...Final Film Critique: O Brother, Where Art Thou? Robert L. Forbes ENG 225 Film: From Watching to Seeing. Instructor Ebony Gibson April 29, 2013 Final Film Critique: O Brother, Where Art Thou? Everyone likes to laugh, and this film is no stranger to the call. O Brother, Where Art Thou is indeed a comical action/adventure and musical romp Directed by Joel Coen and Produced by Ethan Coen. The Cast consist of many favorites in film such as George Clooney, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson. The film O Brother, according to well-known film critic Roger Ebert (2000), “is based on Homer’s The Odyssey” (p.1), this is an epic Greek poem around 700 B.C. Although the setting is much different, the Homeric journey of three would be prisoners of the late 1930s are similar to The Odyssey and its theme of perseverance. The movie O Brother, Where Art Thou however has a comical twist accompanied by great Gospel/Bluegrass music, and scenes that play into an allegorical concept including references to repentance and salvation during the depression of that era. The storyline in this movie the collaborating efforts of the Coen brothers and cinematographer Roger Deakins bring together...
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...“O Brother Where Art Thou?” is closely related to the story of Odessyus in a number of ways. Everett from “o Brother Where Art Thou?” is loosely based off of Odessyeus due to their similar character traits. Both characters want to return to the women they love but with many obstacles in their path. Odesseus, king of Ithaca, conqueror of Tryo, undertakes a twenty year journey to return to his home and reunite with his wife. Everett, a citizen of Mobile, Alabama and a criminal running from the law after escaping prison with his three brothers after being arrested for practicing law without a license. A similarity between these two plot’s outcomes is that in Odesseyeus’ story, he returns to Ithaca only to find his own people rogue and disrespecting...
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...Have you ever read a book and then watched the movie? When you are watching the movie you find some things similar, but most of it is different, right? I read the book The Odyssey and watched the movie O Brother Where Art Thou? I compared the similarities and the differences. When I was doing that, I found a lot of the same things in the movie as they were in the book. This was a movie and book that were different, but the same in different ways that were sometimes hidden in the storyline of O Brother Where Art Thou? I thought there were many similarities in the movie and in the book. One that really caught my attention was the prophecy. In the movie when the men were riding with the blind guy on the train track he said, “ You guys will seek a great fortune, but not the one you are looking for…” In the book Odysseus goes to the underworld and Tiresias of Thebes tells him, “ If you don’t show restraint and control you won’t make it home.” The prophecies are alike in many ways....
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...“O Brother Where Art Thou” review by Nicholas Drake “O Brother Where Art Thou” is a film, that if you have not yet seen it, you should do so. It takes little to know time to recognize the influence of Homer’s The Odyssey in the film, as it is based off of the epic. Set in rural Mississippi in the 1940’s, we join the story where Ulysses McGill (George Clooney), Pete (John Turturro), and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) are escaping prison in a search for a “hidden treasure”. Along their journey, the three cross paths with bank robbers, con artists, a mass baptism, and they almost see their demise. The music used in the film, contributes tremendously to its tone. The use of oldies and bluegrass music makes for a better viewing experience because of the visuals used in the film. Farmlands, cotton fields, dirt roads, and Dapper Dan’s hair pomade along with the music used in the film help create the experience of what life was like in rural Mississippi during the 1940’s. Ulysses McGill, played by George Clooney, acts as an Odysseus like character. Though his performance is not knock-your-socks-off good, Clooney does do the role justice and carries the sarcastic comedy that occurs frequently in the film. Turturro and Nelson’s characters, Pete and Delmar serve as sidekicks to Clooney but contribute to the plot seamlessly. Other characters like Big Dan played by John Goodman and Babyface Nelson played by Michael Baddalucco serve as plot twisters in the film. While their roles do not contribute...
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...Movie Summary- The Hero’s Journey For this assignment I decided to rewatch a movie I know that follows the hero’s journey very well, and that is “O Brother, Where Art Thou” by Joel Coen, starring George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson and John Goodman. The call to adventure in this movie is when the three farm workers decided to escape their work farm, and a black man that is blind predicts that their quest to fortune will give them nothing but failure. The refusal of the call is when Pete (one of the workers) doubts of the man’s prediction. The supernatural aid in this film is obviously the blind man that predicts the future. The first threshold the prisoners have to pass is to escape the farm they were sent to to work. The men enter the belly of the whale when Pete’s cousin calls the police to arrest the men for the money he would get in reward and the prisoners have to advance past this step...
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...In the film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" there are many elements of The Odyssey used to explore aspects of modern American culture. For instance, in the beginning there was a scene in which people were getting baptized. Two of the three main characters, Delmar and Pete, wanted to join in because it forgave all of their sins. This shows that during the Great Depression, a lot of people looked to religion to help them out of their hard times. This also resembles the scene in The Odyssey with the lotus eaters. Another example is the “cyclops.” The man portrayed as the cyclops in the movie, Big Dan Teague, is a member of the Ku Klux Klan, a symbol of racism. He is later killed by a burning cross, which shows that racism is disheartening. A scene in the film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" involves baptisms. The filmmakers, the Coen brothers, used the scene in Homer’s The Odyssey with the lotus eaters to develop this scene in the movie. The scenes are very similar in that they lure the men in and provide them with something they like; in the movie they are redeemed of their sins and in The Odyssey they are provided with food. In "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Delmar is the first to get baptized and he says, “Well I was lyin' - and I'm...
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...A multitude of books, movies, songs and other works are created based relatively close to original works, as is Oh Brother, Where Art Thou in relation to The Odyssey. Between the two works, countless similarities are found such as physical features and leadership skills. One specific portion of correlation comes from the cyclops scene in The Odyssey which is comparable to the scene that Big Dan is present in during Oh Brother, Where Art Thou. Throughout the whole scene it is easy to recognize slight resemblances. The first comparable component is physical. Both Big Dan and the Cyclops have only one eye. With this characteristic integrated into Big Dan, it is easy to conclude that the director of the film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou intended...
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...Everett from “O Brother Where Art Thou” and Odysseus from “The Odyssey” are alike because they share a similar journey. Everett and Odysseus just want to get home to their families. Although they come from different backgrounds, Everett as an escaped convict, and Odysseus as a war hero, they share the same enthusiasm to get home. For example, in “O Brother Where Art Thou” a quote states, “Everett and Penny walk arm in arm, the seven Wharvey gals behind,” this quote shows that Everett did finally get home to his family after all. In “The Odyssey”, another instance would be, “What I want and all my days I pine for is to go back to my house and see my day of homecoming,” this quote shows Odysseus longing for his home. Obviously both of these quotes show that these two characters would like to go home or have successfully gotten home. Everett and Odysseus encounter a one-eyed man/monster who has a desire to either hurt them or kill them. For example, in “The Odyssey,” a quote would be, “ Two he seized and dashed to the ground like whelps, and their brains ran out and stained the Earth,” this quote is appropriate for this topic because it says that the Cyclops basically wanted to kill...
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...As per the Epic Hero Cycle, the main character should be a hero with supernatural abilities or qualities. Odysseus and Everett are both smart, cunning, and admired by most around them. Next, the hero is charged with a quest. Both characters want to return home to their families, and they spend the majority of their stories attempting to accomplish this. The hero is then tested, as are Odysseus and Everett. One trial faced by Odysseus is the encounter with Polyphemus the Cyclops. Everett, too, has an encounter with someone with sight in only one eye. Then, the hero is helped by mythical beings. Odysseus receives help from Athena when she transforms him into a beggar so he can defeat the suitors in his home. One could argue that God saves Everett and his crew when he brings down the flood that ends up saving them. They go through supernatural lands, reach low points, and eventually redeem themselves when they accomplish their quest of reuniting with their...
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...The Odyssey by Homer is a famous epic written in ancient Greece sometime around 900-700 B.C., . The epic the Odyssey has been taught throughout the years since 300 B.C., the story was taught to Greek schoolchildren now in the year 2017 we are still learning from it. In my personal life I can connect so many things written in the Odyssey to things i've seen in movies and other aspects of pop culture. This essay will talk about three instances where Homer's the Odyssey has been closely referenced or cameoed in today's pop culture. In the book “The Language of Literature”,book 12 of the Odyssey named “Sea Perils and Defeat” page 933 it talks about the sirens and them attempting to enchant the sailors. In the movie O Brother, Where Art...
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...The Hero’s Journey was a concept created by Joseph Campbell. This concept was displayed in The Odyssey by Homer and in O, Brother, Where Art Thou? created by the Coen brothers. In O Brother Where Art Thou? and The Odyssey the many elements of the Hero’s Journey are evident in the two tales. Three elements are Meeting the Mentor; Allies, Tests, and Enemies; and Resurrection. The mentor between both of the tales are different, but they both hold the element of the Hero’s Journey. Meeting the Mentor is the 4th step in The Hero’s Journey, if you follow the original order. In O, Brother the mentor is the blind man they encounter at the beginning of the movie. The blind man is a mentor to Everett, the main character, because he gives him a prophecy to guide him. He says this prophecy while on the pump car when the trio gets onto it to escape. In The Odyssey the mentor is Athena. She appears a lot...
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...Jade Zayas Intro to World Mythology Final Paper 05/07/2012 O Brother, Where Art Thou? vs. The Odyssey When it comes to entertainment and box office hit movie making, it is not uncommon to come across films adapted from popular literature. Taking a story that is popular and well-known is a formula for a successful film, as long as it is done the right way. The Coen Brothers, famous for successful films such as “Fargo” and “The Big Lebowski,” made a movie together entitled “O Brother, Where Art Thou.” This film, while unique in its setting and a little bit different in the plot, is clearly an adaptation of the ancient classic poem “The Odyssey” by the poet Homer. Even a review by the renowned film critic Roger Ebert states: “O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a Homeric journey through Mississippi during the Depression (Ebert, Roger 2000).” The film itself depicts the obstacles and fate of a man during the Great Depression who escapes from jail and whose only goal is to make it back home. The struggles he and his fellow escapees meet along the way are strikingly similar to the perils that face Odysseus and his men on their mission to get back to Ithaca. Also, the character references in the film that parallel the characters in the epic poem are abundant. The film is almost a modern homage to the ancient poem in all the different ways it emulates “The Odyssey.” To fully understand all of the different ways the film relates to the poem, it is important to establish the character...
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...film “O Brother Where Art Thou?”, we can compare three basic subjects: characters, events, and the journey. Even though the characters in the book and film have some things in common; they are very different. In “The Odyssey” by Homer, Odysseus lied to his men for the sake of keeping them safe. While in “O Brother Where Art Thou?” Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, Everett lied to Pete and Delmar so he could stop his wife from remarrying. Hence forth, Odysseus gives more of an honorable standing in the sense of loyalty to friends and family equally. While Everett seems more focused on his family. As the plots of the compared unfold, there are events that are alike. Odysseus dressed as an elderly beggar man to fool the suitors – so he could see his wife. Everett on the other hand, dresses as an elderly hobo – who is a part of a singing group to fool Homer and the suitor; so he could see his wife. Both of the men used elderly disguises to fool people in...
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...either one of them and so thinks ahead and anticipates events. In interplay with Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Polonius, and perhaps with Claudius, Gertrude and Ophelia, Hamlet has asides to draw attention to what dialogue cannot express(55-56). Marchette Chute describes the opening scene of the drama: “For two nights in succession, just as the bell strikes the hour of one, a ghost has appeared on the battlements, a figure dressed in complete armor and with a face like that of the dead king of Denmark, Hamlet’s father. [. . .] The hour comes, and the ghost walks” (35). Horatio and Marcellus exit the ramparts of Elsinore intending to enlist the aid of Hamlet. There is a social gathering of the court, where Claudius pays tribute to the memory of his deceased brother, the former king, and then conducts some items of business. Hamlet is there dressed in black, the color of mourning, for his deceased father. His first words say that Claudius is "A little more than kin and less than kind," indicating a dissimilarity in values between the new king and...
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...Romeo and Juliet | Shakespeare homepage | Romeo and Juliet | Entire play | ACT I PROLOGUE Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. SCENE I. Verona. A public place. Enter SAMPSON and GREGORY, of the house of Capulet, armed with swords and bucklers SAMPSON Gregory, o' my word, we'll not carry coals. GREGORY No, for then we should be colliers. SAMPSON I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw. GREGORY Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o' the collar. SAMPSON I strike quickly, being moved. GREGORY But thou art not quickly moved to strike. SAMPSON A dog of the house of Montague moves me. GREGORY To move is to stir; and to be valiant is to stand: therefore, if thou art moved, thou runn'st away. SAMPSON A dog of that house shall move me to stand: I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's. GREGORY That shows thee a weak slave; for the weakest goes to the...
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