O Brother, Where Art Thou is a movie that is loosely based on The Odyssey. Set in the Southern states during the Great Depression, the movie incorporates elements of the ancient epic poem into its plot. However, the relationship between O Brother, Where Art Thou and The Odyssey was not always clear to me. On the day that we started watching the movie in class, I sat in my desk scratching my head and thinking "this is based on The Odyssey?"
As we watched more of the movie, I began to notice some of the glaringly obvious parallels, such as the Sirens (who were also kind of like Circe), the Cyclops (Big Dan the con man), and Penelope (Penny). I still couldn't see the bigger picture, though. What was Everett even trying to do? Was he the hero of the movie? If so, then why was he an escaped prisoner? How did George Nelson fit into the plot of The Odyssey? (I still don't know the answer to this. I don't think he did.)
After we discussed the movie in class, I heard some of the more obscure (but still important) connections. I also realized more relationships on my own. One of the parallels that I recognized is the role of the gods in O Brother, Where Art Thou. Everett's companions, Pete and Delmar, become baptized early in the movie and believe that they have washed away all of their sins simply by jumping into a river. They are seen as relatively religious characters throughout the movie. For example, at the end of O Brother Where Art Thou, when the three main characters are about to be hanged, a flood saves them. Pete and Delmar believe that God sent the flood. Everett, on the other hand, refuses to believe in God and claims that there is a scientific explanation for everything. Everett's reasoning reminded me of Athena.
After engaging in our class discussions and ruminating on my own for a while, I think that I can finally see the connection between O Brother, Where Art Thou and The Odyssey.
It's funny, I too didn't see the parallels! You have to look hard. I first saw this movie when I was younger, and obviously didn't notice any similarities then! Glad to know I wasn't the only one :) I thought the class discussion was really helpful!!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it ever crossed the Coen brothers' mind to have O Brother, Where Art Thou? in a frame narrative, like the famous Wanderings section in the Odyssey. That would have been one really clear parallel.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of glad they didn't have a frame narrative. Since O Brother had the strongest parallels to the Wanderings section, trying to insert the context for a frame narrative would have prolonged the movie, and also made it a little less happy-go-lucky.
There are obvious parallels between the movie and The Odyssey, but there are also instances where the connection between the two aren't clear, and at times it's almost as if the Cohen brothers are trolling the viewers. Teasing them with what could be a connection, but it turns out that it was completely random and unrelated. Overall though, I don't think the Cohen brothers can claim that they had not read The Odyssey prior to making their movie.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that the Coen brothers were just kind of throwing relatively similar situations into O brother as the Odyssey just to make the claim that their movie was based off the story. There are a lot of similar challenges sure, but I don't think that there was a full enough connection. I actually think that it would have been possible to make the movie without actually reading the Odyssey and just doing some basic research on some events that happened to Odysseus
DeleteThe whole point of George Nelson bothered me during the movie, and I have to agree with you that I still don't see any real reason to have him in the movie. I was so curious about this that I googled the relation between George Nelson and the movie, and all that I could find was that he might parallel Agamemnon because he recruited a reluctant Everett into robbing a bank while Agamemnon recruited a reluctant Odysseus into going to the Trojan War. Personally, I still don't see what the whole point of having him in the movie was.
ReplyDeleteOne way to look at George Nelson (and I think I might have mentioned something like this in class) is to see him as a reflection of an American version of a mythic figure--the bank robber/gangster who becomes a kind of "character" in the national discourse (the kind who has a nickname, like "Babyface," and who has "fans," whose exploits are followed closely in the newspapers--a tradition going back at least to the days of Jesse James, Buffalo Bill, etc.). I wrote on my blog about the ways the Coens tap into American mythology (the myth of the devil at the crossroads being another example, the KKK as American "monsters," etc.)--and Nelson is explicitly concerned about his public image ("going for the record," objecting to the name "Babyface," psyched when he'll be executed as it will solidify his legend). Not everything in the film has to have an exact parallel in Homer. It's more an effect of the characters traveling and encountering monsters and mythic figures throughout the landscape that evokes an Odyssean kind of jounrey.
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