Everett, Pete and Delmar are seeking their fortune.
Unfortunately, they’re also running from the law.
The three fugitives broke free from a chain gang and hightailed it away from their shotgun-toting captors as quickly as they could. And not just for freedom’s sake: The trio is after the spoils of a robbery committed by the fast-talking Everett before he got sent to the farm. The total sum of that heist? One million dollars. Well, technically, a million point two. That’s no insignificant sum of money, especially in the Depression-era South.
But why the rush? (After all, Pete only had two weeks left on his sentence.)
Turns out, the state government plans to flood the valley housing Everett’s treasure in just a few short days. If they’re to get their reward, they’ll have to make it there before the valley is swallowed up by 9,000 hectares of water. No small task, considering they’re still chained to each other.
So, with the authorities nipping at their heels, Everett, Pete and Delmar set off on an odyssey across the forests, fields and towns of 1930s Mississippi; a long and winding road that they’re sure will lead them to their fortune.
Though the fortune they find may be much different than they expect.
Everett and his fellow escapees often squabble, but they become good friends over the course of their journey. They risk their lives to help one another and their friends, including Tommy, a young Black man.
Everett was once married and desires to reconcile with his wife. His daughters (at least, those who are old enough to remember him) are happy to see him, and he’s delighted in turn. Delmar is a kind and gentle soul.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is interwoven with spirituality. Everett, Pete and Delmar’s journey echoes Homer’s Odyssey, but there are no Greek gods to be found here. Instead, it presents an American South deeply influenced by Christianity, and it shows us two different sides of that reality. On one hand, we see the hypocrisy of groups and individuals who pay lip service to God while serving their own interests or promoting despicable practices such as racism and segregation. But the film also gives us sincere depictions of genuine Christian faith, most notably through the main characters.
Early in the film, Everett, Pete and Delmar encounter members of a white-clad congregation who are being baptized in a river. Delmar runs to the congregation’s preacher and is baptized. Immediately after, he rejoices in the knowledge that all his sins have been washed away, and he evangelizes Everett and Pete. Moved by his words, Pete is also baptized. Though there is no specific mention of Jesus during this scene (beyond the pastor baptizing in the Name of “the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost”), characters discuss being saved.
While Delmar and Pete are far from perfect after their baptisms, they do lean on their faith for the rest of the film. Delmar has a simple, almost childlike, faith; he is positioned as perhaps the best and most genuine person in the movie. Pete wrestles with his sinful nature and fails at times, but he is quick to recognize his error and to ask God for forgiveness.
That leaves Everett. Everett considers himself a man of reason and scoffs at faith, considering it “ridiculous superstition.” He often mocks his friends’ belief in a higher power and is quick to explain away any hint of the supernatural. However, at the climax of the film, we see him reach the end of his reason. With no hope of salvation by human means, he falls on his knees and prays to God, asking for forgiveness and deliverance … and it is strongly implied that God hears and answers Everett’s prayers.
As mentioned above, Everett and his friends are fugitives, and they are doggedly pursued by Sheriff Cooley, a merciless lawman whom the movie implies might not be a man at all, but rather the Devil himself. For instance, when Tommy—who sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for skill in playing the guitar—is asked what the Devil looks like, his description sounds eerily similar to Sheriff Cooley.
When Tommy is asked why he would sell his soul, he replies, “I wasn’t using it.” Everett, Pete and Delmar meet a Blind Seer who prophesies to them about their journey. They encounter “Big Dan” Teagues, a one-eyed Bible salesman and con artist who beguiles Everett and Delmar with talk of making “vast amounts of money … in the service of God Almighty.”
A Ku Klux Klan ceremony is also depicted, which includes a burning cross. A KKK leader condemns several groups, including Jews and Catholics.
A lawman calls a hangman’s noose the “stairway to heaven” and tells his captives to start saying their prayers. Another man talks about “throwing the first stone” and claims to be a “forgive-and-forget Christian.” Someone calls religious faith “spiritual mumbo jumbo.” We see a cross and the Star of David on a title card. A woman is compared to the “whore of Babylon.” Another man exclaims, “Holy St. Christopher!”
Music plays a huge role in O Brother, Where Art Thou? and shares its deep Christian and Southern roots. Most songs heard throughout the film have at least some spiritual elements. We hear renditions of “I’ll Fly Away,” “Angel Band” and “Down to the River to Pray” among others. The title of the movie’s pivotal song, “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow” is reminiscent of Isaiah 53:3, in which Jesus Christ is alluded to as a “man of sorrows.” While the song is not about Jesus, it does conclude with God’s promise of heaven and eternal life.
In one scene which parallels the Odyssey, Everett, Pete and Delmar encounter three “sirens.” In Greek mythology, the sirens would lure sailors to their deaths with their irresistible song. The sirens in this case are three scantily clad women washing in a river and singing a sultry tune. (We don’t see anything beyond the women caressing the faces of the men and moving suggestively.)
Afterward, Everett speaks disapprovingly of Pete’s assumed fornication. Delmar reminds him that they were “fixin’ to fornicate, too.”
Elsewhere, characters watch a movie in which a dancer shows a lot of leg. Someone is asked if they’ve ever been with a woman. Another talks about spreading “his seed,” in reference to his many children. A man calls his ex-wife a “succubus,” a folkloric demon known for seducing men. Sexual desire is referred to as “the itch.”
At one point, Everett, Pete and Delmar are trapped in a barn by Sheriff Cooley and his men. The authorities shoot at them and throw torches in the barn to burn it down. A police car carrying munitions is set on fire and explodes.
Later, the trio gets picked up by bank robber George “Baby Face” Nelson. Police chase and shoot at them, while Nelson returns fire with his Tommy gun. He shoots at a herd of cattle as well, and we catch a brief glimpse of one animal being struck by bullets. When the panicked herd runs across the road, a police car crashes into one of the animals.
Nelson goes on to rob a bank with Everett and the others in tow, firing his gun maniacally and flashing sticks of dynamite.
Big Dan lures Everett and Delmar to a remote location before proceeding to pummel and rob them. We see blood on Delmar’s face. A man is whipped (we see a little blood, but nothing too graphic) before a noose is placed around his neck. In fact, there are several instances in this film where characters are threatened with death by hanging.
A boy fires a rifle at Everett, Pete and Delmar. He says he’s been told to shoot anyone from the bank, and we hear that he “nicked the census man.” Pete’s cousin recounts their family’s woes, including a man hanging himself, a boy dying from mumps and losing cows to anthrax. Two men scrap and roll down a hill. A fiery cross falls and crushes a man.
A woman claims her husband was hit by a train. A man talks about being sentenced to death via the electric chair, saying he will “go off like a Roman candle.” Two men engage in a fistfight, and one gets punched in the face several times before being tossed into the street. Others tumble from a moving train. A sudden, massive flood sweeps away a group of men.
Abusive language can seem like a constant in O Brother, Where Art Thou? Conversation is peppered with curses, slights and slurs. Jesus’ name is abused five times. There are 17 instances of God’s name being abused, most of them paired with “d–n.” “D–n” on its own is used more than 20 times. The n-word is used once. So is “cracker.”
“H—” is also used nearly 20 times, including the phrase “spawn of hell.” More than a dozen instances of “son of a b—h” or its variations are heard. “Whore” is used twice, as is “a–.” Other rude phrases heard include “candy-butted,” “carpetbagging,” “lame-brained” and “clump snatcher” among others.
One of the sirens has Everett drink from a jug of moonshine. It’s implied that a few characters black out from drinking the strong alcohol. Everett orders wine at a restaurant. A political candidate chides his opponent, saying he must have heard that they “were giving out liquor” at an event. A song makes mention of a lake made of whiskey.
Even though we’re encouraged to root for Everett, Pete and Delmar, they are convicts on the run from the law who were arrested for legitimate crimes. (We learn that Everett committed fraud and Delmar robbed at least one store.) Throughout their journey, the men often lie and steal to support themselves.
Everett speculates that those who are blind could develop psychic powers to compensate for their lack of physical sight. A man’s ex-wife rejects his attempts at reconciliation but changes her tune when she realizes he has “prospects.” Someone declares that “woman is the most fiendish instrument of torture ever devised to bedevil the days of man.”
The Ku Klux Klan scene toes the line between insidious and absurd, but it might frighten more sensitive viewers. Someone sings a song about a man who would “steal, gamble and rob.” A man talks about someone “messing their drawers” as a child. An older man shakes his behind on stage during a concert.
Based on their filmography, the Coen Brothers seem to have a dichotomous view of spirituality. Watch some of their films, and you could be convinced that they lean toward a nihilistic worldview, that nothing really matters in an empty world filled with random cruelties. But other movies present a genuine, and often favorable, look at faith. Some even point to God—His love, mercy and power to redeem a fallen world.
I wonder if there’s a reason for that. Maybe the filmmakers recognize the futility of the human condition, understanding that by our own strength, this mortal coil will remain a shard of glass, a broken version of what came before and as likely to cut you when beheld. They may realize that only through God can we, and the world around us, be redeemed. That certainly seems to be one of the messages delivered in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
“You seek a great fortune, you three who are now in chains,” says a blind oracle to the three fugitives early in the film. “You will find a fortune, though it will not be the one you seek. … Though the road may wind, yea, your hearts grow weary, still shall ye follow them, even unto your salvation.”
Everett, Pete and Delmar break from their prison and set out to find riches. And riches they find, worth more than a million dollars. Even a million point two. They are pardoned of their crimes. Everett is reunited with his wife and family. And Pete and Delmar (and maybe even Everett!) receive forgiveness for their sins, finding their fortune through the gift of God bought by the blood of Jesus Christ.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is not without blemish or spot. It’s certainly not theologically perfect. Language is ever present, especially some harsh misuses of God’s name. There’s some sensuality, along with violent and harrowing moments. For those reasons and others, I wouldn’t recommend watching it with younger viewers.
But the film does tell a powerful story of faith, failings and the redemptive power of God. That’s something we, as Christians, can relate to. We all must run the race set before us and as we seek our fortune. Not the fleeting fortunes of earth, but the everlasting treasure in heaven.
Bret loves a good story—be it a movie, show, or video game—and enjoys geeking out about things like plot and story structure. He has a blast reading and writing fiction and has penned several short stories and screenplays. He and his wife love to kayak the many beautiful Colorado lakes with their dog.
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