What Is the Movie O Brother Where Art Thou Based on

This entry was posted on April 27, 2017.

In this concluding role in the cursory serial 'History as inspiration' (part one, part two), I desire to hash out the Coen Brothers' 2000-motion picture O Brother, Where Fine art Thou? Every bit the opening credits make articulate, the motion picture is (loosely) based on Homer's Odyssey. In an interview, the Coen Brothers claimed never to accept actually read the original poem, simply they were surely familiar with its contents, as many elements of the film are inspired past characters and events from the epic verse form.

The Odyssey is essentially a sequel of sorts to the Iliad. In ancient times, both poems were thought to accept been composed past a single poet named Homer, probably around 700 BC. (Though it should be noted that the poems didn't attain their terminal form, committed to papyrus, until perhaps as belatedly equally the mid-sixth century BC.) There is much contend about whether or not 'Homer' is a real proper noun, and some scholars certainly doubt that both poems were the product of a single author.

Certainly, the two poems are very different. The Iliad is set in the tenth and final year of the Trojan War and focuses on a single episode: the disharmonize between Achilles and the Greek commander-in-chief, Agamemnon, after the latter robs the former of his 'prize of honour' (a girl captured during a raid). The action of the Iliad is all ready in a geographically small surface area (in and around Troy and the Greek army camp), and takes identify over a limited span of fourth dimension (a few weeks).

By contrast, the Odyssey is a sprawling tale of adventure. The hero, Odysseus, is punished by the gods and forced to wander the seas for ten years, fighting various monsters and overcoming all sorts of obstacles, before being allowed to go home. Once home,he finds that his wife has been beset by suitors vying for her hand, and a violent run across between these men and Odysseus and his handful of allies forms the climax of the tale.

O Brother, Where Fine art One thousand? is essentially a modern retelling of the Odyssey, although a lot lighter in tone than the Homeric original. The picture's main character, Ulysses (= the Latin rendition of the Greek Odysseus) Everett McGill (George Clooney), escapes from a chain gang along with two compatriots (played by John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson). Their goal? To accomplish a treasure Ulysses once buried in an area that is fix to exist flooded and turned into lake. As escaped convicts, they are pursued by the sinister Sherrif Cooley (Daniel von Bargen), and find themselves engaged in all sorts of adventures. They also strike upwardly a friendship with Tommy Johnson (Chris Thomas King), a talented musician. All the while, the thing that Ulysses virtually wants is to win back his married woman, Penny (Holly Hunter), who, as his children point out, has a suitor.

Equally you can run across, the basic plot line of the moving picture isn't that different from the Odyssey. Other elements of the movie similarly pay homage to the ballsy verse form. The outset person Ulysses and his friends meet is a bullheaded man who utters a prophecy – a reference to the blind seer Tiresias, whom Odysseus consults when he descends into the Underworld. In the flick, the heroes' meet with the Ku Klux Klan, at dark and illuminated using torches, recalls Odysseus' visit to the realm of expiry. They also meet a group of alluring singing women at a river (the Sirens), and come across Big Dan Teague (John Goodman), who has an eye patch and serves as a stand-in for the Cyclops Polyphemus.

Even though the motion picture's nearly two decades old by now, I won't spoil too much in case you oasis't seen it nonetheless. But similar the Foundation books and the game Tyranny, this picture is a skillful example of how the ancient world can be used by creative people to make something that is fresh, while still infused with a sense of a history. O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a great moving picture, only, equally e'er, the more you understand the references, the more than enjoyable it will be to experience.

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Source: https://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/ahblog/history-inspiration-brother/

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