Films set in Mississippi (Film Guide)

Source: Wikipedia. Commentary (films not included). Pages: 27. Chapters: O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Mississippi Burning, The Blind Side, The Ladykillers, A Time to Kill, In the Heat of the Night, Life, Crossroads, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The War, The Long, Hot Summer, The Horse Soldiers, Crimes of the Heart, Biloxi Blues, Tammy and the Bachelor, Mississippi Masala, Ghosts of Mississippi, Ode to Billy Joe, For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story, Cookie's Fortune, Tomorrow, Murder in Mississippi. Excerpt: O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a 2000 comedy film directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning. Set in 1937 rural Mississippi during the Great Depression, the film's story is a modern satire loosely based on Homer's Odyssey. The American folk music soundtrack won a Grammy for Album of the Year in 2001. In 1937, Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), Pete (John Turturro), and Delmar O'Donnell (Tim Blake Nelson) escape from a chain gang at Parchman Farm and set out to retrieve the $1.2 million in treasure that Everett claims to have stolen from an armored car and buried before his incarceration. They have only four days to find it before the valley in which it is hidden will be flooded to create Arkabutla Lake as part of a new hydroelectric project. Early on in their escape, they try to jump onto a moving train with some hobos, but fall off due to Pete's inability to get on. They then encounter a blind man (Lee Weaver) traveling on a manual railroad car. They hitch a ride, and he foretells their futures. The group sets out for the treasure. They walk to Pete's cousin's house, (Washington "Wash" Bartholomew Hogwallop)who removes their chains. He turns them in to the authorities because he needs the money to support his family. They escape from the barn where they were sleeping, which the authorities have set on fire, and continue on their journey. When they pass a congregation on the banks of a river, Pete and Delmar are enticed by the idea of baptism. As the journey continues, they travel briefly with a young guitarist named Tommy Johnson (Chris Thomas King). When asked why he was at a crossroad in the middle of nowhere, he reveals that he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the ability to play the guitar. Tommy describes the devil as being "White, as white as you folks ... with empty eyes and a big hollow voice. He love to travel around with a mean old hound." Thi