O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a 2000 American film written and directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen.
It stars George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Holly Hunter, and John Goodman. The plot follows three escaped convicts named Everett Ulysses McGill (Clooney), Pete Maravich (Turturro), and Delmar O’Donnell (Nelson) as they plan to rob a bank in Mississippi during the Great Depression.
Contents
Plot
After escaping from a chain gang, Pete, Delmar and Ulysses Everett McGill go looking for a treasure hidden before the land is flooded to construct a lake. A blind guy operating a handcar takes them. Their wealth will be found, but not the one they want. They go to Wash’s, Pete’s cousin’s place. They sleep in the barn, but Wash informs Sheriff Cooley, who sets fire to it. Wash’s kid aids them.
They pick up Tommy Johnson, a young black guy who says he sold his soul to the devil for a guitar. Destitute of funds, the four halt at a radio tower and record a song as the Soggy Bottom Boys The group leaves Tommy that night when the cops find their automobile. A massive hit record, unbeknownst to them.
He was singing along a river. They observe three ladies singing and washing. The ladies give them corn whiskey, and they pass out. When Delmar wakes up, he finds Pete’s garments empty save for a toad. Delmar believes the ladies were Sirens who made Pete a toad.
In the end, Big Dan, the one-eyed Bible salesman, mugs them and kills the toad. The two witness Pete laboring on a chain gang on their route to Everett’s hometown. Awaiting him is Penny, who has changed her surname and informed his children he is dead. He fights Vernon, her new” suitor” They sneak into Pete’s cell later that night and liberate him. The ladies had hauled Pete away and handed him over to the cops.
Pete revealed the treasure’s location to the cops under duress. Everett admits there is no treasure. He made it up to persuade the people he was chained with to help him escape. Due to the escape, Pete must spend fifty years on his initial sentence.
The gang runs into a Ku Klux Klan assembly aiming to hang Tommy. They disguise themselves as Klansmen to save Tommy. But Big Dan, a Klan member, identifies them. The Grand Wizard exposes himself as Homer Stokes, a contender for governor. The three chase Tommy away and cut the Ross’s supports, letting it fall on Big Dan.
The Climax Of The Movie
The three escapees, Everett Ulysses McGill (George Clooney), Pete Maravich (John Turturro) and Delmar O’Donnell (Tim Blake Nelson), are holed up in a cabin in the Mississippi Delta. They have stolen a truckload of money from a bank, and now they want to go on the run. But first, they need to rob another bank.
Everett, Pete and Delmar plan to rob the Haberdasher National Bank in Memphis, Tennessee. They will exchange the money for US$40 000 each and then head off to Mexico believing that their troubles are over. But things don’t go quite as planned when a group of FBI agents arrives at the cabin 2 days into their robbery attempt dealing with bad luck rather than any early-warning system, but everything keeps getting worse.
The Story Behind The Movie
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is based on the real-life experiences of three escaped convicts: Everett Ulysses McGill (George Clooney), Pete Maravich (John Turturro) and Delmar O’Donnell (Tim Blake Nelson). The trio was actually convicted of bank robbery in 1939 but managed to escape from prison in 1952. Before splitting up, they traveled together for a time; McGill eventually made his way to Europe while O’Donnell, and Maravich headed off to Florida.
In 2001, author Pete Dexter was looking for a subject for his screenplay when he came across newspaper clippings about the trio’s bank robbery spree in rural Mississippi during the Great Depression – but it wasn’t something he had written before. He then decided more real-life drama could be woven into a fictional story. And so, this film started to take shape as an ensemble piece rather than a simple biopic.
Although the main focus was on three members of society, it quickly became clear that money is only an aspect to be concerned within their story – and so tobacco-plantation owner Thomas” Huc” Finlay (Dwayne Johnson) emerged as another relevant character for which we have to care about because his grandfather is indebted to Maravich’s family. Musician Jim Carson also acts as someone we could relate to (despite the fact he’s an outlaw) due to his connections with O’Donnell during their years as prisoner-workers on one of Hooverville tobacco farms.
And then there are all those bank employees, store owners, farmhands and lawmen from Mississippi whose fates will also affect us if our journey takes them into direct contact with these criminals”.
Movie Cast And characters
1.George Clooney
Clooney stars as Everett” Delma” Delmar, a wrongly imprisoned man for a crime he did not commit. After three years, he is released from prison and returns to his hometown of Monroe, Louisiana. His brother Everett Jr. (John Turturro) is the local sheriff, and his father Everett Sr. (Tim Blake Nelson) owns the local bank. The film was shot in Mississippi and Louisiana during the summer of 1999.
2.Tim Blake Nelson
The role of Delmar Sr. is played by actor Tim Blake Nelson, who received an Academy Award nomination (Best Supporting Actor) in 2000 for his work on the film” O Brother, Where Art Thou.” The scene-stealing supporting roles were decided upon to put as many different actors as possible into the cast – this ended up giving them all a chance to share screen time with each other rather than just Clooney or Johnson.
3.John Turturro
Everett Delmar’s older brother and sheriff of Monroe, Louisiana, is played by John Turturro. He has appeared in films such as “Scent of a Woman,” The Great Santino,” and most notably, the Coen brothers” Academy Award-winning film” O Brother, Where Art Thou.“
4.John Goodman
One of the key characters in the film is a local bank robber named Waiter (John Goodman). Goodman has appeared in many successful films, including “The Big Lebowski,” Jun,” and, “O Brother, Where Art Thou.”
5.Holly Hunter
The film also features Holly Hunter, who was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1999 for her performance as Delmar’s mother. She appeared in “The Piano,” “Blaz,” and the film of O’Connor’s play, which was later made into an Oscar-nominated television mini-series.
Ending of the Movie
Everett enlists Pete, Delmar, and Tommy’s aid in regaining his They pose as musicians and sneak into a Stokes campaign gala banquet. The group starts its radio hit. The audience knows the song and erupts. They are the gang that embarrassed Homer’s mob.
Crowds chase him out of town after he demands the gang be imprisoned and discloses his white nationalist ideas. Pappy O’Donnell, the incumbent candidate, takes advantage of the situation and pardons the Soggy Bottom Boys. Penny will marry Everett if he finds her original ring.
The following morning, the crew sets out to find the ring, which Everett had stated was his treasure’s location. Pete hastily informs the cops, who arrest the bunch. Sheriff Cooley hangs them after dismissing their pardon applications. The valley floods, and they are rescued as Everett prays to God. The ring is found on a floating desk, and they return to town. When Everett gives Penny a ring, she discovers it is her aunt’s. She says she won’t marry him with that ring, but with her wedding ring, which she can’t find.
Awards
The film received six Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture. It won Best Supporting Actor for Tim Blake Nelson, Best Screenplay (screenwriter Joel Coen and his brother Ethan), Production Design by Eve Eskell and Original Music Score by Carter Burwell.
It also received three BAFTA nominations, including Alan Rickman as Best Actor in a Supporting Role. At the 71st Academy Awards ceremony,” Farg” went on to win Best Supporting Actor for Nelson and Costume Design by Sandy Powell.
At 2:58 am after winning that category, Rickman asked Coen if he would accept a Golden Globe Award as Best Director instead at 4:21 am when accepting his Oscar for “The Reade.” “Farg” also won a Canadian Screen Award in 1998.
The 67th British Academy Film Awards presented by the BAFTA gave” Farg” three nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay, Production Design and Sound. At the 56th Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles (the first of which was held at The Beverly Hilton’s Two-Story Ballroom),” Farg” won six awards, including Best Picture—making it one of just four movies to have been awarded 12 trophies during that year.
Sam Rockwell won the award for Best Supporting Actor, while Meryl Streep and Holly Hunter were awarded their respective Oscars in the same category. Powell also received a Golden Globe nomination (her first of three), and Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award from BAFTA America, two Satellite Awards nominations: Outstanding Motion Picture—Director and Costume Design.
Overall reviews
Audience analysis
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 97%” fresh” rating, based on 271 reviews. The site’s consensus reads: “With its cool and collected Nebraska setting, Fargo embraces its pulp roots with intelligence and grace” On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating” universal acclaim.”
Roger Ebert was awarded 3 out of 4 stars in his review for “The Chicago Sun-Time.” In a positive review for” Chicago Tribune,” critic Roger Ebert said,” Frag” comes from the Coen brothers” fertile energies. Like their previous two movies —1998’s” Barton Fink” and 1996’s “Miller’s Crossing”—it takes us into the unique territory of movie noir, which they’ve made their own.
Unlike them, however, this new film displays some showmanship. But no showman could imitate their wit, which goes right to the center of personality” Dave Kehr in” The New York Time” gave 3.5 out of 4 stars and wrote” ”Farg” is one weird movie, but it’s also an artful work — as well-made a film as I’ve seen recently except for one or two others.
Critic’s analysis
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) is a Coen Brothers film about three black men in the 1930s who are forced to escape their rural Georgia home to seek refuge in New Orleans during the Great Depression. The movie has been critically acclaimed and received several awards nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director for Joel and Ethan Coen, and Best Supporting Actor for George Clooney.
George Clooney was awarded an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and each of the film’s four leads—Clooney as Ulysses Everett McGill; John Turturro as Pete Smalls (Tim Blake Nelson), an out-of-work writer and journalist; Tim Blake Nelson as Lenny Bruce (Michael Frederick Gersten); John Goodman, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya—were nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
The Coen brothers” films are notable from another feature point of view: the way they have been executed even on-stage restricted locations. In this case, too, there’s nothing new -the same precautions were applied in O Brother Where Art Thou? a 1998 film about three men from a rural county in Mississippi who, during the Great Depression, try to escape to New Orleans – and find themselves in similar circumstances.
Visual effects
The visual effects department created a huge and elaborate Old West set in the Sonoran desert, which doubled for two 1930s Mississippi towns—one resembling Money, Mississippi (on the Yazoo River), and the other Greenwood (just south of Vicksburg)—and also served as gallery space for galleries representing disparate art movements in juxtaposition with each other.
O Brother Where Art Thou? is an odd film, but it’s also fiercely entertaining and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a Houston liberal who is defending the governor of Mississippi during his impeachment hearing for allegedly having defied Court orders to halt prison digging at Parch man Penitentiary (where he said “he’d still be if it weren’t for that Negro Warden”), has even called it” a movie with no politics at all.” The films from nonpolitical places – in fact so completely un-politicized that in the few instances of “on-screen” references to present controversy, Hoover’s name is not even mentioned.
Acting Performance
Goodman’s performance is one of the best things about the film – he creates a believable, sympathetic character and his scenes are among the most touching. McDormand provides an authoritative presence as Goodman’s wife, Alma; her classic screen act is beautifully constructed, and she brings warmth and humor to a few key roles. This is a well-made, powerful film.
O Brother Where Art Thou? has been selected for the 2002 Federally Recognized Indian Community (FRIC) Film Festival June 27th – July 1st in Amarillo, Texas. “A powerful tribute to family love, O Brother Where Art Thou ” tells the story of a chain gang escape in 1930s Mississippi.
As the Marshall Project reported, Goodman played George” Hound Dog” Price, who leads his three brothers (including Rick & Luke), as well as two other inmates and one guard on an impossible journey that comes about after they seize control of two prison buses for transportation.
The last scene shows Jackson, Mississippi prison Chief Warden Teas (Ed Harris) attempting to recapture the group. This scene involves a great chase, preceding and following a car chase between the warden’s black Chevrolet Corvette and don’t Know Jackson’s white 1957 Ford Thunderbird.
Two other employees from his prison transportation service, including his ex-wife Jeanie Godwin are briefly shown clinging for their lives in various places on this long stretch of freeway filled with whirling traffic during this high-speed chase scene.
Conclusion
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a 2000 American comedy-drama film written, produced and directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. It stars George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Dan Aykroyd, and John Goodman. The film takes place in Mississippi during the Great Depression, as two escaped convicts hide out in rural Mississippi from authorities.
FAQs:
1.Why Is O Brother, Where Art Thou a Good Movie?
- O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a great movie because it is based on a true story and it is well-made.
- O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a great movie because it has an interesting plot that will keep you engaged the entire time.
- O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a great movie because its soundtrack is amazing, and it features some of the best performances by actors in recent memory.
2.Who Is Homer in the Movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?
- Homer is the protagonist’s name in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?
- Delmar is a character in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?
- Dewey Cox is a character in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?
3.What Is the Rating for O Brother, Where Art Thou?
- O Brother, Where Art Thou? is rated 9/10 on IMDb.
- The film has been praised for its great acting and directing.
- It has been compared to the classic American westerns such as The Searchers and Shane.
4.What Are the Themes of O Brother, Where Art Thou?
- Themes of O Brother, Where Art Thou? Include the themes of betrayal, friendship, and family.
- The film is set during the Great Depression and features characters who are trying to escape from the Dust Bowl.
- Another theme is redemption, as various characters try to find their way back home after getting lost in the Mississippi Delta.
5.Why Is Mary’s Husband Kidnapped?
Ans: In the film, there has no explanation provided to tell why Bobby was snatched. However, it was clear that kidnapping Bobby would have made Nicholas Andre and Mental and Shay wealthy.
Leave a Reply