I really liked O Brother, Where Art Thou? and most of my friends that had seen it shared the opinion. It was an enjoyable movie and the songs and action were fun and the characters were likable.
When watching O Brother, Where Art Thou?, I saw it as more enjoyable when I viewed it as a stand-alone film as opposed to an adaptation of The Odyssey. The appeal of hero stories to me is definitely the characters and I think that the characters in O Brother, Where Art Thou? are more likable when they aren’t compared to the Odyssean characters. I want to watch the movie because I care about the story because of Everett or Tommy or whoever, not because I'm interested in the retelling of a heroic narrative that I've heard so many times before. The Odyssey wasn’t particularly likable in my opinion
because neither Odysseus nor Telemachus were especially likable characters. So when I think of Everett as a version of Odysseus, I care less about his story.
However, I think that if you don't watch the movie as an adaptation of The Odyssey, the plot takes a hit. The movie seems to just be a jumble of events that don't seem to really have any strong connection. However, when you look at them in the context of The Odyssey, you begin to see the parallels and the story seems to come together a bit more. When watching the movie, the sirens, the lotus eaters, the cyclops, etc, all seem so random until you see them as their Odyssean counterparts.
So if possible, I believe that this movie is best seen as a combination of a stand-alone film and as a film adaptation. However, I think this is hard to do. I think either way you watch it, either the plot or the characters take a hit.
I also like Ulysses a lot better than Odysseus. I still like to compare the two in some respects, such as their narcissism, but I see your point-- it takes away from the individual story of the character. I like your point about the plot of OBWAT seeming like a mess if we don't think about the events of the Odyssey while watching it. I would especially be like "what the heck is going on" at the Sirens scene-- some random girls are just sitting and singing by the river and entrance the Soggy Bottom Boys? Why? So yes, I think remembering what happens in the Odyssey is important for understanding what happens in OBWAT.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post. I personally liked the movie a lot too and would definitely have enjoyed it even if I hadn't read "The Odyssey". You mentioned how the movie seems like a jumble of events that don't seem to have any strong connection without the context of "The Odyssey" but I think the the unpredictably and jumble is part of the appeal of the film. Either way, I found the film to be really funny and I think I would have liked it the same amount if I hadn't read the Odyssey simply because of these comedic elements.
ReplyDeleteI share the same sentiment about the Odyssey and I also agree that it is unsatisfying to view the film as an echo of the Odyssey. I think a more accurate connection between the two works is that they share the same classic story-line--Campbell's hero's journey. In this perspective, one can appreciate the characters in O Brother as well as the traditional hero story taken from the Odyssey.
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