O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Factual error: When the "Little Wharvey Gals" are singing they show a shot of the crowd in which there is a man smoking a filtered cigarette. Cigarettes were not filtered until the late '40's.

Sam Martin

Factual error: Notice the Confederate flag in the KKK meeting at night. This takes place in the 30's and they didn't fly the Confederate flag until the 50's. Before then they flew the US flag.

Rob245

Factual error: Newspaper says "July 18, 1937" but Baby face died in 1934.

Factual error: Boy says he nicked the census man but the film is set in 1937. Last census would have been 1930.

Pappy O'Daniel: I'll press your flesh, you dimwitted sumbitch! You don't tell your pappy how to court the electorate. We ain't one-at-a-timin' here. We're mass communicating.

More quotes from O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Trivia: When Everett asks the hobos on the train if any of them are "smithys", look closely and you'll see that they're sitting on big bags of Pappy O'Daniel flour. Pappy is a major character later in the film.

Nicki

More trivia for O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Question: In the KKK scene, Homer Stokes says "The color guard is colored." Did he mean this literally, like Everett was a black man, or did he mean that he was white (unlikely because John Goodman is white and so is he), or is he mistaking Everett for a black man because of his dirty face?

Answer: He mistook Everett for a black man because of his dirty face. It's the only way the line makes sense.

J I Cohen

More questions & answers from O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.