O Brother, Where Art Thou?
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O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Year:
Duration:
106 min | 107 min
Genres:
Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Music
IMDB rate:
7.8
Director:
Joel Coen
Awards:
Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 7 wins & 30 nominations
Details
Country: UK
Release Date: 2001-02-02
Filming Locations: Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA
Earnings
Budget: $26,000,000
Opening Weekend: $195,104 (USA) (25 December 2000)
Gross: $45,506,619 (USA) (5 August 2001)
Cast
Actor
Character
George Clooney
George Clooney
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Georgia Rae Rainer
Georgia Rae Rainer
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Natalie Shedd
Natalie Shedd
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Mia Tate
Mia Tate
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
John Turturro
Pete Hogwallop
Tim Blake Nelson
Delmar O'Donnell
John Goodman
Big Dan Teague
Holly Hunter
Penny
Chris Thomas King
Tommy Johnson
Charles Durning
Pappy O'Daniel
Del Pentecost
Junior O'Daniel
Michael Badalucco
George Nelson
J.R. Horne
Pappy's Staff
Brian Reddy
Pappy's Staff
Wayne Duvall
Homer Stokes
Ed Gale
The Little Man
Ray McKinnon
Vernon T. Waldrip
Daniel von Bargen
Sheriff Cooley
Royce D. Applegate
Man with Bullhorn
Frank Collison
Wash Hogwallop
Quinn Gasaway
Boy Hogwallop
Lee Weaver
Blind Seer
Millford Fortenberry
Pomade Vendor
Stephen Root
Radio Station Man
John Locke
Mr. French
Gillian Welch
Soggy Bottom Customer
A. Ray Ratliff
Record Store Clerk
Musetta Vander
Siren
Christy Taylor
Siren
April Hardcastle
Waitress
Michael W. Finnell
Interrogator
Marianna Breland
Wharvey Gal
Lindsey Miller
Wharvey Gal
John McConnell
Woolworths Manager
Issac Freeman
Gravedigger
Wilson Waters Jr.
Gravedigger
Robert Hamlett
Gravedigger
Willard Cox
Cox Family
Evelyn Cox
Cox Family
Suzanne Cox
Cox Family
Sidney Cox
Cox Family
Buck White
The Whites
Sharon White
The Whites
Cheryl White
The Whites
Ed Snodderly
Village Idiot
David Holt
Village Idiot
Seth Bailey
Banquet Patron, Cigar Smoker (uncredited)
Billy W. Blackwell
Rally and Banquet Patron (uncredited)
Ron Block
Banjoist (uncredited)
Dan Braun
Klansman (uncredited)
Ryder Davis
Klansman (uncredited)
Jerry Douglas
Dobro Player (uncredited)
Christopher Francis
KKK Member (uncredited)
Gloria Gonnillini
Lady at Political Rally (uncredited)
Geoffrey Gould
Head of Mob (uncredited)
Stuart Greenwell
Rail Man (uncredited)
Emily D. Haley
Partygoer (uncredited)
Nathan Kornelis
Klansman (uncredited)
Nathaniel Lee Jr.
Ice Boy with Straw Hat (uncredited)
Lamar Lott
Rally Attendee (uncredited)
Mark Munson
KKK Member (uncredited)
Andy Sims
Rallygoer (uncredited)
Shayne Tingle
Rail Man (uncredited)
Dan Tyminski
Mandolinist on Stage (uncredited)
Leon Walls
Guitarist (uncredited)
Did you know?
Trivia
At the end, Everett's line, "Finding one little ring, in the middle of all that water, is one hell of a heroic task," is a reference to the legend of Theseus, who had to find a golden ring at the bottom of the ocean to prove he was the son of Poseidon.
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The character of Pappy O'Daniel is based on W. Lee (Pappy) O'Daniel who served as Governor of Texas (not Mississippi) from 1939-1941 and later as U.S. Senator. He was a flour baron with a radio show and sang with the Light Crust Doughboys. He was famous for refusing to vote in protest of the poll tax.
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The whole concept is loosely based on author Howard Waldrop's novella, "A Dozen Tough Jobs," which recounts the labors of Hercules in a similar Mississippi setting, albeit ten years earlier. The Coen brothers tip their hat in Waldrop's direction through the name of Penny's suitor, "Waldrip." Another possible link comes from the William Faulkner short novel, "Old Man." In it a convict survives an Odyssey like adventure. The "tall convict" in the story is carried away on the flooding Mississippi of 1927 and struggles to return home. At the very end of the story he remembers the only sweetheart he had before being incarcerated and how she stopped visiting him in prison or returning his letters until finally sending him a postcard. "It was a postcard, a colored lithograph of a Birmingham hotel, a childish X inked heavily across one window, the heavy writing on the reverse slanted and primer-like too: This is where were honnymonning at. Your friend (Mrs) Vernon Waldrip."
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Goofs
In the cafe with Big Dan Teague, Everett's voice doesn't match up with his lips while he is ordering during the close-ups of Big Dan.
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Early in the film, while Everett, Pete, and Delmar are trying to reach the treasure that Everett has hidden, it's mentioned that they have only four days to reach it before it's flooded by the Tennessee Valley Authority. However, there are at least six different night scenes from that point until the scene in which the flooding takes place.
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The camera is reflected in a window of the locomotive that passes in front of the three escaping convicts.
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Quotes
Delmar O'Donnell: We thought you was a toad!
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Ulysses Everett McGill: I am the only daddy you got! I'm the damn paterfamilias!
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Pappy O'Daniel: Moral fibre? I invented moral fibre! Pappy O'Daniel was displaying rectitude and high-mindedness when that egghead you work for was still messing his drawers!
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Faq
Q
Why is the name of this movie "O Brother Where Art Thou?"
A
The title of the film is related to the Preston Sturges film "Sullivan's Travels," created in 1941. In the film, Sully, the main character in the movie (a movie producer that specialized in madcap comedies), wants to make a film about the poor. The film that he wanted to make was "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". So in order to get a factual film about them he sets out with only $0.10 in his pocket and when things start to get harder for him because the studio sends a mobile home to follow him with a publicity staff to chronicle his travels, he pulls out and goes back to his normal life. He decides to dress as a bum one more time to distribute $5 bills to the poor on the streets and the hobos in the train yard, but a homeless man knocks Sully in the head and drags him onto a train. He steals his shoes (which has his identification in them in case something happened to him) and runs off. Karma eventually catches up with the man when he is hit by a train. The body, which was completely unidentifiable, was found with Sully's shoes, and therefore Sully was assumed dead. Rather, Sully gets into his own trouble and is sent away for six years at a work camp. The only relief he gets and the only enjoyment he sees in the people around him is when the prisoners go to a Baptist church to watch cartoons with the congregation, and he realizes comedy is what people need to keep their hopes up in those troubled times. Eventually he sees that he's believed to be dead from seeing a paper and he says he committed the murder. When the studio heads come out from Hollywood to prosecute the murderer, they realize who he is. and have him released. He's now even more famous, and the studio gives him carte blanche to make the serious movie, and he declines. The only reason that Sully didn't want to make it is because he saw what suffering really was, and that comedy is the only thing that some people have, so he decides to make a comedy instead of this so to be "epic movie." He understands that the poor really do have it hard and he wouldn't want to make a movie about their hard times, because they know about them already. They would rather see a comedy to make them laugh.
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Photos from cast
George Clooney Georgia Rae Rainer Natalie Shedd Mia Tate
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