Goofs for
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) More at IMDbPro »

• Audio/visual unsynchronized: The people singing along with "You Are My Sunshine" near the end are clearly a few beats off. Their clapping syncs up but they're singing a different line.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the movie theatre, clearly posted above each door is a modern red-lit EXIT sign.
  
  
• Factual errors: The real W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel had no presence in Mississippi politics. He was a Texas flour salesman who became a regional radio personality (as host of broadcasts of Bob Wills and the Light Crust Doughboys), then used that as a platform to launch himself into Texas politics, becoming governor, then Senator. The filmmakers knew this.
  
  

• Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the cafe with Big Dan Teague, Everett's voice doesn't match up with his lips while he is ordering during the close-ups of Big Dan.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When the escapees suddenly realize that large numbers of Christian congregants are walking by them singing, it comes as a surprise; this could be because they walked from the church to the river, and so arrived fairly quietly.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ulysses goes into the department store to confront his wife, you see her fiancé walking around upstairs. It cuts away and when it cuts back, he walks the same place he walked before.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Ulysses is walking out of the store having found his pomade, a modern electrical transformer can be seen on a utility pole in the background.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The Martin guitar played by the woman at the rally is obviously not from the era. The gold sealed gear tuning machines were first used in the '60s.
  
  
• Continuity: The scenes before and after the flood must only be one or two minutes apart, as they were able to hold their breath and not drown. But before the flood it is very sunny (strong shadows), and after the flood the sky is a hazy white (no shadows).
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When the crowd is escorting "Baby Face" Nelson to the electric chair, two musicians are playing. One is playing the fiddle, the other a mandolin. However, the music we hear is that of a fiddle and guitar.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During the picnic with Big Dan, the guys are drinking Budweiser, but the labels are clearly from a modern Budweiser bottle.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the picnic, you can see the false branch that Big Dan is about to rip off the tree.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: During the café scene, Big Dan's lips don't match his words when he's talking about how he sells Bibles. You can see this clearly when the camera faces Everett, just as Big Dan says, "From Genesis on down to the book of Revelation."
  
  
• Continuity: When Delmar runs to be baptized, he cuts in front of a bald man at the front of the left-hand line. The shot changes, and when it returns, the bald man has disappeared as Delmar is being baptized, and the two women who were second and third in line have moved to the front.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the Mr. Lund/Mr. French conversation at WEZY, the July 1937 calendar on the back wall is wrong. It notes that July 1st 1937 fell on a Tuesday, whereas it in fact fell on a Thursday.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: The camera is reflected in a window of the locomotive that passes in front of the three escaping convicts.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: The group singing "Keep on the Sunny Side" at the rally is prominently accompanied by a Dobro (a resonator guitar) being played with a slide... but there is none to be seen. There are other people on stage, but it becomes clear that none of them has an instrument.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: During the recording of "Man of Costant Sorrow" Ulysses steps away from the microphone to let Pete and Delmar sing their part but we hear three part harmony.
  
  
• Continuity: During his argument with his son about the campaign, Pappy's dinner plate changes positions several times. At times it is directly in front of him, while other times it is clearly off to his left side.
  
  
• Continuity: When the boys pull up to the radio station to record their song, the car is parked parallel to the building. In the following scene, when they get out of the car, it is parked facing away from the building.
  
  
• Anachronisms: All of the records shown in the film are turning at 33-1/3 RPM. In 1934, only 78 RPM was used. The first 33-1/3 RPM album was released in 1947.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The song "You Are My Sunshine" by Jimmie Davis was not written until 1939 and not recorded and released until 1940. The calendar at the radio station puts the year at 1937, three years too early. The filmmakers knew this.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: Despite Chris Thomas King being an actual blues guitarist, the scenes in which he is accompanying the Soggy Bottom Boys, his guitar playing is very obviously not in sync with the sound track.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: George Nelson is driving his car down the road, before approaching Everett, Pete, and Delmar. When he goes over a large bump in the road, a person can be seen in the back seat (with arms flailing) while George is supposed to be the only person in the car.
  
  
• Continuity: When Pappy is talking with his employees after Big Dan, Everett, and Delmar leave the restaurant, the orange on his plate changes from shot to shot; it goes from being cut cleanly on the top to being cut serrated-style.
  
  
• Continuity: When the blind man arrives following the passing train the caboose can be seen on the tracks just ahead. After the three escapees jump on the moving handcar the camera pans to the track ahead and no train can be seen.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The closing scene shows a modern railroad track structure with welded rail joints that were not in common usage until after the 1960s.
  
  
• Continuity: When Everett and the boys arrive at the town to find his daughters singing in the election rally, his moustache is visible when he is talking to Pete and Delmar, but when he goes over to talk to his daughters it disappears, and then reappears in the following scene
  
  
• Continuity: After the flood, Everett, Delmar, and Pete find themselves drifting on the coffin. You can tell that they are either are being pulled/pushed up stream or they are not moving at all; the debris and broken trees are floating downstream pass them as they converse.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: During the KKK meeting, when Ulysses and Delmar are following Tommy to the noose, the clan members are marching on the spot, but the sounds of marching do not match the movement of their feet.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Ulysses, Pete and Delmar wind up their recording of "Man of Constant Sorrow", but before the guitar fades out, Ulysses lets out a loud whoop. Since the recording was direct to disk, this would have effectively ruined the ending of the recording and necessitated another take.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Everett and gang enter the radio station, he asks, "Who's the honcho around here?" The word "honcho" is taken from the Japanese 'Hancho', which means "group leader," and did not become an English expression until GI's brought it back from the Pacific war. Its first recorded use in the U.S. is in 1947, many years after this movie's timeframe.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the film, 'Pappy' O'Daniel is running for re-election as governor of Mississipi in 1937. Mississippi governors weren't allowed to serve consecutive terms until the 1970s. Thus, there was never an incumbent in the governor's election until after at least 1975.
  
  
• Continuity: When the guys come out of the recording studio after recording "Man of Constant Sorrow" Delmar is covered in a white powder, but when they go in and while recording the song he is not. Also, while they boys are walking down the road before George Nelson picks them up, Delmar is again covered in the same white powder, but is not after they get into the car.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the Soggy Bottom Boys' performance near the end, the bassist can clearly be shown playing an all metal set of strings. Metal strings for an upright bass were not available until the '60s. The correct material would be gut (more commonly known as catgut) which is brown in color and slightly translucent. Gut strings are very important to the sound of traditional bluegrass and country music.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): At the KKK meeting when Goodman catches the flag, the leader says don't let that flag touch the ground. But after Goodman catches the flag he sets the end with the flag on it on the ground.
  
  
• Continuity: When Pappy O'Daniel and his staffer, who refers to him as "Daddy" are talking about the 'reform candidate', the staff members left hand changes locations on his face between shots of him front and back.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the movie theater (and elsewhere) the guards are shown holding Remington 870 shotguns, which were introduced in the early '50s. It would be more accurate to show them holding Winchester Model 12s or maybe Ithaca 37s.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: While sitting around the campfire, Tommy Johnson is playing his guitar. The sound of a resonator guitar is heard but Tommy plays a standard guitar with a sound hole rather than a resonator top.
  
  
• Continuity: In the overhead shot of people walking into the river from behind them, the preacher and the person being baptized are deep in a tree shadow. When Delmar emerges some the same place and declares that the "preacher has washed his sins away", the shadow has moved several feet away from the preacher.
  
  
• Factual errors: Nelson asks if any of "you fellers" knows his way around a Walther PPK. He then pulls out a submachine gun. The Walther PPK is a pistol.
  
  
• Continuity: When the car breaks down following their escape from the burning shed and they tell the kid to go on back home to his Pa, he walks off in the direction the car was going which would of course been the opposite direction from where the boy lived.
  
  
• Continuity: When Pete is being whipped for information, one of the posse members throws a rope and noose over a naked tree-branch. The noose then dangles in Pete's face. But there should already be another rope over that branch, as Pete is clearly being suspended by his tied hands, and that's the only overhead spot where it could be attached.
  
  

Related Links