O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Story

Only Joel and Ethan Coen, the fraternal director and producer team behind art-house hits such as The Big Lebowski and Fargo and masters of quirky and ultra-stylish genre subversion, would dare nick the plot line of Homer's Odyssey for a comic picaresque saga about three cons on the run in 1930s Mississippi. Our wandering hero in this case is one Ulysses Everett McGill, a slick-tongued wise guy with a thing about hair pomade (George Clooney, blithely sending up his own dapper image) who talks his chain-gang buddies (Coen-movie regular John Turturro and newcomer Tim Blake Nelson) into lighting out after some buried loot he claims to know of. En route they come up against a prophetic blind man on a railroad truck, a burly, one-eyed baddie (the ever-magnificent John Goodman), a trio of sexy singing ladies, a blues guitarist who's sold his soul to the devil, a brace of crooked politicos on the stump, a manic-depressive bank robber, and--well, you get the idea. Into this, their most relaxed film yet, the Coens have tossed a beguiling ragbag of inconsequential situations, a wealth of looping, left-field dialogue, and a whole stash of gags both verbal and visual. O Brother (the title's lifted from Preston Sturges's classic 1941 comedy Sullivan's Travels) is furthermore graced with glowing, burnished photography from Roger Deakins and a masterly soundtrack from T-Bone Burnett that pays loving homage to American '30s folk styles--blues, gospel, bluegrass, jazz, and more. And just to prove that the brothers haven't lost their knack for bad-taste humor, we get a Ku Klux Klan rally choreographed like a cross between a Nuremberg rally and a Busby Berkeley musical. --Philip Kemp

DVD Features

DVD Features:
-Exclusive behind-the-scenes featurette
-"Painting with Pixels," the groundbreaking digital post-production process
-Soggy Bottom Boys "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" music video
-Script to storyboard to final scene comparisons (multi-angle feature)
-Widescreen anamorphic format

Cast

George Clooney	Everett
John Turturro	Pete
Tim Blake Nelson	Delman
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 Nelso
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 (as Daniel Von Bargen)
Royce D. Applegate	Man with Bullhorn
Frank Collision	Wash Hogwallop
Quinn Gasaway	Boy Hogwallop
Lee Weaver	Blind Seer
Milford Fortenberry	Pomade Vendor (as Milford Fortenberry)
Stephen Root	Radio Station Man
John Locke	Mr. French
Gillian Welch	Soggy Bottom Customer
A. Ray Ratliff	Record Store Clerk
Mia Tate	Siren
Musetta Vander	Siren
Christy Taylor	Siren
April Hardcastle	Waitress
Michael W. Finnell	Interrogator
Georgie Rae Rainer	Wharvey Gal
Marianna Breland	Wharvey Gal
Lindsey Miller	Wharvey Gal
Natalie Shedd	Wharvey Gal
John McConnell	Woolworths Manager
Issac Freeman	Gravedigger
Wilson Waters Jr.	Gravedigger
Robert Hamlet	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
Billy W. Blackwell	Rally and Banquet Patron (uncredited)
Ron Block	Banjo Player (uncredited)
Dan Braun	Klansman (uncredited)
Jerry Douglas	Dorbro Player (uncredited)
Christopher Francis	KKK Member (uncredited)
Geoffrey Gould	Head of Mob (uncredited)
Emily D. Haley	Party People (uncredited)
Nathaniel Lee Jr.	Ice Boy on the Right with Straw Hat (uncredited)
Mark Munson	KKK Member (uncredited)
Andy Sims	Rally Patron (uncredited)
Shayne Tingle	Rail Man (uncredited)
Dan Tyminski	Mandolin Player on Stage at the Stokes Fundraiser (uncredited)
Leon Walls	Guitar Player (uncredited)