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Literature to movie adaptation proces
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The film O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a reinterpretation of the epic poem The Odyssey. The Coen brothers, writers and directors of the film, did not over analyze their representation. “It just sort of occurred to us after we’d gotten into it somewhat that it was a story about someone going home, and sort of episodic in nature, and it kind of evolved into that,” says Joel Coen in Blood Siblings, “It’s very loosely and very sort of unseriously based on The Odyssey” (Woods 32). O Brother, Where Art Thou? contains ideas from The Odyssey for the sake of modernization and entertainment of an audience that comprehends the allusions to the epic. The Coen brothers utilize elements of Homer’s The Odyssey to improve and to give direction to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a reinterpretation which was made simply to show that an epic-adventure such as The Odyssey could be modernized to apply to modern times.
The film begins with a summoning of the Muse taken from Homer’s summons in The Odyssey. The writers pray to a higher power to tell them the story “of that man skilled in all the ways of contending…A wanderer, harried for years on end” (O Brother, Where Art Thou?). This is a direct and purposeful quote from Robert Fitzgerald’s 1961 translation of The Odyssey. By opening O Brother, Where Art Thou? with the same invocation of the Muse as Homer, the Coens creates a direct correlation between the two works early on. This tells the audience that they should expect the direction of the plot to mimic that of The Odyssey.
The main characters of each work are automatically associated with each other by their names, but they also share similar personalities and characteristics. Odysseus is a wily hero of the Trojan War who uses his deceptive...
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...ed elements of the epic poem to improve and give direction to their work.
Works Cited
Burke, Daniel. "RNS Feature: "The Coen Brothers' Complicated Gospel"" Religion News Service. 28 Sept. 2009. Web. 01 Mar. 2010. .
Homer. The Odyssey: Fitzgerald Translation. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998. Print.
Jase. "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" The Lamia Myth. 3 Jan. 2010. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. .
O Brother, Where Art Thou? Dir. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. Perf. George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson and John Turturro. Studio Canal, Working Title Films, 2000. DVD.
Woods, Paul A., ed. Blood Siblings: The Cinema of Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. Grand Rapids: Plexus, 2000. Print.
Pop culture’s mythology theory is used in many forms of media today, from The Legend of Zelda in video games to “Harry Potter in books. One example of usage of the mythology theory is the 1996 movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? directed by Joel Coen. This movie is based off Homer’s epic poem, “The Odyssey.” There are many similarities between the two, yet at the same time, there are many differences.
These similarities clearly show the strong connection between this two-thousand-year-old classic and this thirteen-year-old movie. Because of the similarities and connection between these stories, it is clearly visible that the story in The Odyssey is the story upon which Joel Coen based O Brother.
Homer, The Odyssey, The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, ed. Maynard Mack, Expanded Edition, (New York: W. W. Norton, 1995), pp. 219-503.
At the beginning of the book and the movie start of with the same fraise, “He is a wanderer harried for years on end. They are talking about their main characters who have been away from home wondering for a long time. In the odyssey the lotus eaters are these laid back drunk like creatures eating the lotus plant. The plant put you in a delirious state and time flies by without you knowing it is. In O Brother Where Art Thou however there are these people that are being baptised and are very unaware of what is going on around them, so Everett's two counterparts join in. The movie’s main character is Everett he is the Odyssey’s version of Odysseus. They are both leaders of a group trying to go home.
The Odyssey is filled with emotion and adventure. Homer’s ability to show and give the reader a visual of each and every scene gives the story its unbelievable significance. To all the people who read his work there is something to be captured within every sentence, each one different in its own, unique way. Through tales of courage and defeat, friendship and love this book tells of all the values within the life of a single, solitary man, and his journey to attain what is true and dear to him. And this journey is known to all of us as The Odyssey. The Odyssey is a test of human devotion and trust through the gods, the mortals, and the obstacles through which they venture. No matter where they go or what they do, humans are tested for certain characteristics everyday of their lives, whether they realize it or not; and The Odyssey is just one of those many miraculous tests.
When The Odyssey was first written by Homer in ancient Greece, it opened up a new form of storytelling that has been constantly imitated throughout time. Its format consists of a journey in which a hero meets many obstacles and hardships that must be overcome in order to achieve their overall goal. From the story of Hercules to the 1930’s As I Lay Dying the format has survived and undergone changes. William Faulkner’s novel consists of a dysfunctional family on a journey motivated largely by self-interest, where in the end their familial ties are all but disintegrated. Establishing As I Lay Dying as the archetypal form of an odyssey, Little Miss Sunshine is not a modern
The Odyssey, an epic poem written by Homer and translated by Robert Fitzgerald, is about the war hero Odysseus' ten year adventure to return home after the Trojan War. At one point in the epic poem, Odysseus is retelling his adventure at the land of the Kyklopês, in which he and his crew go to an island filled with these creatures. Through Odysseus, Homer uses contrasting connotation when speaking of the crew and the Kyklopês to convey that mankind is better than the Kyklopês using two different domains domains of society.
Homer's two central heroes, Odysseus and Achilles, are in many ways differing manifestations of the same themes. While Achilles' character is almost utterly consistent in his rage, pride, and near divinity, Odysseus' character is difficult to pin down to a single moral; though perhaps more human than Achilles, he remains more difficult to understand. Nevertheless, both heroes are defined not by their appearances, nor by the impressions they leave upon the minds of those around them, nor even so much by the words they speak, but almost entirely by their actions. Action is what drives the plot of both the Iliad and the Odyssey, and action is what holds the characters together. In this respect, the theme of humanity is revealed in both Odysseus and Achilles: man is a combination of his will, his actions, and his relationship to the divine. This blend allows Homer to divulge all that is human in his characters, and all that is a vehicle for the idyllic aspects of ancient Greek society. Accordingly, the apparent inconsistencies in the characterization of Odysseus can be accounted for by his spiritual distance from the god-like Achilles; Achilles is more coherent because he is the son of a god. This is not to say that Achilles is not at times petty or unimaginative, but that his standards of action are merely more continuous through time. Nevertheless, both of Homer's heroes embody important and admirable facets of ancient Greek culture, though they fracture in the ways they are represented.
The Coen Brothers’ “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?”, loosely based on Homer’s classic adventure The Odyssey, is a film amusingly filled with themes of symbolism similar to those found in Homer’s epic, while still maintaining a sense of originality and style that they have become so renowned for. An exciting and entertaining blend of high adventure, humour, and heartfelt emotion, at first glance, the film barely resembles Homer’s poem: only certain elements are obvious, such as the main character’s name and the three sirens by the river. However, a deeper and more intense analysis of the film and text exposes numerous, if not more subtle references.
Homer’s Odyssey is the iconic story of a man’s episodic journey home. The film, O Brother Where Art Thou, is a justifiable homage to the Odyssey because of the many parallels between some of the major characters depicted in the movie and the epic poem. The movie is set in the 1930s in the state of Mississippi, changing the characters in social demeanor, but retaining their motivation and major plot points.
Paul and Norman Maclean grew up in a rural, early twentieth century Montana wilderness. Their father, the Reverend Maclean (Tom Skerritt), ran the house with complete yet loving authority. The Reverend home-schooled the two in three subjects: reading, writing, and fly-fishing. Being a very strict enforcer of religious and moral law, the Reverend tried with all his might to instill his Presbyterian beliefs into his children. The difference between Paul and Norman is quickly obvious in the film. Norman, albeit unhappily, embraces his fathers code and standards, while Paul unremittingly combats them. In one symbolic scene, the boys discuss their ambiti...
In conclusion, the “Odyssey” is one of the greatest literary works ever known and this literary analysis should help the reader to understand the important components of the novel such as theme, characters, relationships, symbols, motifs, literary devices, and tone.
In Virgil’s The Aeneid, there are many parallels found in Homer’s The Odyssey. In each epic, the heroes, Aeneas and Odysseus, are on a journey “home.” Aeneas is on the search of a new home for he and his companions to settle since Troy has been destroyed, Odysseus on the other hand is attempting to return to his home he left years earlier to fight the Trojan War. They both have Gods against them and helping them, both Aeneas and Odysseus are both held back by women, both voluntary and involuntarily, and they both have experiences visiting the Underworld. Despite these similarities, there are differences between the two characters and it reflects their values and the society they live in. Aeneas relies on his strength as a warrior, where as Odysseus uses his deception to survive which reflects how Aeneas is truly Roman is versus Greek.
The Odyssey by Homer is a story that has been told countless times over several thousand years with many different versions. O Brother, Where Art Thou? is one of these versions. Even though this movie is considered to be one of the better adaptations of The Odyssey, it has some details that make it undeniably American. The main parts of the story are there, such as the Cyclops, and Odysseus escaping Ogygia, but things such as the Klu Klux Klan (KKK), and the music played throughout the movie make it distinctly American.
Many diverse cultures are found in every corner of the world. Every culture is defined by its traditions and values. The film “The Odyssey,” depicts the culture of the ancient Greeks where it illustrates the life of a man, Odysseus, who has gone on a journey just to get back to his kingdom. Many values and traditions could be identified through the path of the journey. Some elements that are found important to the Greeks are the music, the religion, and the duty to the kingdom.