"I don't think he's fully racist" had me dying 😭😭🤣

"You're getting your ass whupped by a guy who fights like the Notre Dame logo." - It's stuff like this that keeps me coming back here. The title of this movie comes from the movie Sullivan's Travels (1941), in which the main character wants to make a movie by that name but never gets to do it. The soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou? became a top-selling CD. Bluegrass and folk music fans especially love it. I don't know how many people notice this, but the scene where the three guys watch the Klan rally from the bushes is a reference to the scene in The Wizard of Oz where Scarecrow, The Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion watch the palace guards outside the witch's castle. They literally ran Homer Stokes out of town on a rail.

My favorite bit of crossover between the movie and the story of the Odyssey took me a few watches to even catch. It’s Ulysses refraining from baptism and mocking Pete and Delmer for doing it. In the Odyssey, Odysseus kicks off his whole trial to get home by pissing off Poseidon at the end of the Trojan War. Odysseus was taking too much credit for the Greek victory and didn’t give Poseidon the proper respect for helping out. So the god of the seas sent the hero on a wild ride all over the ‘world’ until he apologized and made amends and was allowed to get home. In the movie when Ulysses insults the other two for their faith he is disrespecting God and all of the weirder more dangerous events of the story happen to them after this point. Then at the end he apologizes and prays humbly and God shows up to get him home (in the form of a shit ton of water as a nice Poseidon reference lol) to get Ulysses home. As a HUGE mythology nerd, I love that the mythological references in this film have such subtle layers to them and there is more to them to appreciate than just Big Dan = the Cyclops or Hot Ladies = the Sirens.

The guitarist selling his soul to the devil is a reference to the real blues musician Robert Johnson. Supposedly he mastered the guitar in just two years and a legend was born that he met the devil at a crossroads in Mississippi and traded his soul to becomes a master blues picker. Also this movie is a retelling of the Odyssey by Homer. That's why it includes plot points like the blind prophet, the sirens, the cyclops, etc.

"He's no Jimi Hendrix". My dear man, delving into the old blues masters from the 20s and 30s will open a WORLD of some of the most innovative guitar players from back in the day. Hendrix knew these songs, and took them in a new direction. Whether you 'react' or not, I highly recommend you listen to a few tracks from Lonnie Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson, Blind Willie Johnson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Memphis Minnie, Blind Blake, amd a whole host of others! Hendrix was a GIANT. But he stood on the shoulders of giants!

Tim Blake Nelson actually sang "In the Jailhouse Now" and won a Grammy because the soundtrack won Album of the Year. Although George Clooney practiced "Man of Constant Sorrow" the Coens decided to have bluegrass singer Dan Tyminski perform his singing vocals. This film is a masterpiece.

Ah hell no. If I went through hell and high water for my lady's ring and THEN she says it's the wrong one... Nah I'm out. Taking my pomade with me

"That could be a jug of a$$ juice." Almost spit out my drink laughing.

As they used to say: "He wuz run'd out on a rail!" Also, the boy was (hillbilly) spelling "runned off".

You were talking about people singing to help pass the time and keep their spirits up. You also mentioned how slaves would do that. Spirituals were meant to do that for slaves, but a lot of those songs contained hidden instructions for escaping via the Underground Railroad. For instance, a song about being baptized in the water could mean to take the route along the river.

The film is a partial retelling of Homer's, the Odyssey. The blind man on the cart is the ferryman, who takes Odysseus and his party across the river Styx after they escape the Underworld. The film is also set during depression era America. The part near the end, where the guys come in with a rail and lift the Klan guy up onto it, was "running him out of town on a rail." Sort of like the expression tar and feathered.

He fought like the mascot for Notre Dame!!!! Lol, I died, you a trip. Thanks for reacting to one of my favorite movies!

30:03 . . . He was “run out of town on a rail.” It’s an old-fashioned form of punishment, which back in colonial times also involved being tarred and feathered.

The dialogue is what made this movie...and the soundtrack.

The boys' s journey is actually copying Ulysses Odyssey : The Cyclope (J.Goodman), the Mermaids/Witches, the tempest, etc... Tommy's character is inspired by Robert Johnson, the actual guitar legend, who according to the legend, is said to have sold his soul to the Devil at a crossroads, in exchange for becoming extremely gifted with the guitar. We learned nothing more about the first part, but we know that the second part actually became true !

This movie is a true gem. Unlike how a previous poster felt; to me this is easily top 20 movies of all time. Good stuff all around!

"You just got your a** whipped by someone who fights like the Notre Dame Logo". You are hilarious sir. Best reactor on the Internet. And you have dogs too!

My mother was a kid in Kansas during the Dust Bowl and the height of the depression. She told us stories of her childhood. She was the youngest of four girls and when her Mother went to town she tied a cord around my mother's waist and the other three girls had to grab on to the cord as they walked through town.When they moved to California in the late 30's she was too small to pick crops so they had her drive the truck they put the full boxes on. They had to put her on stacks of phone books and tied a 4x4 to her foot so she could reach the petals ALA short round in the Indiana Jones film.

Ulysses is such a riot. Constantly pulling five dollar words out of a ten cent brain. I remember back when this came out, and the soundtrack was a top seller across the country for weeks and weeks and weeks. All of a sudden, old timey bluegrass was crazily popular. Good times.

I totally forgot about this film. This film was so easy to quote back in the day. “I’m a dapper Dan man!”. Hahaha.

At the end, they "ran the guy out of town on the rails" (an old expression for sending someone packing out of town post-haste, usually walking the railroad rails). Making them leave before the train even gets there to pick them up, if you will. It was a subtle joke.

About the little girls: the one with the string on her is so that she won't run away. But baby, Everette didn't even KNOW about her. And that baby's ears stick out like Waldrop's.

one of my alltime favorites.. and the actor playing Tommy the guitarist is actually a legit blues musician named Chris Thomas King.. sold tons of records. was also in the movie “ Ray “

"I'm the Got dam Pater Familias!" ranks right up there with "A friend with a cleft asshole?" 🤟

Not even started, but your dog LOVES you! Mad props for being a doggie daddy. He's prosh!

“Fights like the Notre Dame logo.” Lol. Back before gloves prize fighters placed their hands like that because they thought throwing punches that way lowered risk of hand fractures.

Bro you have to watch Miller's Crossing. Like all their movies, it's amazing. And watch Raising Arizona. That's hilarious

Blues/Jazz History: "Legend has it that Robert Johnson met the devil at a crossroads and gave him his soul in exchange for mastery of the guitar. He was THAT GOOD! Instruments Played: Guitar Place of birth: Hazlehurst, Mississippi" Robert Johnson | Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Used to put this on a loop while I cleaned house. It is just so damned comfy for the summer. This movie and Do the right thing are perfect summer feel movies

At the end after the whole issue is or is you ain't my constituency speech.... And they put them up on top of that rail way Pole... That is where the figure of speech run them out of town on a rail came from

"I don't know Tommy that well" I lost it. Been laughing for 2 minutes now. Take this and comment damnnit!

Fun fact: About 350 extras were hired for the Klan rally sequence. Many of them were members of a military formation troupe, and many were African-Americans! Joel Coen later recalled hearing one say, 'This is the freakiest thing!' The first time that I went down south, my mom asked where the local Catholic church was (she will not miss church ever!) and the next morning we woke up to all 4 tires slashed, windows broken, and the one side of the car was spray-painted with the word "papist." It was not easy to get 4 tires for a 1987 Cadillac Brougham in rural North Carolina in the 1990s.

"Damn! We're in a tight spot!" I get that this is The Odyssey in Depression Era Mississippi, but I just couldn't get into it. I don't hate it, I'm just unamused. This really should be up my alley, but I grow bored every time I try watching it and just move on. Fun Fact: The woman who asks the Woolworth's clerk about the Soggy Bottom Boys is Gillian Welch, one of the artists on the film's soundtrack. Music Enthusiast Fact: The film's soundtrack became an unlikely blockbuster, even surpassing the success of the film. By early 2001, it had sold five million copies, spawned a documentary film, three follow-up albums ("O Sister" and "O Sister 2"), two concert tours, and won Country Music Awards for Album of the Year and Single of the Year (for "Man Of Constant Sorrow"). It also won five Grammys, including Album of the Year, and hit #1 on the Billboard album charts the week of March 15, 2002, 63 weeks after its release and over a year after the release of the film. Historical Fact: The historical Baby Face Nelson was a homicidal gangster named Lester M. Gillis, who was known for his hot temper and itchy trigger finger. He was shot by FBI agents and died of his wounds in Wilmette, Illinois on November 27, 1934, three years before the setting of this film. There is a very heavy focus on the use of the Confederate Battle Flag at the KKK rally. However, the association of the KKK (and racists in general) with the "Rebel" flag grew out of the Civil Rights conflict of the 1960s. During the Twenties and Thirties, the peak of KKK membership, only the U.S. flag was represented at KKK rallies, even in Mississippi.

My Husband in photo of Icon when he was in the US Army they sang songs like that from Boot camp and the whole time he was in service that he knows from 16 years of service.

LOLOLOL...I see what you did there...you used the FOP lid to cover your bleeps, so that way you were covering the F word with an F word...LOL Plus, there is the added level to it that Emmit would definitely consider FOP to be a curse word...since he is a Dapper Dan man! Very clever...well played. 😏💯😂😜

I used to hunt along the tracks when I was a kid. That, our garden and fishing is how we ate 90% of the time. I would grab onto the caboose handrail and ride the train back toward our house...feet dangling and gun across my lap. I'd give the guy in the caboose a squirrel or rabbit for letting me hitch along.

So, when I was much much younger, there was a screensaver that was of the flood scene with cans of dapper dan and the wedding ring floating around.

Well ain't this place a geographical oddity....2 weeks from everywhere....makes me laugh every time .

19:55 "I generally refrain from speech during Gestation"....he meant "digestion". I wonder if anyone else knows he messed that up haha

"You gettin' your ass whooped by somebody that fights like the Notre Dame logo," that fucking killed me damn

If your wondering why Homer was dragged out on a beam, it was an old custom to tar and feather trouble makers in the south and ride them out of the town on a rail to parade them around. Looks like the mob didn’t have any tar handy but still had the rail.

Tommy, the guitarist, is Chris Thomas King - a famous blues musician.

My man your dog is so adorable. The way it stood up straight on it's hind legs was so cute.

The end he got "rode out of town on a rail". It was an older form of punishment in a town. Rarely was done on a pole like he was... But normally what would happen instead is they would take you to a train station, buy you a ticket to anywhere else and tell you to never return. Rode out of town on a rail (train).

Didn't you ever hear about people being RUN OUTTA TOWN ON A RAIL in the good old days ? Well, you just saw it!! The rail was a railroad log wood track!

When they brought the beam into to exit the Grand Wizard..it is where the term ..RUN EM OUT ON A RAIL..came from..1930's term....

"Teenager Robert Johnson was booed off the stage in Robinsonville, he went to a Mississippi crossroad at midnight and summoned the devil. The devil promised to endow him with supernatural musical abilities - as long as the musician gave up his soul in return." From Wikipidia I'm sure someone let you know that George " Babyface " Nelson was an infamous bank-robber during the 1930's along with the likes of Bonnie and Clyde, The Ma Barker gang, John Dillenger and Willie Sutton, who when captured, a reporter asked why he robbed banks? He famously deadpanned : " Cuz that's where the money is. "

They ran him out of town on a rail. It's where the phrase comes from. Plus the tarred and feathered him if I recall right.

It kinda sounded like something else but he said "He's an ignorant old man."

"You got your ass whipped by someone who looks like the Notre Dame logo." Dude... I almost fell out of my chair!

Bro, blues guitar is what birthed rock guitar lol blues cats are the hendrix of that Era. Muddy waters, howling wolf, lightning Hopkins, BBking... I can go on lol

The way your dog sits up to get a belly rub is one of the cutest things I’ve seen

This dog's eyes are hypnotic. He never blinks!

Man of constant sorrow is on bob Dylan’s first album, so is house of the rising sun. . . These are songs that are much older than any kind of machine that can record sounds. So bob or the animals or George Clooney’s character might have been the first to record it. But the beauty of folk music is that nobody really knows who came up with the song in the first place. It feels like it has just always existed.

I forgot how funny this movie is. Another Clooney movie that I think is funny but I don't think it's very well known is Men Who Stare At Goats. I gave the DVD to my son because he is a big Star Wars fan, that's all I'll say about that.

Tommy Johnson is based off both blues singers Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson (like in Die Hard, no relation between the Johnsons) who both supposedly sold their souls to the Devil at a crossroads. Scattered my dad's ashes at the supposed crossroads in Mississippi where the deal went down. Gave him back to the devil, which he woulda liked...my pop, I mean. Probably annoyed the hell outta the Devil.

“Damn, we in a tight spot”. I love this movie and the music was fantastic.

Man of constant Sorrows is the song, but it is a MUCH older song than this film is. It is an Old Blue grass tune from like the 60's

Years ago I was convinced that George Clooney was WAY overrated as an actor. But then I saw this movie a few months after it came out, and I was like: “I’ll be damned. This guy can actually act. And really well.” His character in this movie is silly and over the top (“My hair!”) but he does a truly amazing job. Good job George. And I don’t like FOP either! 😂

The old blind guy used a countdown buzzard watch from Southern pacific. They would sweep 2,3,4,5,6 miles of rail using the timer and Frog clicks to gauge the location (not the reptile)

This film is like James Joyces' Ulysses, it's based around Homer's The Odyssey. Big Dan with the eye patch is the Cyclops for example.

I might get some negative press for this but I maintain the Coen’s best film is “Miller’s Crossing.” I hope that you plan to check it out. It’s in the top 3 gangster films of all time.

When you said "I dont know tommy that well..."🤣🤣🤣

"Riding the rail (also called being "run out of town on a rail") was a punishment most prevalent in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries in which an offender was made to straddle a fence rail held on the shoulders of two or more bearers. The subject was then paraded around town or taken to the city limits and dumped by the roadside." Wikipedia :)

"I don't want FOP, goddammit! I'm a Dapper Dan man!" 🤣

FYI Robert Johnson and Tommy Johnson (no relation) and Jimi Hendrix were rumored to have sold their souls to Satan in order to master the guitar, it's what inspired the movie Crossroads with Ralph Machio and also The Pick Of Destiny with Tenacious D.

"He said 'nigra'?? He ain't a true racist.". That's about the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. We need to get a bunch of us together and have some bbq. LOL

Miller's Crossing is a great film.

When they carried out the man from the dinner, is how they got the phrase,"riding them out on a rail."

We don't got no radio down here. I believe the power company broacast that they were going to flood that valley for a hydroelectric dam.

I lost it when you said "I aint have much for neck". Literally laughing in tears. Your reviews are some of the best on the platform! Also, this was a big movie from my childhood and love the parallel between it and the Odyssey

The thing you said you didn't understand was Homer Stokes getting literally "run out of town on a rail".

Tim Blake Nelson, who plays Delmar is actually singing the song in the jailhouse now

I never know how to feel when a band plays a song from this movie where I work. It happens way more than I ever expected.

So, Tommy was based off of a man named Robert Johnson. He wrote one album. He recorded it all in one session I believe. All the jazz musicians used to talk about how bad of a guitar player he was. Buts it’s all he ever wanted to do. So legend has it that he skipped town for about a year. When he came back to New Orleans he killed the rooms when he played. He was known as the father of the blues, and we wouldn’t have blues rock or metal without his influence in music. One year after recording that album, It’s said the devil came to collect his due. The night he passed he was playing for like a small bar. He started freaking out yelling about seeing black dogs. Then according to eye witness reports, he started foaming at the mouth, and crawling on all fours and ended up dying. Truly an interesting story and terrifying to think about.

I'm sure somebody has already mentioned this but riding somebody out on a rail is an old old expression where people got ridden out of town on a rail and dumped after being paraded around and shamed.

Soundtrack was Alison Krause and Union Station. I'd heard the movie is loosely based on The Odyssey by Homer. Very fun story

“I don’t want FOP!” My favorite line.

The rhythm of the songs sometimes were used to keep the working men in coordinated swings of the sledgehammers, picks, etc.

If you really wanna go down the crazy end of the Coen Brothers pool, check out "Raising Arizona." It's like a Road Runner cartoon with live people in it, and then you have to stop and consider that the same people made it who made "No Country For Old Men." Their remake of "True Grit" is fantastic too.

BTW, Milton from Office Space is blind Mr. Lund at the radio station who recorded the Soggy Bottom Boys

even these days if you listen real close to the right kind of folks youll hear the phrase "run out of town on a rail", which is exactly what you saw happen to Homer Stokes at the end there. This was a thing actually done occasionally in the 18th and 19th century if people in a particular town wanted to be rid of you.

When they ran the post into the concert at the end and hauled the politician off, they were “running him out of town on a rail”.

29:54 That's what my grandparents would say "ride someone out of town on a rail". It's a vigilante form of punishment given to someone who offended a town in someway. They would be dumped somewhere outside of town and basically told they weren't welcome. Sometimes people got hot tar poured on them as well.

It was once a figure of speech ( not used so much now ) to "ride someone out of town on a rail". That's what literally happened to Homer Stokes - he was put on top of a wooden fence rail and carried to the edge of town, making it clear they were rejecting him.

8:55 How I feel when I try to find something at the store LOL

Fight like the notre dame logo🤣holy hell. I tell you my father saw that scene and i thought he would need ambulance. He laughed and laughed. I just did the same.

Brooo I hopped trains all the time growing up lol we'd ride up n down the valley my homie went to jump off the side ladder and his arm got caught and his legs dragged along the ground and he came close to the wheels. 2 of my best friend rode across the country they both died in mobile Alabama in a train yard, they got crushed by metal beam in an open top gondola car. Rip Keith RIP Dylan

lol, I love how the doggo goes under the covers when the shooting starts

The Coens based this movie on the epic poem by Homer called The Odyssey and moved it to the Great Depression instead of Greek myth. There's a cyclops (one-eyed John Goodman) and strange witchy women called the Sirens where they transform men into animals, but the best thing about is satirical representation of a time period in a specific location namely the segregated South and the peculiarly accented use of words and ways of communicating in the sense that that particular South was as off-kilter as a Greek myth. Are there more Corn brothers movies to come? My personal favorite is called BARTON FINK. The title of the movie comes from an older film called Sullivan's Travels in which a famous Hollywood director of comedies wants to make a serious movie called Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? Oh, puppy where art thou? is my alternate title for your reaction. Ciao for now. 👍

This movie n Lebowski never fail to lift my spirits n make me smile! “Run off”!! He didn’t want to say his wife run off in front of the boy. But he couldn’t spell it right: RUNNOFT! 😂 And the legend of Bluesman Robert Johnson was that he sold his soul at the Crossroads to learn to play.

"Hey man you're getting your ass whooped by somebody who fights like the Notre Dame log" lol

John Goodman and George Clooney were on roseanne together. George Clooney was in the first season of roseanne. So it's cool they got to work together again

"Is you is, or is you ain't my baby?" Tom and Jerry respect 🙌 👏 👌 🙏

The whole soundtrack is great, you should give it a full listen

“The Gods Must Be Crazy” 👊🏻

Thissun is probably one of my favourite films of all time

Back then, even the law had fully automatic weapons. Check out The River Runs Through It. Same time period. FBI and law enforcement using Thompson fully automatic machine guns.

the film is loosely based on Homer's Odyssey (it says so in the beginning) - John Goodman is the Cyclops, there are Sirens, Everett is trying to get back to his wife before she remarries. And the songs are top notch - if you haven't already, you have to listen to the cover of Man of Constant Sorrow by Home Free.

This was an epic journey just like the Odyssey. All the tribulations of Odysseus in his journey to get home to the woman he loves.