This week we watched Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? in class and I enjoyed it. I’m pretty sure that if it hadn’t said that it was based on The Odyssey by Homer, I never would have made the connection, but that was what I liked about it. It wasn’t just copied scene for scene and that made it a great movie to watch in class and discuss in relation to The Odyssey.
I found that the setting of the Depression Era South was a great choice for the movie. Like we discussed in class, this setting and time period is almost like a different reality or a far away mythic land, which is similar to how we feel about Ancient Greek myths. And then the folk music that went along with the movie (which was amazing and fit perfectly) is almost like the American version of epic poems: they were passed around by word of mouth and no one is really sure where it started or who the true author is. The South is also sprawling fields with towns that are few and far between, which is not only reminiscent of Ancient Greece, but it serves to make the different scenes in the movie very episodic, which takes us straight back to the Wanderings of Odysseus.
Another part of having the movie take place in the South was having religion take the place of the Gods. It’s pretty explicitly shown when Everett prays to God and a flood comes and saves him and the others while wiping out all the bad guys, but other instances of divine help are not as explicit as when Athena helps Odysseus. One thing that came up a few times in class was the hair pomade. Everett would not be the same person without his Dapper Dan hair pomade and it can be seen as a comparison to Athena lavishing splendor onto him, while also adding humour to the situation. Another time Everett receives divine help is when Pappy O’Daniel steps in and pardons them of their crimes without even knowing what they are. He saw how much the crowd loved them and decided to take advantage of it and use them as pawns in his campaign for governor, which brings us back to the idea of the Gods using humans as pawns in their game and for their own entertainment.
Love this post! I also really enjoyed the movie. While I was in Mississippi over agora I also thought of another possible connection between Mississippi and Ancient Greece. Mississippi is known as the hospitality state, and in The Odyssey xenia (hospitality) was really important. I wonder if this also played into choosing the setting for the movie.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I found really interesting about O Brother was how, what could be interpreted as "divine help" was inherently discounted by the main characters. There are no situations where the "divinity" is not either discounted verbally, usually by Everett, or discounted by it having been foretold earlier in the story. For example, the flood scene is explicitly anticipated, as Everett, Delmar, and Pete discuss the eventual flooding of the valley in four days. Everett's explicit anti-religiosity is a really interesting character trait which I suspect was an explicit choice on the behalf of the film-makers.
ReplyDeleteI also thought that this was a great movie and how it’s an adaption to the book but not copying every scene from it. I do agree that the Depression Era South is a great choice in terms of setting. The south is like a wild lawless place which compares well with the different places in the book. I love the scenes where Everett is fixing his hair and using the Dapper Dan hair pomade. It adds an extra humorous element to the movie and creates a comparison to Odysseus’ dashing looks.
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