O Brother, Where Art Thou? Page #7

VOICE:

He's against the Innarests and for

the little man!

This, the driver's voice, is amplified through a flared

speaker mounted on the roof of the cab. As the oncoming truck

draws near, the midget bellows out at the farmer, who has

removed his hat to scratch his forehead.

MIDGET:

Greetings, brother! Vote for Stokes!

The voice tails away:

MIDGET:

Clean gummint is yours for the askin'!

Our pan with the passing truck comes to rest on the WEZY

radio building.

INSIDE:

We are pulling back from a close shot of the portly blind

man.

MAN:

Hang on! Lemme slap up a wire.

He turns away to load a recording as he talks into a

microphone.

MAN:

Folks, here's my cousin Ezzard's

niece Eudora from out Greenwood doin'

a little number with her cousin Tom-

Tom which I predict you're just gonna

enjoy thoroughly.

He switches off the microphone as the song, a duet of 'I'll

Fly Away', scratchily issues from a monitor. He turns his

attention back to a well-dressed man sitting nearby.

MAN:

Now what can I do you for, Mister

French?

FRENCH:

How can I lay hold a the Soggy Bottom

Boys?

MAN:

Soggy Bottom Boys - I don't precisely

recollect, uh -

FRENCH:

They cut a record in here, few days

ago, old-timey harmony thing with a

guitar Accump-accump-uh-

MAN:

Oh I remember 'em, colored fellas I

believe, swell bunch a boys, sung

into yon can and skedaddled.

FRENCH:

Well that record has just gone through

the goddamn roof! They're playin' it

as far away as Mobile! The whole

damn state's goin' ape!

MAN:

It was a powerful air.

FRENCH:

Hot damn, we gotta find those boys!

Sign 'em to a big fat contract! Hell's

bells, Mr. Lunn, if we don't the

goddamn competition will!

MAN:

Oh mercy, yes. You gotta beat that

competition.

'I'll Fly Away' mixes up to play full over the following.

MONTAGE:

- The three men walk down a flat delta road, the sun

shimmering off the rough pavement. Their bank loot, wrapped

in a bandanna, is knotted to the end of a stick slung over

Delmar's shoulder.

- A different road under a threatening sky. The three men

stand in the middle distance, waiting. In the foreground two

little black boys are walking home, each carrying a block of

ice. A horse-drawn cart rumbles in from offscreen and Everett

waggles his thumb. Thunder rumbles.

- A spinning 78 on a green felt turntable. The crude black

label identifies it as 'Man of Constant Sorrow' by the Soggy

Bottom Boys.

- A high shot looking down through the rain past the dripping

eave of a barn, under which Everett, Pete and Delmar have

taken cover. The three hold their coats pinched shut at the

neck as they look forlornly up at the weather.

- The three men walk along a red dirt road elevated through

a bayou.

- The three men sit around a campfire. Everett sits on a

stump, expressively telling a ghost story as Pete and Delmar

gaze at him from below, wide-eyed and rapt.

- The three men walk past a cotton field dotted with burst

pods.

- A Woolworth's interior. A sad-faced woman in a calico dress

addresses the clerk:

SAD-FACED WOMAN

Do you have the Soggy Bottom Boys

performing 'Man of Constant Sorrow'?

CLERK:

No, ma'am, we had a new shipment in

yesterday but we just can't keep it

on the shelves.

The sad-faced woman is crestfallen.

SAD-FACED WOMAN

Oh, mercy. Then - just the purple

toilet water.

- The three men walk down a road excavated through banks of

clay, from which gnarled tree roots protrude.

- A pie rests on a windowsill, steam wafting from it. A hand

enters from below the sill outside and disappears with the

pie. A moment later we see Everett's and Pete's backs as

they scamper away across the yard. A short beat, and then

Delmar peeks over the sill. He ducks back down and then his

hand reaches up to leave a dollar bill. Moments later we see

him scampering away after Pete and Everett.

- Another campfire. The three men sit around it laughing as

they enjoy the pie, each with a slab on a plate improvised

of old newspaper. Everett finishes his piece, licks his thumb

and tosses the newspaper onto the fire.

We jump in to look at the soiled newspaper as flame begins

to curl its edge. A story is headlined 'TVA Finalizing Plans

for Flooding of Arktabutta Valley'. The flame curls the page

away, briefly revealing the page beneath - with a story

headlined 'Soggy Bottom Boys a Sensation - But Who Are They?' -

before it too is consumed.

- A little general store. We are very high, looking down at

a foreshortened Everett, Pete, Delmar and store clerk, who

is wielding a long telescoping pole that stretches toward

us. Everett is pointing up, directing the man with the pole.

He moves it tentatively to and fro until, at a certain point,

Everett nods vigorously.

A reverse shows the end of the pole - a long stock-pincher -

as it closes over a tin of Dapper Dan pomade, resting on a

high shelf.

The exterior of the store shows it to be on a corner of a

little crossroads town. The three men are emerging from the

store just as a car pulls up to one of the two bubble-topped

gas pumps out front. A fancyman in a boater hat gets out of

the car and heads for the store, passing the three; Everett

glances at him and, as the man disappears inside, he dives

into his car, waving for Delmar and Pete to follow. Delmar,

initially reluctant, is hauled into the car by Pete, and the

men take off.

- The spinning 78 recording, as the song enters its last

verse.

- A spinning car wheel.

- A panoramic boom up as the car toodles away, down a road

that winds through scrub grass toward a distant sunset.

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:

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