Script To Screen: “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

The three escapees encounter the movie’s version of The Sirens.

The Coen brothers’ interpretation of “The Odyssey,” the wonderful 2000 movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? [written by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, epic poem by Homer].

Setup: Three escaped convicts — Everett, Pete, and Delmar — are on the run when…

THE CAR The three men are driving through the heat of the day.
Everett drives; Pete is slouched in the front passenger
seat; Delmar, in back, picks out 'I'll Fly Away' on a banjo. Pete listens to something, squints, tilts his head. PETE
...Shutup, Delmar. Delmar and Everett exchange glances; Everett shrugs and
Delmar desists. We can faintly hear a high, unearthly singing. Barely human,
the sound seems to agitate Pete. He looks desperately out
the window. His hinging point-of-view shows, down the declivity from the
road and half hidden by trees, three women washing clothes
in the river. Pete's reaction is enormous. He jams a fist into his mouth,
eyes widening. He yanks the fist out and screams: PETE
PULL OVER! Everett, startled, does so. EXT. Before the car has even come to a stop Pete's door flies
open and he is stumbling down the bank to the river. Everett and Delmar follow more casually, Everett chuckling. EVERETT
I guess o' Pete's got the itch. AT THE RIVER The unearthly singing, full volume here, comes from the
three women, beautiful but marked by an otherworldly langor
as they dunk clothes in the stream and beat them against
rocks. Pete is all awkward smiles and deep, burning eyes: PETE
Howdy do, ladies. Name of Pete! Strangely, the three laundresses do not answer, though they
do smile at him as they continue to sing. Pete tries again as he reaches into their laundry basket: PETE
Maybe I could help you with the, uh- He realizes he is holding ladies' undergarments. PETE
Ahem. I, uh... He drops them back in the basket. PETE
I don't believe I've, uh, heard that
song before... Everett and Delmar have arrived; Everett is loud and jovial: EVERETT
Aintcha gonna innerduce us, Pete? Pete's eyes stay glued on the women as he hisses out of the
corner of his mouth: PETE
Don't know their names. I seen 'em
first! Everett laughs lightly. EVERETT
Ladies, you'll have to pardon my
friend here; Pete is dirt-ignorant
and unschooled in the social arts.
My name on the other hand is Ulysses
Everett McGill and you ladies are
about the three prettiest water lilies
it's ever been my privilege to admire. None of the women respond but, as all continue to sing, one
brings a jug marked with three Xes to Everett. EVERETT
Why, thank you dear, that's very,
uh... He takes a swig. EVERETTE
Mm. Corn licker, I guess, uh, the
preferred local uh... He passes the jug to Pete as the woman runs her fingers
through his hair. The other two women are approaching to likewise tousle Pete
and Delmar. Delmar's woman caresses his face and, by squeezing his
cheeks, smushes his mouth into a pucker. DELMAR
Pleased to meet you, ma'am. The singing continues. The stream gurgles. Somewhere, in the
distance, flies lazily buzz. PETE
Damn!

Here is the scene from the movie:

The amazing thing about Coen brothers’ scripts is how closely the movie hews to them, almost always precisely as envisioned on the printed page.

One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

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