O Brother, where art thou? is an odyssee set in Mississippi during depression. Everett Ulysses McGill and his companions (all three escaped convicts) have some difficulties travelling just like Old Ulysses himself. They encounter sirens; one of them is changed (no, not into a pig) into a frog; there is the cyclops; one more companion - George Nelson the bank robber- kills some cows (Homer: the sacred cows of God Helios); they visit the dead in the underworld (or rather convicts in a local movie theatre); the blind seer tells them their future ...
Very funny is Penny (Penelope) with not one son but six (seven, Daddy) daughters, the not-so-waiting wife. At the heart of the movie is the song they record as the ’’Soggy Bottom Boys’’: I’m a man of constant sorrow. Homer’s Ulysses, after having had dinner with his various hosts, also complains and cries about his hardships and long wandering.
I keep thinking that the Coen Brothers, on hearing this folk song, must have immediately thought of Homer’s Ulysses, well read as they surely are, and had the idea of such a movie.
The actors are just great, e.g. John Turturro plays so well that you hardly recognise him or at least can’t believe that he is also Barton Fink (in Barton Fink) or Jesus Quintana (in The Big Lebowski). Of course, George Clooney as the eloquent but inept Everett McGill is fantastic. One very funny scene: the fist fight between Clooney and Penny’s new fiancé. If you have never seen a Coens film (Joel and Ethan Coen), this is your gateway drug.