information technology), telling scary stories effectually the bivouac (hook-handed man)...
• Truthful Companions: Everett, Pete, Delmar, and Tommy.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
  • The depository financial institution customers at the robbery seem to exist rather not-plussed past all the shooting.
  • Everett himself is rather non-plussed by Large Dan beating the hell out of Delmar with a tree co-operative until Big Dan starts attacking him.
• Upper-Class Twit: Pappy O'Daniel's son.
• The Vamp: The iii sirens.
• Villainous Glutton: Large Dan Teague, equally befits his correspondence with the cyclops Polyphemus.
• Villainous Breakup: "Babyface" Nelson and Homer Stokes.
  • Nelson gets meliorate...sort of.
  • "MY NAME IS GEORGE NELSON, AND I'Thousand FEELIN' TEN FEET TALL!"
• Villain with Good Publicity: Homer Stokes, oh then much.
• Wardens Are Evil: The Sheriff. While at the first he is in the right to hunt down Everett, Pete, and Delmar (because of them beingness fugitives), he goes for overkill tactics like called-for downward a barn with them inside. He insists that he answers to a higher law than man's (so he will just keep coming no matter what), and the moment he makes it clear that he will encounter them all hang fifty-fifty if they are now pardoned (and he will kill Tommy for no reason other than him beingness there with the fugitives), he crosses the Moral Event Horizon hard. That he is a Satanic Archetype doesn't help any.
• Warm Place, Warm Lighting: The flick uses an extreme xanthous filter throughout that makes what were green fields await xanthous. While it gives the movie a nostalgic sepia feel, information technology also accentuates the fact that the story takes place in sweltering rural Mississippi in the middle of summer.
• Wedding Ring Removal: As the guys encounter the singing sirens, Everett, in the background, pulls his wedding ring off right before the girls come over and starting time 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 work on the concatenation gang and has to exist broken out of prison house again.

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

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