O Brother Where Art Thou? , begins with Ulysses, Pete and Delmar escaping from prison that was located in the middle of nowhere. Ulysses told his companions that he has hidden a treasure from back in the day, but they must get it in 4 days or it will be lost forever due to a flood. Soon Everett, Pete, and Delmar meet a blind soothsayer, who tells them, “You seek a great fortune, you three who are now in chains. You will find a fortune, though it will not be the fortune you seek.
But first … first you must travel a long and difficult road, a road fraught with peril. After being betrayed and almost caught by the police, the fugitives drive along a country road, they pick up a young black guitarist named Tommy Johnson. After finding out that there was a man who was willing to pay you good money to just sing in his can, the whole gang raced up there and sang, no knowing that their song would be a number one hit and that everyone would not get enough of it. Tommy soon leaves the group, and the next day the three escapees are driving along when they see three beautiful women washing clothes at a river.
The three women behave seductively toward the men. Ulysses, Pete, and Delmar are captivated as the women sing the old folk lullaby. After the three men drink some whiskey from a jug, they fall asleep, and when Ulysses and Delmar awake, Pete is missing and the other two came in conclusion that Pete was in fact turn into a frog. Everett and Delmar go into the next town, where they run into a one-eyed giant of a man named Big Dan Teague, a Bible salesman. Big Dan goes on a rampage, knocks out both Everett and Delmar, and steals their money and their car.
After recovering consciousness and got a ride into Ithaca where Ulysses encounters three of his daughters, and finds out that his wife Penny is getting married to another man tomorrow. Since it is a movie, it was setted in a third person narrative view throughout the whole movie. It The movie O Brother Where Art Thou? , is a more modern version of the famous story the Odyssey . There are a lot of people and events in the movie that significantly relates to the story. Well first of all the line, “Sing to me of the man, Muse… , was at the beginning of the film, as well in the Odyssey.
In the movie, Ulysses meets an old and blind man who prophesizes that “the treasure you seek shall not be the treasure you find”. In the Odyssey, Odysseus goes to the underworld to seek the advice of Tiresias, an old and blind prophet, who tells him that his travels will not be over until he takes an oar and walks so far inland that someone asks him why he carries a winnowing-fan. The sheriff in the movie that wanted to catch him can be related to Poseidon in the story of the Odyssey.
In addition to that when Ulysses mentions that Satan carries “a giant hay fork” also known as a trident both figures are often described with just such an instrument. In addition to that, the women, who lured the heroes with their singing, and treat him to corn liquor until he passes out where the sirens who did the same to Odysseus. The sirens also have an element of the Circe by appearing to transform one of his companions into an animal. The bible sales man, “Big Dan” Teague who had one eye obviously was the Cyclops in the Odyssey.
Although in the original story Odysseus outwits the Cyclops, in the movie it was the total opposite and Teague was the one who outwits Ulysses. The scene of the Ku Klux Klan mob is an implication to Odysseus being a prisoner of the Cyclops. The Klansmen are preparing to hang a black man is basically when the Cyclops is preparing his dinner. Ulysses, Delmar and Pete don Klan robes as a disguise, in order to save him just as Odysseus dressed his men in sheepskins to fool the Cyclops. The character Tommy Johnson is similar to the role of Athena in the Odyssey, who secretly helps Odysseus during his journey.
Each time Ulysses encounters Tommy, good luck follows. Tommy leads the trio to the radio station where they record their hit single. At one point of the movie, the 3 convicts meet a bank robber named of George Nelson. When they meet, Nelson is being chased by the police and in order to run away from them he shoots at a herd of cattle. This may be a reference to a scene in the book where Odysseus and his fellow travelers slaughter the cows of the sun god Helios. As Ulysses warns his men against killing the sacred oxen of the sun for food.
For punishment, Ulysses’ ship is struck by a thunderbolt killing everyone but him. In O Brother Where Art Thou? George is executed in the electric chair. Near the end, Tommy floats on the roll-top desk in which Penny has told Ulysses her wedding ring can be found. In the Odyssey, Penelope swore only to marry a man who could shoot an arrow through twelve axes, a feat only ever performed by Odysseus. When none of the suitors could, Odysseus performed it disguised as an old man and claimed his wife and his kingdom in the end.
In the Movie, the Soggy Bottom Boys remain anonymous while their song grows ever popular, and nobody can replicate it. When they play it, they are instantly recognized, as Odysseus was, and so they discard their disguises like him. Penny follows suit, taking Ulysses back by the end of the film. The Odyssey is one of my favorite stories of all time, and I am absolutely pleased with the movie O Brother Where Art Thou? Even though both masterpieces were brought into the public at different times they still share the same storyline as well as the theme.
