document_title: The Jungle Book (1967 film)

question_text: who played baloo in the original jungle book

root

text: The Jungle Book (1967 film)

text: Plot

text: Mowgli, a young orphan boy, is found in a basket in the deep jungles of India by Bagheera, a black panther who promptly takes him to a mother wolf who has just had cubs. She raises him along with her own cubs and Mowgli soon becomes well acquainted with jungle life. Mowgli is shown ten years later, playing with his wolf siblings.

tag: p

text: One night, when the wolf tribe learns that Shere Khan, a man-eating Bengal tiger, has returned to the jungle, they realize that Mowgli must be taken to the "Man-Village" for his (and their) own safety. Bagheera volunteers to escort him back. They leave that very night, but Mowgli is determined to stay in the jungle. He and Bagheera rest in a tree for the night, where Kaa, a hungry Indian python, tries to devour Mowgli, but Bagheera intervenes. The next morning, Mowgli tries to join the elephant patrol led by Colonel Hathi and his wife Winifred. Bagheera finds Mowgli, but after a fight decides to leave Mowgli on his own. Mowgli soon meets up with the laid-back, fun-loving sloth bear Baloo, who promises to raise Mowgli himself and never take him back to the Man-Village.

text: Shortly afterwards, a group of monkeys kidnap Mowgli and take him to their leader, King Louie the orangutan. King Louie offers to help Mowgli stay in the jungle if he will tell Louie how to make fire like other humans. However, since he was not raised by humans, Mowgli does not know how to make fire. Bagheera and Baloo arrive to rescue Mowgli and in the ensuing chaos, King Louie's palace is demolished to rubble. Bagheera speaks to Baloo that night and convinces him that the jungle will never be safe for Mowgli so long as Shere Khan is there. In the morning, Baloo reluctantly explains to Mowgli that the Man-Village is best for the boy, but Mowgli accuses him of breaking his promise and runs away. As Baloo sets off in search of Mowgli, Bagheera rallies the help of Hathi and his patrol. However, Shere Khan himself, who was eavesdropping on Bagheera and Hathi's conversation, is now determined to hunt and kill Mowgli himself.

text: Meanwhile, Mowgli has encountered Kaa once again, but thanks to the unwitting intervention of the suspicious Shere Khan, Mowgli escapes. As a storm gathers, a depressed Mowgli encounters a group of friendly vultures who accept Mowgli as a fellow outcast. Shere Khan appears shortly after, scaring off the vultures and confronting Mowgli. Baloo rushes to the rescue and tries to keep Shere Khan away from Mowgli, but is injured. When lightning strikes a nearby tree and sets it ablaze, the vultures swoop in to distract Shere Khan while Mowgli gathers flaming branches and ties them to Shere Khan's tail. Terrified of fire, the tiger panics and runs off.

text: Bagheera and Baloo take Mowgli to the edge of the Man-Village, but Mowgli is still hesitant to go there. His mind soon changes when he is smitten by a beautiful young girl from the village who is coming down by the riverside to fetch water. After noticing Mowgli, she "accidentally" drops her water pot. Mowgli retrieves it for her and follows her into the Man-Village. After Mowgli chooses to stay in the Man-Village, Baloo and Bagheera decide to head home, content that Mowgli is safe and happy with his own kind.

text: Cast

text:
Bruce Reitherman as Mowgli, an orphaned boy, commonly referred to as "man-cub" by the other characters.
Phil Harris as Baloo, a sloth bear who leads a carefree life and believes in letting the good things in life come by themselves.
Sebastian Cabot as Bagheera, a serious black panther who is determined to take Mowgli back to the village and disapproves of Baloo's carefree approach to life.
Louis Prima as King Louie, an orangutan who wants to be a human, and wants Mowgli to teach him how to make fire.
George Sanders as Shere Khan, an intelligent and sophisticated yet merciless Bengal tiger who hates all humans for fear of their guns and fire and wants to kill Mowgli.
Sterling Holloway as Kaa, an Indian python who also seeks Mowgli as prey, but comically fails each time he attempts to eat him.
J. Pat O'Malley as Colonel Hathi the Indian elephant/Buzzie the Vulture
Verna Felton as Winifred, Colonel Hathi's wife.
Clint Howard as Junior, Colonel Hathi's son.
Chad Stuart as Flaps the Vulture
Lord Tim Hudson as Dizzie the Vulture
John Abbott as Akela the Indian wolf
Ben Wright as Rama the Father Wolf
Darleen Carr as The Girl
Leo De Lyon as Flunkey the Langur*
Hal Smith as The Slob Elephant*
Ralph Wright as The Gloomy Elephant*
Digby Wolfe as Ziggy the Vulture*
Bill Skiles and Pete Henderson as Monkeys*

tag: ul

text: Asterisks mark actors listed in the opening credits as "Additional Voices".[6][7][8]

text: Production

text: Development and writing

text: After The Sword in the Stone was released, storyman Bill Peet claimed to Walt Disney that "we [the animation department] can do more interesting animal characters" and suggested that Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book could be used for the studio's next film.[9] Disney agreed and Peet created an original treatment, with little supervision, as he had done with One Hundred and One Dalmatians and The Sword in the Stone. However, after the disappointing reaction to The Sword in the Stone, Walt Disney decided to become more involved in the story than he had been with the past two films,[10] with his nephew Roy E. Disney saying that "[he] certainly influenced everything about it. (...) With Jungle Book, he obviously got hooked on the jungle and the characters that lived there."[11]

text: Peet decided to follow closely the dramatic, dark, and sinister tone of Kipling's book, which is about the struggles between animals and man. However, the film's writers decided to make the story more straightforward, as the novel is very episodic, with Mowgli going back and forth from the jungle to the Man-Village, and Peet felt that Mowgli returning to the Man-Village should be the ending for the film. Following suggestions, Peet also created two original characters: The human girl for which Mowgli falls in love, as the animators considered that falling in love would be the best excuse for Mowgli to leave the jungle; and Louie, king of the monkeys. Louie was a less comical character, enslaving Mowgli trying to get the boy to teach him to make fire. The orangutan would also show a plot point borrowed from The Second Jungle Book, gold and jewels under his ruins — after Mowgli got to the man village, a poacher would drag the boy back to the ruins in search for the treasure.[2][10] Disney was not pleased with how the story was turning out, as he felt it was too dark for family viewing and insisted on script changes. Peet refused, and after a long argument, Peet left the Disney studio in January 1964.[9]

text: Disney then assigned Larry Clemmons as his new writer and one of the four story men for the film, giving Clemmons a copy of Kipling's book, and telling him: "The first thing I want you to do is not to read it."[10] Clemmons still looked at the novel, and thought it was too disjointed and without continuity, needing adaptations to fit a film script. Clemmons wanted to start in medias res, with some flashbacks afterwards, but then Disney said to focus on doing the storyline more straight - "Let's do the meat of the picture. Let's establish the characters. Let's have fun with it.".[12] Although much of Bill Peet's work was discarded, the personalities of the characters remained in the final film. This was because Disney felt that the story should be kept simple, and the characters should drive the story. Disney took an active role in the story meetings, acting out each role and helping to explore the emotions of the characters, help create gags and develop emotional sequences.[10] Clemmons would write a rough script with an outline for most sequences. The story artists then discussed how to fill the scenes, including the comedic gags to employ.[1][13][self-published source] The script also tried to incorporate how the voice actors molded their characters and interacted with each other.[14] The Jungle Book also marks the last animated film from the company to have Disney's personal touches, before his death on December 15, 1966.[15]

text: Casting

text:
"In The Jungle Book we tried to incorporate the personalities of the actors that do the voices into the cartoon characters, and we came up with something totally different. When Phil Harris did the voice of Baloo, he gave it a bubble of life. We didn't coach him, just let it happen."

—Wolfgang Reitherman[14]

tag: div

text: Many familiar voices inspired the animators in their creation of the characters[10] and helped them shape their personalities.[15] This use of familiar voices for key characters was a rarity in Disney's past films.[10] The staff was shocked to hear that a wise cracking comedian, Phil Harris was going to be in a Kipling film. Disney suggested Harris after meeting him at a party.[16] Harris improvised most of his lines, as he considered the scripted lines "didn't feel natural".[9] After Harris was cast, Disneyland Records president Jimmy Johnson suggested Disney to get Louis Prima as King Louie, as he "felt that Louis would be great as foil".[17] Walt also cast other prominent actors such as George Sanders as Shere Khan and Sebastian Cabot as Bagheera. Additionally, he cast regular Disney voices such as Sterling Holloway as Kaa, J. Pat O'Malley as Colonel Hathi and Buzzie the Vulture and Verna Felton as Hathi's wife. This was her last film before she died.[15] David Bailey was originally cast as Mowgli, but his voice changed during production, leading Bailey to not fit the "young innocence of Mowgli's character" at which the producers were aiming. Thus director Wolfgang Reitherman cast his son Bruce, who had just voiced Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. The animators shot footage of Bruce as a guide for the character's performance.[9][18] Child actress Darlene Carr was going around singing in the studio when composers Sherman Brothers asked her to record a demo of "My Own Home". Carr's performance impressed Disney enough for him to cast her as the role of the human girl.[19]

text: In the original book, the vultures are grim and evil characters who feast on the dead. Disney lightened it up by having the vultures bearing a physical and vocal resemblance to The Beatles, including the signature mop-top haircut. It was also planned to have the members of the band to both voice the characters and sing their song, "That's What Friends Are For". However, the Beatles member John Lennon's refusal to work on animated films in that period led to the idea being discarded.[20] The casting of the vultures still brought a British Invasion musician, Chad Stuart of the duo Chad & Jeremy.[9] In earlier drafts of the scene the vultures had a near-sighted rhinoceros friend named Rocky, who was to be voiced by Frank Fontaine. However, Walt decided to cut the character for feeling that the film had already much action with the monkeys and vultures.[21]

text: Animation

text: While many of the later Disney feature films had animators being responsible for single characters, in The Jungle Book the animators were in charge of whole sequences, since many have characters interacting with one another. The animation was done by xerography, with character design, led by Ken Anderson, employing rough, artistic edges in contrast to the round animals seen in productions such as Dumbo.[22]

text: Anderson also decided to make Shere Khan resemble his voice actor, George Sanders.[9] Backgrounds were hand-painted — with exception of the waterfall, mostly consisting of footage of the Angel Falls - and sometimes scenery was used in both foreground and bottom to create a notion of depth. Following one of Reitherman's trademarks of reusing animation of his previous films, the wolf cubs are based on dogs from 101 Dalmatians. Animator Milt Kahl based Bagheera and Shere Khan's movements on live-action felines, which he saw in two Disney productions, A Tiger Walks and the "Jungle Cat" episode of True-Life Adventures.[22]

text: Baloo was also based on footage of bears, even incorporating the animal's penchant for scratching. Since Kaa has no limbs, its design received big expressive eyes, and parts of Kaa's body did the action that normally would be done with hands.[23] The monkeys' dance during "I Wan'na Be Like You" was partially inspired by a performance Louis Prima did with his band at Disney's soundstage to convince Walt Disney to cast him.[9]

text: Music

text: The instrumental music was written by George Bruns and orchestrated by Walter Sheets. Two of the cues were reused from previous Disney films. The scene where Mowgli wakes up after escaping King Louie used one of Bruns' themes for Sleeping Beauty; and the scene where Bagheera gives a eulogy to Baloo when he mistakenly thinks the bear was killed by Shere Khan used Paul J. Smith's organ score from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.[24]

text: The score features eight original songs: seven by the Sherman Brothers and one by Terry Gilkyson. Longtime Disney collaborator Gilkyson was the first songwriter to bring several complete songs which followed the book closely but Walt Disney felt that his efforts were too dark. The only piece of Gilkyson's work which survived to the final film was his upbeat tune "The Bare Necessities", which was liked by the rest of the film crew. The Sherman Brothers were then brought in to do a complete rewrite.[9] Disney asked the siblings if they had read Kipling's book and they replied that they had done so "a long, long time ago" and that they had also seen the 1942 version by Alexander Korda. Disney said the "nice, mysterious, heavy stuff" from both works was not what he aimed for, instead going for a "lightness, a Disney touch".[25] Disney frequently brought the composers to the storyline sessions.[9] He asked them to "find scary places and write fun songs" for their compositions[24] that fit in with the story and advanced the plot instead of being interruptive.[9]

text: Release and reception

text: Theatrical run

text: The Jungle Book was released in October 1967,[10] just 10 months after Walt's death.[15] Some copies were in a double feature with Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar.[26] Produced on a budget of $4 million,[27][28] the film was a massive success grossing domestic rentals of $11.5 million by 1968.[29] By 1970, the film had grossed $13 million in domestic rentals becoming the second highest-grossing animated film in the United States and Canada.[4] The film earned over $23.8 million worldwide becoming the most successful animated film released during its initial run.[30]

text: The Jungle Book was re-released theatrically in North America three times, 1978, 1984, and 1990, and also in Europe throughout the 1980s.[31] The 1978 re-release increased its North American rentals to $27.3 million, which surpassed Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs making it the highest grossing animated film of all-time in the United States and Canada[32] until Snow White was re-released in 1983. The film's total lifetime gross in the U.S. and Canada is $141 million.1[33] When adjusted for inflation, it is estimated to be the 32nd highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada.[34]

text: The Jungle Book is Germany's biggest film of all time in terms of admissions with 27.3 million tickets sold, nearly 10 million more than Titanic's 18.8 million tickets sold.[5] It has grossed an estimated $108 million in Germany making it the third highest-grossing film of all time in Germany behind only Avatar ($137 million) and Titanic ($125 million).[35] The film was the seventh most popular sound film of the twentieth century in the UK with admissions of 19.8 million.[36] The film is France's ninth biggest film of all time in terms of admissions with 14.8 million tickets sold.[37]

text: Home media

text: The Jungle Book was released in the United States on VHS in 1991 as part of the Walt Disney Classics product line and in the United Kingdom in 1993. In the United States, the VHS release sold 7.4 million units in 1991, grossing $184,926,000,[38] and eventually sold 9.5 million units by 1994.[39] Home video sales outside North America totaled 14.8 million units by January 1994, becoming the best-selling international VHS release in overseas markets, including sales of 4.9 million units in the United Kingdom, 4.3 million in Germany, and 1.2 million in France.[40] By August 1994, it had sold 15 million units in international overseas markets.[41] As of 2002, The Jungle Book held the record for the best-selling home video release in the United Kingdom, ahead of Titanic which sold 4.8 million units.[42]

text: It was reissued on video in 1997 as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection for the film's 30th anniversary.[31] A Limited Issue DVD was released by Buena Vista Home Entertainment in 1999.[43] The film was released once again as a 2-disc Platinum Edition DVD on October 2, 2007 to commemorate its 40th anniversary.[44] Its release was accompanied by a limited 18-day run at Disney's own El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, with the opening night featuring a panel with composer Richard Sherman and voice actors Bruce Reitherman, Darlene Carr and Chad Stuart.[45] The Platinum DVD was put on moratorium in 2010.[46] The film was released in a Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital Copy Combo pack on February 11, 2014 as part of Disney's Diamond Edition line.[47] The Diamond Edition release went back into the Disney Vault on January 31, 2017.

text: Critical reception

text: The Jungle Book received positive reviews upon release, undoubtedly influenced by a nostalgic reaction to the death of Walt.[15] Time noted that the film strayed far from the Kipling stories, but "the result is thoroughly delightful...it is the happiest possible way to remember Walt Disney."[15] The New York Times called it "a perfectly dandy cartoon feature,"[26] and Life magazine referred to it as "the best thing of its kind since Dumbo, another short, bright, unscary and blessedly uncultivated cartoon."[48] Variety's review was generally positive, but they stated that "the story development is restrained" and that younger audiences "may squirm at times."[15] The song "The Bare Necessities" was nominated for Best Song at the 40th Academy Awards, losing to "Talk to the Animals" from Doctor Dolittle.[49] Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Gregory Peck lobbied extensively for this film to be nominated for Best Picture, but was unsuccessful.[50]

text: Retrospective reviews were also positive, with the film's animation, characters and music receiving much praise throughout the years. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 86% based on 37 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "With expressive animation, fun characters, and catchy songs, The Jungle Book endures as a crowd-pleasing Disney classic."[51] In 1990, when the film had its last theatrical re-release, Entertainment Weekly considered that The Jungle Book "isn't a classic Walt Disney film on the order of, say, Cinderella or Pinocchio, but it's one of Disney's liveliest and funniest",[52] while the Los Angeles Times thought the film's crew was "near the height of their talents" and the resulting film "remains a high-spirited romp that will delight children--and parents weary of action films with body counts that exceed their box-office grosses."[53] In 2010, Empire described the film as one that "gets pretty much everything right", regarding that the vibrant animation and catchy songs overcame the plot deficiencies.[50]

text: The film is recognized by American Film Institute in this list:

text: 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:

text:
"The Bare Necessities"- Nominated
"I Wanna Be Like You" - Nominated

text: Legacy

text: In 1968, Disneyland Records released the album More Jungle Book, an unofficial sequel also written by screenwriter Larry Simmons, which continued the story of the film, and included Phil Harris and Louis Prima voicing their film roles. In the record, Baloo (Harris) is missing Mowgli (Ginny Tyler), so he teams up with King Louie (Prima) and Bagheera (Dal McKennon) to take him from the man village.[54] On February 14, 2003, DisneyToon Studios in Australia released a film sequel, The Jungle Book 2, in which Mowgli runs away from the man village to see his animal friends, unaware that Shere Khan is more determined to kill him than ever.[55] In 2005, screenwriter Robert Reece pitched Jungle Book 3 to Disney execs. However, the project never materialized.[56]

text: Elements of The Jungle Book were recycled in the later Disney feature film Robin Hood due to that film's limited budget, such as Baloo being inspiration for Little John (who not only was a bear, but also voiced by Phil Harris). In particular, the dance sequence between Baloo and King Louie was simply rotoscoped for Little John and Lady Cluck's dance.[57] It has been widely acclaimed by animators, with Eric Goldberg declaring The Jungle Book "boasts possibly the best character animation a studio has ever done". The animators of Aladdin, The Lion King and Lilo & Stitch took inspiration from the design and animation of the film, and four people involved with Disney's animations, director Brad Bird and animators Andreas Deja, Glen Keane and Sergio Pablos, have declared the film to be their inspiration for entering the business.[58]

text: Many characters appear in the 1990–91 animated series TaleSpin.[59] Between 1996 and 1998, the TV series Jungle Cubs told the stories of Baloo, Hahti, Bagheera, Louie, Kaa, and Shere Khan when they were children.[60] Disney later made a live-action remake of the film, which was more of a realistic action-adventure film with somewhat-more adult themes. The film, released in 1994, differs even more from the book than its animated counterpart, but was still a box-office success. In 1998, Disney released a direct to video film entitled The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story.[61] A new live-action version of The Jungle Book was released by Disney in 2016, which even reused most of the songs of the animated movie, with some lyrical reworking by original composer Richard M. Sherman.[62]

text: There are two video games based on the film: The Jungle Book was a platformer released in 1993 for Master System, Mega Drive, Game Gear, Super NES, Game Boy and PC. A version for the Game Boy Advance was later released in 2003.[63] The Jungle Book Groove Party was a dance mat game released in 2000 for PlayStation and PlayStation 2.[64][65] Kaa and Shere Khan have also made cameo appearances in another Disney video game, Quackshot.[66] A world based on the film was intended to appear more than once in the Square Enix-Disney Kingdom Hearts video game series, but was omitted both times, first in the first game because it featured a similar world based on Tarzan,[67] and second in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, although areas of the world are accessible via hacking codes.[68]

text: Since the film's release, many of the film's characters appeared in House of Mouse, The Lion King 1½, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Aladdin and the King of Thieves.[69] In December 2010, a piece of artwork by British artist Banksy featuring The Jungle Book characters which had been commissioned by Greenpeace to help raise awareness of deforestation went on sale for the sum of £80,000.[70]


document_title: O Brother, Where Art Thou?

question_text: who played the governor in o brother where art thou

text: O Brother, Where Art Thou?

text: Plot[edit]

text: Three convicts, Ulysses Everett McGill, Pete Hogwallop, and Delmar O'Donnell, escape from a chain gang and set out to retrieve a supposed treasure Everett 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, among other prophecies, that 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.

text: 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. 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.

text: Near a river, the group hears singing. They see 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 and transformed Pete into the toad. Later, one-eyed Bible salesman Big Dan Teague invites them for a picnic lunch, then mugs them and kills the toad.

text: Everett and Delmar arrive in Everett's home town. Everett confronts his wife Penny, who changed her last name and told his daughters he was dead. He gets into a fight with Vernon T. Waldrip, her new "suitor." They later see Pete working on a chain gang. 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. Under torture, Pete gave away the treasure's location to the police. Everett then confesses that there is no treasure. He made it up to convince the guys he was chained with to escape with him in order to stop his wife from getting married. Pete is enraged at Everett, because he had two weeks left on his original sentence, and must serve fifty more years for the escape.

text: The trio stumble upon a Ku Klux Klan rally, who are planning to hang Tommy. The trio disguise themselves as Klansmen and attempt 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, leaving it to fall on Big Dan.

text: 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.

text: The next morning, the group sets out to retrieve the ring, which is at a cabin in the valley, which Everett earlier claimed was the location of his treasure. The police, having learned of the place from Pete, arrest the group. Dismissing their claims of receiving pardons, Sheriff Cooley orders them hanged. Just 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 wasn't her ring, and she doesn't even remember where she put it.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
George Clooney as Ulysses Everett McGill, a man who is imprisoned for practicing law without a license. He claims to have escaped from prison so he can find a stash of money he had hidden, though in reality it is so he can get back to his family before his wife remarries. He corresponds to Odysseus (Ulysses) in the Odyssey.[10]
John Turturro, as Pete Hogwallop, a fellow criminal who reveals little about his past. He believes in being true to one's kin, even when his cousin Washington B. Hogwallop betrays him. He dreams of moving out west and opening a fine restaurant, where he will be the maître d'. He agreed to go along with the breakout, though he only had two weeks left on his sentence.
Tim Blake Nelson as Delmar O'Donnell, a small-time crook imprisoned for robbing a Piggly Wiggly in Yazoo City; he initially claims innocence but later admits he is guilty. Delmar says he will spend his share of Everett's nonexistent money buying back his family farm, believing, "You ain't no kind of man if you ain't got land."
Chris Thomas King as Tommy Johnson, a skilled blues musician. He is the accompanying guitarist in the Soggy Bottom Boys. He claims he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his skill on the guitar. He shares his name and story with Tommy Johnson, a blues musician with a mysterious past, who is said to have sold his soul to the devil at the Crossroads (a story more often attributed to Robert Johnson).[11][12]
Frank Collison as Washington B. "Wash" Hogwallop, Pete's paternal cousin. He removes the escapees' chains but later betrays the men to the police.
John Goodman as Daniel "Big Dan" Teague, a one-eyed man who masquerades as a Bible salesman and mugs Everett and Delmar. He later reveals the identity of the trio when they are disguised at a Ku Klux Klan rally, but they kill him by cutting loose a burning cross, which falls on him and the Klansmen. He corresponds to the cyclops Polyphemus in the Odyssey.[10]
Holly Hunter as Penny, Everett's ex-wife, who is fed up with Everett's wheeling and dealing. She divorces him while he is in prison, telling their children he was hit by a Louisville & Nashville train. She is engaged to Vernon T. Waldrip until Everett wins her back. She corresponds to Penelope in the Odyssey.[10] (Penelope is an icon of the faithful wife, as she rejected her many suitors, stalling for time while awaiting Odysseus' return.)
Charles Durning as Menelaus "Pappy" O'Daniel, the incumbent Governor of Mississippi. He is frequently seen berating his son and his campaign managers, who are depicted as simpletons. The character is based on Texas governor W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel.[13] (Flensted-Jensen elaborates on the connection between the fictional and the real Pappy O'Daniel.)[10] He corresponds to Menelaus in the Odyssey.
Daniel von Bargen as Sheriff Cooley, a ruthless rural sheriff who, with his bloodhound, pursues the trio for the duration of the film. It is implied several times that he is the devil incarnate, and Cooley fits Tommy Johnson's description of Satan: Cooley's sunglasses evoke Satan's "big empty eyes." He eventually ambushes the escapees after they have been pardoned by the governor. He intends to hang them nonetheless, but when the valley is flooded, he, his men, and his dog all drown. He corresponds to Poseidon in the Odyssey.[10] He has been compared to Boss Godfrey in Cool Hand Luke.[14]
Wayne Duvall as Homer Stokes, the reform candidate in the upcoming election for Governor. He travels the countryside with a dwarf, who depicts the "little man", and a broom, with which he promises to "sweep this state clean". He is secretly an Imperial Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan. He falsely identifies Everett, Pete, and Delmar as people of color because they are dirty.
Ray McKinnon as Vernon T. Waldrip, Penny's bona fide suitor and the manager of Homer Stokes's election campaign. It has been suggested that his name is a nod to novelist Howard Waldrop, whose novella A Dozen Tough Jobs is one of the inspirations for the film.[15] He corresponds to the Suitors of Penelope in the Odyssey.[10]
Michael Badalucco as George Nelson, a bipolar bank robber who dislikes being called "Baby Face". The real George Nelson died in 1934, three years before the story is set. Nelson died in a shootout known as the Battle of Barrington rather than by electric chair, as suggested in the film.
Stephen Root as Mr. Lund, the blind radio station manager who records Everett's story in the song "Man of Constant Sorrow" and makes him known throughout the state. He corresponds to Homer.[10]
Lee Weaver as the Blind Seer, a mysterious railroad man who accurately predicts the outcome of the trio's adventure as well as several other incidents. He corresponds to Tiresias in the Odyssey.[10]

text: Production[edit]

text: The idea of O Brother, Where Art Thou? arose spontaneously. Work on the script began long before the start of production in December 1997 and was at least half-written by May 1998. Despite the fact that Ethan described the Odyssey as "one of my favorite storyline schemes", neither of the brothers had read the epic and were only familiar with its content through adaptations and numerous references to the Odyssey in popular culture.[16] According to the brothers, Nelson (who has a degree in classics from Brown University)[17][18] was the only person on the set who had read the Odyssey.[19]

text: The title of the film is a reference to the 1941 Preston Sturges film Sullivan's Travels, in which the protagonist (a director) wants to direct a film about the Great Depression called O Brother, Where Art Thou?[5] that will be a "commentary on modern conditions, stark realism, and the problems that confront the average man". Lacking any experience in this area, the director sets out on a journey to experience the human suffering of the average man but is sabotaged by his anxious studio. The film has some similarity in tone to Sturges's film, including scenes with prison gangs and a black church choir. The prisoners at the picture show scene is also a direct homage to a nearly identical scene in Sturges's film.[20]

text: Joel Coen revealed in a 2000 interview that he came to Phoenix, Arizona, to offer the lead role to Clooney. Clooney agreed to do the role immediately, without reading the script. He stated that he liked even the Coens' least successful films.[21] Clooney did not immediately understand his character and sent the script to his uncle Jack who lived in Kentucky and asked him to read the entire script into a tape recorder.[22] Unknown to Clooney, in his recording, Jack, a devout Baptist, omitted all instances of the words "damn" and "hell" from the Coens' script, which only became known to Clooney after the directors pointed this out to him in the middle of shooting.[22]

text: This was the fourth film of the brothers in which John Turturro has starred. Other actors in O Brother, Where Art Thou? who had worked previously with the Coens include John Goodman (three films), Holly Hunter (two), Michael Badalucco and Charles Durning (one film each).

text: The Coens used digital color correction to give the film a sepia-tinted look.[8] Joel stated this was because the actual set was "greener than Ireland." [22] Cinematographer Roger Deakins stated, "Ethan and Joel favored a dry, dusty Delta look with golden sunsets. They wanted it to look like an old hand-tinted picture, with the intensity of colors dictated by the scene and natural skin tones that were all shades of the rainbow."[23] Initially the crew tried to perform the color correction using a physical process, however after several tries with various chemical processes proved unsatisfactory, it became necessary to perform the process digitally.[22]

text: This was the fifth film collaboration between the Coen Brothers and Deakins, and it was slated to be shot in Mississippi at a time of year when the foliage, grass, trees, and bushes would be a lush green.[23] It was filmed near locations in Canton, Mississippi and Florence, South Carolina in the summer of 1999.[24] After shooting tests, including film bipack and bleach bypass techniques, Deakins suggested digital mastering be used.[23] Deakins subsequently spent 11 weeks fine-tuning the look, mainly targeting the greens, making them a burnt yellow and desaturating the overall image in the digital files.[8] This made it the first feature film to be entirely color corrected by digital means, narrowly beating Nick Park's Chicken Run.[8]

text: O Brother, Where Art Thou? was the first time a digital intermediate was used on the entirety of a first-run Hollywood film that otherwise had very few visual effects. The work was done in Los Angeles by Cinesite using a Spirit DataCine for scanning at 2K resolution, a Pandora MegaDef to adjust the color, and a Kodak Lightning II recorder to put out to film.[25]

text: A major theme of the film is the connection between old-time music and political campaigning in the Southern U.S. It makes reference to the traditions, institutions, and campaign practices of bossism and political reform that defined Southern politics in the first half of the 20th century.

text: The Ku Klux Klan, at the time a political force of white populism, is depicted burning crosses and engaging in ceremonial dance. The character Menelaus "Pappy" O'Daniel, the governor of Mississippi and host of the radio show The Flour Hour, is similar in name and demeanor to W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel,[26] one-time Governor of Texas and later U.S. Senator from that state.[27] W. Lee O'Daniel was in the flour business, and used a backing band called the Light Crust Doughboys on his radio show.[28] In one campaign, W. Lee O'Daniel carried a broom,[29] an oft-used campaign device in the reform era, promising to sweep away patronage and corruption.[29] His theme song had the hook, "Please pass the biscuits, Pappy", emphasizing his connection with flour.[28]

text: While the film borrows from real-life politics, differences are obvious between the characters in the film and historical political figures. The O'Daniel of the movie used "You Are My Sunshine" as his theme song (which was originally recorded by real-life Governor of Louisiana James Houston "Jimmie" Davis[30]) and Homer Stokes, as the challenger to the incumbent O'Daniel, portrays himself as the "reform candidate", using a broom as a prop.

text: Music[edit]

text: Music in the film was originally conceived as a major component of the film, not merely as a background or a support. Producer and musician T-Bone Burnett worked with the Coens while the script was still in its working phases, and the soundtrack was recorded before filming commenced.[31]

text: Much of the music used in the film is period-specific folk music,[6] including that of Virginia bluegrass singer Ralph Stanley.[7] The musical selection also includes religious music, including Primitive Baptist and traditional African American gospel, most notably the Fairfield Four, an a cappella quartet with a career extending back to 1921 who appear in the soundtrack and as gravediggers towards the film's end. Selected songs in the film reflect the possible spectrum of musical styles typical of the old culture of the American South: gospel, delta blues, country, swing and bluegrass.[32][33]

text: The use of dirges and other macabre songs is a theme that often recurs in Appalachian music[34] ("O Death", "Lonesome Valley", "Angel Band", "I Am Weary") in contrast to bright, cheerful songs ("Keep On the Sunny Side", "In the Highways") in other parts of the film.

text: The voices of the Soggy Bottom Boys were provided by Dan Tyminski (lead vocal on "Man of Constant Sorrow"), Nashville songwriter Harley Allen, and the Nashville Bluegrass Band's Pat Enright.[35] The three won a CMA Award for Single of the Year[35] and a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, both for the song "Man of Constant Sorrow".[9] Tim Blake Nelson sang the lead vocal on "In the Jailhouse Now".[5]

text: "Man of Constant Sorrow" has five variations: two are used in the film, one in the music video, and two in the soundtrack album. Two of the variations feature the verses being sung back-to-back, and the other three variations feature additional music between each verse.[36] Though the song received little significant radio airplay,[37] it reached #35 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in 2002.[38] The version of "I'll Fly Away" heard in the film is performed not by Krauss and Welch (as it is on the CD and concert tour), but by the Kossoy Sisters with Erik Darling accompanying on long-neck five-string banjo, recorded in 1956 for the album Bowling Green on Tradition Records.[39]

text: Release[edit]

text: The film premiered at the AFI Film Festival on October 19, 2000.[1] It grossed $71,868,327 worldwide[3] off its $26 million budget.[2]

text: Critical reception[edit]

text: Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives it a score of 77% based on 147 reviews and an average score of 7.1/10. The consensus reads: "Though not as good as Coen brothers' classics such as Blood Simple, the delightfully loopy O Brother, Where Art Thou? is still a lot of fun."[40] The film holds an average score of 69/100 on Metacritic based on 30 reviews.[41]

text: Roger Ebert gave two and a half out of four stars to the film, saying all the scenes in the film were "wonderful in their different ways, and yet I left the movie uncertain and unsatisfied".[42]

text: Accolades[edit]

text: The film was selected into the main competition of the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.[43]

text: The film also received two Academy Award nominations at the 73rd Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography. Cinematographer Roger Deakins was recognized with both Academy Award and ASC Outstanding Achievement Award nominations for his work on the film.[23]

text: For his portrayal of Ulysses Everett McGill, George Clooney received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. The film was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

text: Soggy Bottom Boys[edit]

text: The Soggy Bottom Boys, the musical group that the main characters form, serve as accompaniment for the film. The name is an homage to the Foggy Mountain Boys, a bluegrass band led by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs.[44] In the film, the songs credited to the band are lip-synched by the actors, except that Tim Blake Nelson does sing his own vocals on "In the Jailhouse Now." The actual musicians are Dan Tyminski (guitar and lead vocals), Harley Allen, and Pat Enright.[45][46] The band's hit single is Dick Burnett's "Man of Constant Sorrow," a song that had already enjoyed much success in real life.[47] After the film's release, the fictitious band became so popular that the country and folk musicians who were dubbed into the film, such as Ralph Stanley, John Hartford, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Chris Sharp, and others, all got together and performed the music from the film in a Down from the Mountain concert tour which was filmed for TV and DVD.[6]