# I saw "O' Brother Where Art Thou" for the first time - Wow! What a great movie! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2009, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717 "2009-09-27T03:02:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/21 "2009-09-27T05:33:46Z")
“Well isn’t that somethin’. You just sold yer soul to the Devil; Pete n’ Delmar here jes’ got saved; looks like I’m the only one who remains unaffiliated!” ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/22 "2009-09-27T05:42:44Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I’m sorry you didn’t get a chance to see it in the theater. It was one of the first films to be completely digitally processed (to turn all the green vegetation to brown), and at the time it was amazing to see. Brilliant writing and performances and truly amazing music- quite possibly my all-time favorite Coen Brothers film. > > I don’t expect everyone to laugh at it. Hell, my wife and I were laughing our heads off at things that nobody else in the theater was laughing at. The overhead shot of the car pulling up to a lonely crossroads and Delmar saying: “Why don’t we pull over and give that Colored boy a ride?” - who of course turns out to be Tommy Johnson who has just sold his soul to the Devil. > > It really is a perfect film. I saw it in a theater–twice. And I rarely take the trouble. The images brought to mind famous photographs of the Depression–starkly beautiful. And I\* loved\* the music–old timey, blues & a bit of Jimmy Rodgers. My sister saw it with friends in California; she said they wondered why she kept laughing. I don’t think they were from the South. The real Pappy O’Daniel was a Texas governor & sponsor of Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys. The movie governor’s song–“You Are My Sunshine”–was actually written by Jimmie Davis, a governor of Louisiana. Plus–Klansmen channeling Busby Berkeley, _Triumph of the Will_ & the Wicked Witch of the West’s guards. Nods to Homer & Preston Sturges. And Robert Johnson at the crossroads… ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/23 "2009-09-27T05:50:35Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I watched it once and thought it was pretty good. Then, I read that it followed Homer’s _The Odyssey_ and watched it again, this time with my mom. I had a good time finding the “tie-ins” and pointing them out to her. They also managed to include several references to the _Wizard of Oz_. It is only when the flood takes place that makes me go all “[Morbo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQg8JKo_3ZQ)” on the film makers and scream: “Water filling a dam doesn’t work that way!” ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/24 "2009-09-27T05:55:34Z")
It’s a good movie, but the soundtrack is what makes it excellent. Without the soundtrack it would have just been ho-hum. ---
**Author:** ![rolandgunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cdc98d/32.png) [@rolandgunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rolandgunslinger)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/25 "2009-09-27T06:00:38Z")
Care for some gopher? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/26 "2009-09-27T06:08:50Z")
**Pappy O’Daniel:** _"Well, I’m with you folks. I’m a forgive-and-forgettin’ Christian, and I say, if their rambunctiousness, and misdemeanoring, is behind them_… [turns away from the mike, towards Everett] **Pappy O’Daniel** : [no-nonsense] \*It is, ain’t it, boys? \*" 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/27 "2009-09-27T06:10:59Z")
One of my favorite films too, and my favorite by the Coen Brothers. I agree that it’s an absolutely perfect film. Every shot, every line. It’s very quotable, but mainly only to others who have seen the film, so I love this thread. How can you choose from [all the great quotes](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0190590/quotes) though? George Clooney should have been nominated for an Oscar for this, seriously. At least he got a Golden Globe for Best Comedy Performance by a male. Just saying that dialogue took a lot of skill! > [@](#): > > **Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, there are all manner of lesser imps and demons, Pete, but the great Satan hisself is red and scaly with a bifurcated tail, and he carries a hay fork**. > [@](#): > > **Ulysses Everett McGill: Me an’ the old lady are gonna pick up the pieces and retie the knot, mixaphorically speaking.** > [@](#): > > **Ulysses Everett McGill: Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin’?** > [@](#): > > **Ulysses Everett McGill: Pete, the personal rancor reflected in that remark I don’t intend to dignify with comment. But I would like to address your general attitude of hopeless negativism. Consider the lilies of the goddamn field or… hell! Take at look at Delmar here as your paradigm of hope.** > [@](#): > > Delmar O’Donnell: You work for the railroad, Grampa? > Blind Seer: I work for no man. > Delmar O’Donnell: Got a name, do you? > Blind Seer: I have no name. > **Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, that right there may be the reason you’ve had difficulty findin’ gainful employment. You see, in the mart of competitive commerce…** And what might be my favorite out of a movie full of favorites: > [@](#): > > Ulysses Everett McGill: The treasure is still there boys, believe me. > Delmar O’Donnell: But how’d he know about the treasure? > **Ulysses Everett McGill: I don’t know Delmar. The blind are reputed to possess sensitivities compensating for their lack of sight, even to the point of developing paranormal psychic powers. Now, clearly seeing into the future would fall neatly into that category; its not so surprising then that an organism deprived of its earthly vision…** > Pete: He said we wouldn’t get get it. He said we wouldn’t get the treasure we seek on account of our ob-stac-les. > \*\*Ulysses Everett McGill: Well what the hell does he know, he’s just an ignorant old man? \*\* Everybody has great lines though. I won’t hog them all, but… **Oh, George… not the livestock!** **Talk, you reconstructed welp of a whore!** ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/28 "2009-09-27T06:11:53Z")
“No, thank you Delmar - a third of a gopher would only rouse my appetite without beddin’ her back down.” Up until a few months ago I thought Delmar was a cop killer, having knocked over a piggly-wiggly. Turns out Piggly-Wiggly’s some sort of supermarket chain and not the euphemism for policeman I thought it was. As for quotes, every line is golden. ---
**Author:** ![rolandgunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cdc98d/32.png) [@rolandgunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rolandgunslinger)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/29 "2009-09-27T06:14:53Z")
> [@voguevixen](#): > > “Well isn’t that somethin’. You just sold yer soul to the Devil; Pete n’ Delmar here jes’ got saved; looks like I’m the only one who remains unaffiliated!” This aint no laughin matter Everett… ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/30 "2009-09-27T06:24:14Z")
When we’re on the bus coming back from a particular movie theater, the “bus voice” calls out the names of the upcoming stops. One street is called “George.” My husband and I always say to ourselves, “Babyface” because… the next street is “Nelson.” We only do that because of this movie. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/31 "2009-09-27T06:34:35Z")
Couple of trivia items, [out of many](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0190590/trivia): The customer who asks for the sold-out record by the Soggy Bottom Boys is Gillian Welch, one of the co-writers and singers of the Siren song, “Didn’t Leave Nobody But the Baby.” The blind radio station owner is Stephen Root, who also played a radio station owner in NewsRadio. ---
**Author:** ![sulamith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@sulamith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sulamith)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/32 "2009-09-27T06:51:42Z")
One of my favorite movies, evah! “I ain’t here to make a record, ya dumb cracka!” Makes me giggle every time. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_Next\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@Girl\_Next\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Next_Door)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/33 "2009-09-27T07:02:41Z")
“We…thought…you…was…a…toad!” ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/34 "2009-09-27T12:27:37Z")
We quote it, or at least refer to it fairly often in our house. A lot of our questions start with “I suppose it would be the acme of foolishness to inquire…” And we never miss a chance to mention “yon bureau” We find ourselves occasionally impeded by “obstackles” I can watch it over and over. After having seen it more than a dozen times I watched all the DVD bonus features and really enjoyed an explanation of how the color was manipulated in post production. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/35 "2009-09-27T13:03:48Z")
I love it, and own the soundtrack, along with “Down from the Mountain”. And I can’t stand country music. But that ‘old-timey’ stuff is great. > [@](#): > > Ulysses Everett McGill: Why are you telling our gals that I was hit by a train? > Penny Wharvey McGill: Lots of respectable people have been hit by trains. Judge Hobbie over in Cookville was hit by a train. What was I gonna tell them, that you got sent to the penal farm and I divorced you from shame? > Ulysses Everett McGill: Uh, I take your point. But it does put me in a damn awkward position, vis-a-vis my progeny. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/36 "2009-09-27T13:27:05Z")
“Them syreens did this to Pete. They loved him up and turned him into a horny toad.” Tim Blake Nelson is a gifted actor/writer/director/producer. [Ebert](http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/09/tiff_10_philosophy_pot_murder.html) wrote very nice things about his latest film at the Toronto festival. It takes a very smart man to play a dumb guy well. ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/37 "2009-09-27T14:01:52Z")
“You ever been with a woman, Delmar?” “Uh, I gotta get the family farm back before I start thinking about that.” Also, the line “That don’t make no sense!” gets a lot of play in my house. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/38 "2009-09-27T14:06:42Z")
I liked the terrible ideas of Pappy’s sycophants. Faced with an opponent who travels with a midget to represent the “little guy”, their idea is to get another midget for Pappy. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/39 "2009-09-27T14:37:19Z")
I probably watched it a dozen times. It is one of my faves. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717/40 "2009-09-27T14:57:00Z")
> [@Mach Tuck](#): > > I liked the terrible ideas of Pappy’s sycophants. Faced with an opponent who travels with a midget to represent the “little guy”, their idea is to get another midget for Pappy. Not just another midget, though! A stumpier one! > [@](#): > > Junior O’Daniel: We could hire our own midget, even shorter than his. > Pappy O’Daniel: Wouldn’t we look like a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies, bragging on our own midget, doesn’t matter how stumpy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-o-brother-where-art-thou-for-the-first-time-wow-what-a-great-movie/511717.md?page=3)