I found “O Brother Where art Thou” to be a rollercoaster of emotion that was brought about by the music in the film. The music in this film was absolutely essential to what I believe to be the thesis of this wonderful movie. This film proposes a thesis about the modern age or present day America by going to the past that looks toward the present. George Clooney’s character, Everett represents the rational and logical thought process that many Americans attempt to employ when explaining events in their daily lives. However, through music, this film reminds the viewer that despite our greatest efforts to rationalize every detail of our lives, sometimes there is no logical explanation.

The film starts with three individuals, Everett, Pete, and Delmar running away from a chain gang doing manual labor. As they continue to run, they come across an older man pushing his way down the railroad on a rail cart. After basic conversation, the man starts telling them their fate in a form of poem or song with a guitar playing in the background. The guitar plays quitely and ominouosly and grows louder as the prophesy contines to flow from the older man's mouth. As he tells this prophesy, there is a shot of Delmar and Pete where their faces are amazed with open mouths. This simple close up shot in combination with the music during the scene tells the viewer that this scene is very important in terms of plot developmentt. Likewise, we see this man at the end of the film when Everett, Pete, Delmar, and Tommy are confronted by the man that has been chasing them the entire time they had escaped. As the four protagonists are about to be hung, the man from the rail cart starts singing once again. These two instances of singing represent how during the entire film, music is used to signify important plot developments that in turn help display the thesis. Since the old man had told them their fate and was correct, his reappearance into the film with song validates the thesis that despite Everett’s attempts to rationalize the instances that had unfolded he is unsuccessful.

As a result, I feel that this film is trying to represent the complexities and turns that our lives have taken to get us to the places we currently stand and to prove despite our greatest attempts, there are some things that we simply cannot rationalize.