Oh Brother, Where Art Thou

''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' is a 2000 comedy drama film written, produced, co-edited, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson, with Chris Thomas King, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning in supporting roles.

The film is set in rural Mississippi during the 1930s, and it follows three escaped convicts searching for hidden treasure while a police officer relentlessly pursues them. Its story is a modern satire loosely based on Homer's epic Greek poem the ''Odyssey'' that incorporates social features of the American South. Some examples of this include Sirens, a Cyclops, and even the main characters name, "Ulysses" is the Roman name for "Odysseus". The title of the film is a reference to the Preston Sturges 1941 film ''Sullivan's Travels'', in which the protagonist is a director who wants to film ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'', a fictitious book about the Great Depression.

Much of the music used in the film is period folk music. The movie was one of the first to extensively use digital color correction to give the film an autumnal sepia-tinted look. It was released by Buena Vista Pictures (through Touchstone Pictures) in North America, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Universal Pictures released it in other countries. The film was met with a positive critical reception, and the soundtrack won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2002. The country and folk musicians who were dubbed into the film include John Hartford, Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Ralph Stanley, Chris Sharp, Patty Loveless, and others. They joined to perform the music from the film in the ''Down from the Mountain'' concert tour, which was filmed for consumer consumption via TV and DVD.

Plot

Three convicts, Pete, Delmar, and Ulysses Everett McGill, escape from a chain gang and set out to retrieve a treasure Everett claims to have buried, before the area is flooded to make a lake. The three get a lift from a blind man driving a handcar on a railway. He tells them they will find a fortune, but not the one they seek. The trio make their way to the house of Wash, Pete's cousin. They sleep in the barn, but Wash reports them to Sheriff Cooley, who, along with his men, torches the barn. Wash's son helps them escape.

They pick up Tommy Johnson, a young black man who claims he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the ability to play guitar (a legend told about blues musician Robert Johnson). In need of money, the four stop at a radio broadcast tower where they record a song as the Soggy Bottom Boys. That night, the trio part ways with Tommy after their car is discovered by the police. Unbeknownst to them, the recording becomes a major hit.

Near a river, the group encounters three women washing clothes and singing. The women drug them with corn whiskey and they lose consciousness. Upon waking, Delmar finds Pete's clothes lying next to him, empty except for a toad. Delmar is convinced the women were sirens who transformed Pete into the toad. Later, one-eyed Bible salesman Big Dan invites them for a picnic lunch, then mugs them and kills the toad.

On their way to Everett's home town, Everett and Delmar see Pete working on a chain gang. Upon arriving Everett confronts his wife Penny, who changed her last name and told his daughters he was dead, and gets into a fight with her suitor Vernon. Later that night, they sneak into Pete's holding cell and free him. As it turns out, the women had dragged Pete away and turned him in to the authorities for the bounty. Under torture, Pete gave away the treasure's location to the police. Everett then confesses that there is no treasure; he fabricated the story to convince Delmar and Pete to escape with him in order to stop his wife from getting married. Pete, who only had two weeks left on his original sentence and will likely face fifty more years for escaping, is enraged.

The trio stumble upon a rally of the Ku Klux Klan, who are planning to hang Tommy. The trio disguise themselves as Klansmen and move to rescue Tommy. However, Big Dan, a Klan member, reveals their identities. Chaos ensues, and the Grand Wizard reveals himself as Homer Stokes, a candidate in the upcoming gubernatorial election. The trio rush Tommy away and cut the supports of a large burning cross, incinerating Big Dan.

Everett convinces Pete, Delmar, and Tommy to help him win his wife back. They sneak into a Stokes campaign gala dinner she is attending, disguised as musicians. The group begins a performance of their radio hit. The crowd recognizes the song and goes wild. Homer recognizes them as the group who humiliated his mob. When he demands the group be arrested and reveals his white supremacist views, the crowd runs him out of town on a rail. Pappy O'Daniel, the incumbent candidate, seizes the opportunity, endorses the Soggy Bottom Boys and grants them full pardons. Penny agrees to marry Everett with the condition that he find her original ring.

The next morning, the group sets out to retrieve the ring, which is at a cabin in the valley which Everett had earlier claimed was the location of his treasure. The police, having learned of the place from Pete, arrest the group. Dismissing their claims of having received pardons, Sheriff Cooley orders them hanged. As Everett prays to God, the valley is flooded and they are saved. Tommy finds the ring in a desk that floats by, and they return to town. However, when Everett presents the ring to Penny, it turns out it was her aunt's ring. She declares that she will not marry him with that ring, but only her wedding ring which is still lost.

Cast

* George Clooney as Ulysses Everett McGill. He corresponds to Odysseus (Ulysses) in the ''Odyssey''. His singing voice is dubbed by Dan Tyminski.
* John Turturro as Pete. (His last name is never stated in the film.) Along with Delmar, Pete represents Odysseus' soldiers who wander with him from Troy to Ithaca, seeking to return home. His singing is dubbed by Harley Allen.
* Tim Blake Nelson as Delmar O'Donnell. Nelson does his own singing on “In the Jailhouse Now