Trivia for
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

• The title is taken from the title of the film the director wants to make in Preston Sturgess's Sullivan's Travels.
  
  
• References to Homer's Odyssey: The names of George Clooney and Holly Hunter's characters (Ulysses & Penelope); the one-eyed Big Dan as the Cyclops (blinded with a burning pole); the three girls by the river as the Sirens; Ulysses' wife marrying someone else when he comes home; the old-man disguise; the changing of one of Ulysses' companions into an animal; the Baptists as the Lotus-eaters.
  
  
• Root, Stephen, who plays the radio station owner, also played a radio station owner in the TV show "NewsRadio" (1995).
  
  
• The character of Tommy Johnson is based on famed blues guitarist Robert Johnson who, according to folk legend, sold his soul to the Devil at the crossroads for his legendary talent.
  
  
• The American Humane Association, an organization that protects animal rights, mistook a computer-generated cow in the movie for a real animal and demanded proof before they would allow the use of their famous disclaimer, "No animals were harmed in the making of this motion picture." After seeing a demonstration at Digital Domain of how the cow was created, the Humane Association added the following line to their statement for the first time: "Scenes that appear to have harmed animals were simulated."
  
  
• The character of Pappy O'Daniel is based on W. Lee (Pappy) O'Daniel who served as Governor of Texas (not Mississippi) from 1938-1942 and later as U.S. Senator. He was a flour baron with a radio show and sang with the Light Crust Doughboys. He was famous for refusing to vote in protest of the poll tax.
  
  
• George Clooney agreed to do this film without having read the script.
  
  
• The historical "Babyface Nelson" was a gangster named Lester M. Gillis (a.k.a. George Nelson, "Big George" Nelson, Lester Giles, Alex Gillis, etc.) who was known for his hot temper and itchy trigger finger. He was killed in Barrington, Illinois, in November of 1934 - three years before the setting of the film.
  
  
• Many of the actors in this film who were in previous Coen brothers films have moments reminiscent of their earlier performances. Examples: John Turturro begging for his life in a forest (like in Miller's Crossing (1990)); John Goodman as an evil salesman (like in Barton Fink (1991)); Charles Durning lecturing his employees (like in Hudsucker Proxy, The (1994)); Michael Badalucco as a gangster bank robber (he drove the car in Miller's Crossing (1990)); and Holly Hunter as a now overly fertile mother of 6 (she was infertile in Raising Arizona (1987)).
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• The THREE gravediggers were from the gospel group "The Fairfield FOUR" (which has FIVE members).
  
  
• The whole film was graded digitally on computer. The negative was scanned in with a Spirit Datacine at 2K resolution and then colors were digitally fine-tuned. The process took several weeks. The resulting digital master was output on film again with a Kodak laser recorder to create a print master. It's the first time this has been done for a whole film in Hollywood (but not in other countries).
  
  
• In keeping with the Odyssey theme, the Ku Klux Klan has a rank of Grand or Exalted Cyclops. (Whether Big Dan Teague has achieved that rank is never mentioned.)
  
  
• At one point, the principal characters make reference to the fact that, were they to be recaptured, they would not be released from jail until 1987; that was the year in which the Coen Brothers' Raising Arizona (1987) (a film about several characters leaving prison through various means) was released.
  
  
• Everett's Mississippi correctional identification number is 9958-771 5.
  
  
• Additional reference to Homer's Odyssey: They catch a ride on a hand-pumped railcar that is being operated by a blind prophet, who tells them that they will not find the treasure they seek. This mirrors the prophet character in the Odyssey (usually considered to be Homer working himself into the story.)
  
  
• About the character of Tommy Johnson being based on Robert Johnson... probably true, but there was another guitarist (much less famous) by the name of Tommy Johnson (not related to Robert) who lived around the same time who sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads for the ability to play the guitar well.
  
  
• The cabin in the valley before it is flooded is a replica of the cabin from Evil Dead, The (1982), a movie directed by Sam Raimi, a friend and co-conspiritor of the Coens.

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