“It’s Problem of Perception.” The Coen Brothers’ Constructivist Use of Genre

In what seems like something of a non sequitur at the time, the Coens leave the central narrative of O Brother Where Art Thou? 2000 , to focus on a political conversation between Pappy O’Daniels Charles Durning and his staff. The sitting governor wonders what he has to do to gain a “constituency.” His son, Junior Del Pentecost , suggests they try to copy the campaign of their opponent, Homer Stokes Wayne Duvall , and get “a little fella even smaller than Stokes’.” Pappy explodes. He cannot let his campaign seem like “a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies.” Pappy explains that his primary problem is that people already think, “this Stokes got fresh ideas.” Imitation of Stokes would only confirm this assumption. His two advisors agree: “It’s a problem of,” one of the two begins and then searches for the word that the other is ready to offer, “perception.” The conversation carries with it an unexpected significance not only for this one film where misperceptions come with perilous consequences, but for those who try to work to make sense of such a film in the late twentieth century. The common perception of contemporary American filmmakers, the Coens included, is that they are “a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies.” They can be little more set as they are within postmodernism.