O Brother, Where Art Thou?

O Brother, Where Art Thou? Imagery

Long Road Ahead

Early in their journey, Everett, Pete, and Delmar hitch a ride with a man pumping a railroad handcart. We see a wide shot of them all heading down a long track of what seems to be endless railroad track. The shot dissolves into a shot of Everett, Pete, and Delmar now walking. The imagery show us that these boys have a long road ahead of them.

Three Graves

While sleeping at Pete's cousin's house in the barn, The Coen Brothers shoot Everett, Pete, and Delmar in a close over the top shot. The lighting is dark and pale blue so, when they change the angle to see all three men in one frame it appears that they are lying in a large coffin. The image sets up the next scene where the sheriff has come to burn the boys out of the barn and take them back to prison.

The Flood

After the men are flooded out of their own execution, we see an extended underwater sequence. All manner of objects float by, swept up in the Biblical tide. Even a dog floats by. We then see dozens of containers of Dapper Dan pomades and Everett as he floats under the surface. It is a fantastical image, a no-good man in his final moment of redemption, floating through a flooding lake surrounded by his hair product of choice. It's hard to say what exactly the image is meant to symbolize in particular, but it is certainly evocative.

Babyface Nelson Walking Into the Night

George Nelson has decided to leave Pete, Delmar, and Everett. After robbing a bank with them, George heard someone call him by his nickname, "Baby Face," which unleashed a river of grief inside the man. The Coen Brothers show Nelson sitting around a fire in his pain, and surrounded by a stone wall. George then gets up and walks off into the night. The composition shows the wall with the light of the fire glowing off of it, and in the middle, the wall's entrance/exit frames Nelson in the pale moonlight lit field. It looks cold and lonely, and the image shows that this man is isolated and will be forever a loner.