Description and Characterazation of Polyphemus in O Brother Where Art Tho

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Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney)

A slick-talking, intelligent man who was sent to the penal subcontract for practicing constabulary without a license. He gets word that his married woman is before long re-marrying, but can only make it in time to finish the wedding if he convinces the two men chained to him to agree to help him escape. Accordingly, he spins a story of a huge sack of cash from an old banking company task that is in danger of beingness cached forever if they don't reach it in time.

Based on Odysseus from The Odyssey, the smart, but arrogant, hero who constantly finds himself in trouble on his journey back home to his married woman.

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• Berserk Button: Is very sensitive about his hair and brand of pomade, Dapper Dan. Don't offer him whatsoever other brand and don't assist yourself to his supply.
• Con Man: Everything about him for the first 2/3 of the movie is a complete lie and he gets past on bluff and charm alone.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has merely ii modes: loquacious and sarcastic. Sometimes both.
• Guile Hero: Much like the grapheme he's based on. Subverted, however; he makes his way in life by being charismatic and eloquent, but he's actually non that expert at it, largely due to his overconfidence and vanity.
• Starting time Male parent Wins: His wife is getting ready to marry again, but eventually goes dorsum to him (with all their children). Perchance. If he can find that ring...
• The Hero: Or and then he thinks.

  Pete: Since nosotros been followin' your lead, we own't got nothing but trouble.

• Indy Ploy: Conspicuously makes things up on the fly, with maybe an hr's preparation. They're successful for about as long, and Pete's quick to complain that they jump from one batch of problem to the next.
• Insufferable Genius: Relatively. He's got a quick mind at least and is quick to effort and bear witness it, which is magnified when he'due south continuing next to Pete and Delmar. That said, true to the original character, he's a touch too arrogant about information technology, is quick to assume he knows more than he does, and isn't really a adept leader, which kind of sees him bouncing between this, Miles Gloriosus, and Know-Nothing Know-It-All.
• Large Ham: He's full of himself, and likes it!
• Heart Name Basis: Almost always referred to past his middle name.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Likes to put on an air of sophistication and intelligence by using big fancy words to explicate things in a verbose manner.

  Everett: Say, whatever of you lot boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you lot otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?

• Sir Swears-a-Lot: A bit loose with his "damns", but zip that would go blanked out on bones cablevision.
• Sophisticated equally Hell: He has, as he puts it, the "gift of gab". When he slips into Insufferable Genius mode, he'll starting time espousing odd facts mixed with unproblematic, Southern colloquialisms.
• Surrounded past Idiots: A mutual complaint of his. ("You two are only dumber than a bag of hammers!")

Pete Hogwallop (John Turturro)

In jail for unknown reasons, Pete only had two weeks left on his judgement, but Everett'south treasure is also tempting to pass up. Extremely rough-around-the-edges, just honest to a fault, Pete constantly butts heads with Everett, but continues to tag along in the hopes of using his share of Everett'due south treasure to open upward his own eatery.

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• Butt-Monkey: He'south browbeaten, kidnapped, and even appears to be turned into a toad.
• I'll Kill You!: Shouts this to his cousin Wash when he realizes that Wash did indeed sell him and the others out for the compensation.

  Pete: I'm gonna Kill y'all, Judas Iscariot Hogwallop! Yous miserable, horse-eatin' son of a-!

• Wiggle with a Centre of Gold: He'due south irascible and prickly, but he's fundamentally good-natured.
• The Lancer: He is Everett's Foil and always goes against whatever he says.
• Large Ham: In true John Turturro mode.
• Thicker Than Water: He believes in this, as it's why he leads the gang to his cousin Wash's place for a place to remainder, eat, and finally get the chains off. He'southward immediately angry when Everett proclaims Wash sold them out to the law that very dark ("Launder'due south kin!"), and gets even moreso when Wash confirms it, so he ends upwardly calling Wash "Judas Iscariot Hogwallop". Despite this, he calls Everett out for stealing Wash's pocket watch.

Delmar O'Donnell (Tim Blake Nelson)

A dim-witted but kindhearted man in prison for robbing a convenience store in Yazoo. He's superstitious and gullible, merely ultimately the virtually decent of the agglomeration. He's far more than agreeable than Pete, and dreams of buying back his family farm from the bank that foreclosed on it with his share of the treasure.

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• Phone call to Agriculture: This is his motivation for getting the money — he wants to buy back his family farm, believing that he isn't a true human without owning land.
• Cloudcuckoolander: "We... thought... you... was... a toad!"
• The Ditz: Which helps him being duped past Everett's "intelligence".
• Friend to All Living Things: During tiffin with Big Dan, nosotros meet Delmar covered with and enthralled by butterflies.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: The friendliest of the group.
• The Cast Showoff: That really is him singing In the Jailhouse At present toward the end of the movie.
• Prissy Guy: He gets along well with both Everett and Pete.

Governor Menelaus "Pappy" O'Daniel (Charles Durning)

The incumbent governor of Mississippi, also a flour tycoon and radioman. He'due south losing badly confronting his opponent Homer Stokes, due both to beingness indomitable by accusations of corruption, and due to the mis-direction of his campaign past his two idiot helpers and idiot son. He unwittingly gives Everett and his group a variety of escapes from their troubles.

He's a Composite Character representing both Menelaus and Zeus from The Odyssey, existence a helpful potency effigy in contrast to Sheriff Cooley.

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• Fatty, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit: The pic is set in the Deep S, so the politicians needed to be that! That said, he'south more self-centered and neutral than the usual case.
• Grumpy Old Man: Until he's actually on his rival's stage, we but always run into him griping to and about his employees.
• Historical In-Joke: Pappy O'Daniel was a Texas senator, but here he'due south the Mississippi governor.
• Large Ham: In both size and boisterous attitude.

  "Nosotros MASS-COMMUNICATIN'!"

• Lesser of Two Evils: He might exist a Jerkass and very likely a Corrupt Politico, but he all the same comes out looking better than his KKK opponent.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: "Pappy."
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Especially while whapping his employees with a chapeau.
• Surrounded by Idiots: His son and a couple of yep men. They, uh, never debate the bespeak.

Sheriff Cooley (Daniel von Bargen)

The lawman tasked with bringing Everett's group dorsum to the farm. He'south a heartless human who takes a perverse pleasance in pursuing the boys, and clearly plans to summarily execute them rather than bring them in. He'due south implied at various points to be the Devil himself, aiming to collect on a debt he's owed.

He represents Poseidon from The Odyssey being a completely antagonistic authorisation figure who is constantly in the way of Everett's journey home.

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• Allegorical Character: Much similar Poseidon in The Odyssey, he represents inhuman power without mercy, in this case, the law itself. He may also actually exist the Devil, and so there's that.
• Big Bad: Of all the colourful characters the escapees meet on their journey, Cooley is definitely the most unsafe and dogged in his pursuit to capture and impale the three.
• Death by Irony: Poseidon is killed past a flood. Well, perchance merely defeated.
• Muddy Cop: It's clear from the go-get that Cooley doesn't intendance about little details similar who is innocent and what their rights are.
• Inspector Javert: A very cruel example. Getting escaped prisoners is his job, but he'due south outright psychotic about information technology (he sets a barn on fire to try to fume them out, for crying out loud) and when they get a pardon, he still captures them and gets ready to hang them (and Tommy, who has washed no crime at all other than existence with them).
• Perhaps Magic, Possibly Mundane: In that location's some hints that he might exist the Devil (ie. Tommy's description of the Devil he met in the crossroads), and his exposition about 'human institutions' when confronted almost his methods casts more incertitude to his true nature.
• Not Enough to Bury: When the flood apparently kills him off, all that the photographic camera shows of him is his glasses floating downstream.
• Obviously Evil: How he got the job is anybody's gauge. And so again, if he really is the Devil, he probably wasn't actually called for it and fabricated his own manner in...
• Police Brutality: Cooley and his gang whip and torture Pete in hopes he'll ain up to the whereabouts of his compatriots.
• Satanic Classic: His cruelty and bizarre advent, including the fact that his mirrored shades reflect flames at times, make him look like the devil.
• Sinister Shades: Cooley e'er wears his shades, even in the dark. Disturbingly, they often reverberate flames when you run across a close-up of his face.

Daniel "Big Dan" Teague (John Goodman)

A greedy, sadistic, one-eyed Bible salesman, taking advantage of the Depression to push his product. He first encounters Everett's group at a restaurant where he tricks them into paying for his meal and and so violently mugs them. He later appears at a Ku Klux Klan rally, revealing the full extent of his cruelty.

Based on Polyphemus the Cyclops from The Odyssey, who cannibalizes Odysseus' men in violation of Sacred Hospitality.

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• Pointer Catch: Catches the Amalgamated flag hurled similar a javelin between his hands before it tin can stab him in the face up, which gets a few impressed cheers from his boyfriend klansmen. Not then lucky with the behemothic flaming cross though.
• Asshole Victim: Mugs the heroes afterward they pay for his repast, then is later nowadays at a Klan rally. Once a behemothic, flaming cross falls on top of him, we're given exactly cipher to mourn.
• Eyepatch of Power: He's a cyclops analogue. At that place may be a double meaning: while his rank is never stated, the master officer of a local KKK chapter during the period was called the "Exalted Cyclops".
• Fat Bastard: Greedy, tearing, Ku Klux Klan fellow member...
• Faux Affably Evil: Puts upwardly a friendly, amicable front before showing his true colors by beating the hell out of Everett and Delmar and robbing them blind.
• Jerkass: Robs the heroes, eats their food, and squishes the toad they thought was Pete, and Delmar tried so hard to protect. And that'south all before we learn he'due south a member of the KKK.
• Karmic Decease: Crushed by a flaming cross in a KKK rally.
• Large Ham: Notes that it comes in handy in his line of piece of work selling Bibles.
• The Nose Knows: He noticeably takes off his hood and gets a big sniff of the air before he rushes after the heroes and reveals them, all merely stating he recognized Ulysses' Dapper Dan.
• Red Right Paw: He has one eye, and is a KKK fellow member.
• Sophisticated as Hell: As with Ulysses, he can make a short bespeak with long streams of dialogue.
• Stout Force: Capable of quite the beating with a large stick, but more impressively (given his lack of depth perception) catches a flag staff thrown equally a javelin.
• Villainous Glutton: Meets Ulysses and friends at a restaurant, and eats a lot.

Tommy Johnson (Chris Thomas Male monarch)

A immature, but incredibly gifted blues musician whom Everett picks upward on his mode back from the crossroads from selling his soul to the Devil for his musical talent. Despite his obvious talent, he lives in constant fear of the Devil coming to collect.

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• Deal with the Devil: How he learned to play the guitar.

  Delmar: Oh son, for that you sold your everlasting soul?
  Tommy: Well, I wasn't usin' information technology.

• Historical Domain Character: Basically an expy of the real-life dejection guitarist Tommy Johnson, as well equally Robert Johnson - both of them rumored to have gotten their musical skills in a Bargain with the Devil.
• Nice Guy: It's kind of ironic, seeing as how he sold his soul to the Devil, but Tommy is i of the nicest guys in the film.
• Sixth Ranger: Joins the grouping after being picked up by the side of the road.
• Token Minority: The simply black guy in the chief characters.

George "Babyface" Nelson (Michael Badalucco)

The famous depository financial institution robber himself, Nelson runs into the boys past chance and takes them along on 1 of his banking company jobs. He falls into a funk immediately after, wandering off and allowing the boys to enjoy the spoils on their own. Heavily implied to be manic-depressive, his robberies being the result of a mania-fueled desire for excitement and notoriety.

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• Berserk Push button: Calling him "Babyface".
• Historical Domain Graphic symbol: Though the real life Nelson died in 1934, whereas the film is set in 1937.
• Insistent Terminology: Information technology's "George Nelson", not "Babyface".
• Big Ham: In his manic moments.
• Mood-Swinger: We encounter him bicycle through highs of gleeful violence and throwing money around, along with lows of sitting and moping. Ulysses suggests he's what we'd phone call bipolar nowadays.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Is surprisingly genial for a banking company robber, fifty-fifty in his low moments - until someone calls him "Babyface".
• Trigger Happy: To the bespeak he shoots some cows that laissez passer by!

Homer Stokes (Wayne Duvall)

Pappy O'Daniel's electoral opponent, Stokes is running as a reform candidate in a brilliant and highly successful entrada using a dwarf to represent his friendship with "the little human being." Despite his posturing as a muckraking populist, Stokes is actually a deeply malicious man and a high-ranking member of the local Ku Klux Klan. His entrada manager, Vernon T. Waldrip, is presently to ally Everett'due south married woman.

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• Accidental Public Confession: He has to admit that he was at a Klan rally in guild to out the heroes as escaped convicts. He doesn't seem to mind though, thinking his constituents would exist okay with it. They weren't.
• Big Guy, Lilliputian Guy: With his dwarf sidekick, who not just plays the role of "the lilliputian man" in his political muckraking, but helps him with his Klan activities, too.
• Corrupt Hick: Appears to be a reform candidate. And is actually a high-ranking Jerkass in the Klan.
• Hoist past His Own Petard: Despite loudly claiming to be a friend of the "niggling man" (with accompanying niggling person) both earlier and during, he can't read the mood of the crowd when he interrupts the Soggy Bottom Boys' performance at his own campaign rally and is consequently run out of town on a rail.
• Honor Before Reason: In that his personal sense of honor every bit a Klansman requires him to bound out of his chair and demand the oversupply disown the Soggy Bottom Boys for being integrated and miscegenated, refusing to back down even equally the crowd turns against him.
• Jerkass: He's a Klan fellow member who wants to lynch Tommy up for the crime of existence black.
• Large Ham: Not so normally (well, as much as a politician tin be hammy), simply he really cuts loose at the Klan rally.
• Villain with Skilful Publicity: He's much better at campaigning than Pappy, and therefore much more popular. He'southward hands the worse of the ii morally.

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• Oblivion (2013)
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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/OBrotherWhereArtThou

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