This film follows the journey of 3 escaped convicts (chained together) in search of a treasure that has 4 days before being lost forever at the bottom of a lake. They are pursued by the law, swindled by crooks and seduced by sirens before coming to a holy realization.
The film is set in 1930's Mississippi, a land portrayed as one of racism, sexism and corruption. There are many religious references in this film, including a mass river baptism in which two of the three heroes decide to join the crowd. They are told when the minister holds them in the water that all their past sins have been resolved and that they have a clean slate. They are overjoyed and beg their leader Everett (George Clooney) to do the same but he refuses. In this way he is presented as the voice of disbelief and hostility in the film.
When the trio make their way down the road with their chains, they are forced to walk in a certain order. Once the chains have been removed, they are still seen walking in this order as the camera follows them down the track or moves slowly on a dolly before them. In this way with their few possessions and stripped prison clothing, familiarity is all they have and this is clear in the way these shots are filmed.
At many points the three men manage to get themselves a car, and the camera rest on the hood or through the open window as they drive along. Another religious reference is brought forth from this when they reach a crossroads. The camera gives a tilted bird's eye view of where the four roads meet, letting the audience see the men approach and slow down to decide where to go. They see a young black man standing at the crossroads with guitar. The camera stands between them showing the divide which was effective. Everett asks the man what he was doing standing out in the middle of nowhere, and his reply was that he waited out an the crossroads all night, waiting for the devil. When he appeared, he was white, and he gave him a tainted gift of musical prowess. This shows how religious the characters are, and that they have faith in something no matter what the status.
This point is again proved when the black man is kidnapped by the KKK, a prominent racist extremist group in the South at the time. The trio go in for a rescue mission and the camera shows from a distance the elaborate marching the men performed in their white cloaks. I see this as a laughable addition to the film as this is a harmless part of what they did and nobody else would see it, not in the KKK. This must have taken a lot of practice and the fact the grown men would organize this kind of display for no one but themselves when they have such twisted, despicable beliefs came across as comically pathetic. The camera gave bird's eye view shots of the marching, the huge wooden cross, the noose and the heroes in quick succession, changing almost silently. When the boys set the cross in fire, the camera follows the flame from the bottom to the top of the structure, illuminating the shot.
The camera angles, music and distanced shots create a film that feels dated and gives an onlooker's view of the goings on.
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