Tuesday, August 17, 2004 AD
O Brother, Art Thou Saved?
My wife and I watched O Brother, Where Art Thou? at the weekend. Great fun, but one particularly heartening feature was the depiction of Christianity in the film, which was in many ways sympathetic, even if not particularly reverent (it is a Coen brothers film, after all). Unusually for Hollywood, the film was actually able to distinguish between Christians and Klansmen, and very unusually for Hollywood, the film teaches baptismal regeneration.
Early in the film, the three escapees - Everett (George Clooney), Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) - come across a mass baptism in a river in some woods. Delmar and Pete rush forward to be baptised, and come out proclaiming that all their sins have been washed away:
As with most other other Coen Brothers films, O Brother... has a very sparky script. Subsequent to Pete and Delmar's baptism, Everett has to break it to them that the fact that they've been absolved and redeemed doesn't alter the fact that they still face re-imprisonment if caught:
Early in the film, the three escapees - Everett (George Clooney), Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) - come across a mass baptism in a river in some woods. Delmar and Pete rush forward to be baptised, and come out proclaiming that all their sins have been washed away:
Pete: Well I'll be a sonofabitch. Delmar's been saved.While Delmar and Pete are certainly portrayed as extremely dim (and certainly very much peccator as well as iustus), throughout the film their conversion is depicted as genuine and (without giving away too much of the plot) survives even the harshest of tests, unlike Everett's glib scepticism.
Delmar: Well that's it, boys. I've been redeemed. The preacher's done warshed away all my sins and transgressions. It's the straight and narrow from here on out, and heaven everlasting's my reward.
Everett: Delmar, what are you talking about? We've got bigger fish to fry.
Delmar: The preacher says all my sins is warshed away, including that Piggly Wiggly I knocked over in Yazoo.
Everett: I thought you said you was innocent of those charges?
Delmar: Well I was lyin'. And the preacher says that that sin's been warshed away too. Neither God nor man's got nothin' on me now. C'mon in boys, the water is fine.
As with most other other Coen Brothers films, O Brother... has a very sparky script. Subsequent to Pete and Delmar's baptism, Everett has to break it to them that the fact that they've been absolved and redeemed doesn't alter the fact that they still face re-imprisonment if caught:
Delmar: But they was witnesses that seen us redeemed.Shortly afterwards, the threesome pick up a young black man, Tommy Johnson, waiting at some crossroads with his guitar:
Everett: That's not the issue, Delmar. Even if that did put you square with the Lord, the State of Mississippi's a little more hard-nosed.
Tommy: I had to be up at that there crossroads last midnight, to sell my soul to the devil.Tommy goes on to explain a little more about the transaction:
Everett: Well, ain't it a small world, spiritually speaking. Pete and Delmar just been baptized and saved. I guess I'm the only one that remains unaffiliated.
Everett: What'd the devil give you for your soul, Tommy?Though perhaps the final word, on a totally different subject, should go to Everett at one particularly meagre mealtime:
Tommy: Well, he taught me to play this here guitar real good.
Delmar: Oh son, for that you sold your everlasting soul?
Tommy: Well, I wasn't usin' it.
No thank you, Delmar. One third of a gopher would only arouse my appetite without beddin' it back down
