A tragedy is a pre-rational world view tale where a misfortune happens to the main character. The main character or what we call a tragic hero normally should: be noble, have a flaw and goes through a reversal in fortune. Following these criteria, I decided to use the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? a crime comedy film by Joel and Ethan Coen made in 2000 as an adaptation of a tragedy. It is a story that was inspired by Homer’s poem The Odyssey created near the 8th century BC. The film is based on Mississippi in 1937 during the Great Depression. It narrates the story about three convicts (Everett, Pete and Delmar) whom escape prison in search of a treasure Everett supposedly buried. In the journey, they found this guitar player Tommy whom was later part of the gang as they made a song to get money, which ended up being a big hit. During the journey the group finds out that there was no treasure and that Everett made everything up to get back to his ex-wife and kids. The movie revolves around all the obstacles Everett, Pete, Delmar and Tommy went through to the destination.
I chose this movie because it is a more realistic and modern adaptation of the Odyssey; no one is supernatural which deviates from it but it does not change the overall plot of the story. Something I think is worth mentioning is the fact that the Coen brothers claim that they have never read the Odyssey, which I find hard to believe since it is such a similar storyline and outcome. In both plays the main character is on a journey that they must overcome to become real heroes. There are some aspects that are almost identical in both plays; there is a blind man present (Tiresias and the blind man on the railroad), both main characters are on a journey back to their families, they are both are men that think they can do anything, which is the reason of why they went through this reversal in fortune. Another resemblance is that after the main characters arrive at their final destinations, their challenges are not done, Odyssey must fight all the men that want to take his place and Everett must get his wife’s ring. The authors even integrated a KKK group in the film with the leader’s name being Homer, what the KKK does is they turn around all the stories to make it seem as if the group was the victim, and they are just victims of what is happening to them. I thought The Coen’s were trying to make a connection with the Odyssey with this detail, as in the Odyssey the story is told in a way that makes you feel compassion for Odysseus. But the truth is that he needed to go through all those years of challenges to him to learn to be kinder and to become a real hero.
The movie took place during the Great Depression, which is something that can be seen by different aspects of the movie but the authors also inhabited their own unconventional imaginary universe, which is something they always do in their creations (Bradshaw, 2000). Even in the title as O Brother Where Art Thou? shows social conscience of the social depression in the 1930’s (Toscano). There are detailed circumstances and people shown in the movie that were very common during the Great Depression; con men, convicts, corrupt politicians, gangsters and racism. But it also has visual citations to create comedy through the twisting, deviation and re-combination from original foundations (Toscano). All these common Great Depression traits are shown with a twist of Southern Gothic Literature.
The storyline can be comprehended as a sequence of moral traits in which the solidarity of the poor is tested by numerous threats and lures of the wealthy and powerful (Content, Kreider & White, 2001). The Coen’s made a good job in creating a captivating piecemeal portrait of America during the Great Depression but this not necessarily makes it creditable. The film adapts gospel music that gives you a sort of sadness, which was a mood that everyone could relate during the great Depression. It has a contrast between two worlds, it shows characters who are like real people but are truly part of an illusion, and vice versa. The movie also integrates myth in it, but this helps commemorate culture, music, history from that time.
The Depression is also shown in issues of posterity, how some things are retained through the ages, and what is lost to the path of time, how some things are have deviated so much from what they used to be (Hogan, 2013). Racism is frequent in the movie to remind us of the not so distant slave owning past (Hogan, 2013). The authors also manage to show the South’s cultural authenticity by displaying how the cultural heritage of the South is constantly changing and growing.
Understanding the socio-historical context in which this film took place is essential to its understanding but most of all it is essential to realize that it is an adaptation of the Odyssey. The authors also create an on-going dialogue between the previous and the current, the idyllic and the ordinary, to keep us curious about what is good and factual, always indirectly through comedy so that we barely realize the questions have been asked.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? speaks as if some scenes remain on the verge of memory but in a playful parody kind of way. Making fun of tragedy is necessary to heal, it is essential to write a movie about an era of so much depression because it helps the viewers see things differently and even feel differently about a memory they could have. The humor the Coen brothers used for this play made it easier and more comfortable for the viewers who know the actual tragedy and suffering that came with the Great Depression. Maybe what called so much attention about this movie was the way this tragic era was addressed, because you can still say the movie is adequate to the era it is supposed to portray as it shows how life was not so blissful and comfortable back in those years, nonetheless you can easily go through the play without sorrow and even laugh in the process.
The movie also integrates hope and aspirations, which is something that many people thought to be lost during the Depression. In conclusion, I think that the Coen brothers chose the Odyssey because it is a classical tragedy but is one of the many ancient tragedies that does not end in tragedy. It is a story that has more tragedy through the play instead of having the tragedy at the end (like most tragedies do), but this trajectory of tragedies help the hero grow and learn. You could say the Odyssey and O Brother Where Art Thou are plays about resilience, failing repeatedly but always trying again and getting back up. Resilience was something people needed to see and hear during and after the Great Depression, for this reason the Coen Brothers adapted this story to their movie.