As I reflect back on O Brother while writing my Response paper, I continue to appreciate the combination of that classic Coen-brother humor and the rather somber backdrop of the Depression days in the dusty American South that lends something of a tragic quality to the film.
That being said, I never did truly click with Everett. He was too incompetent, too narcissistic, too self-prioritizing to deserve real respect. He is however, thoroughly entertaining, and when I think of the initial purpose of the Odyssey as an orally presented song or poem with the purpose of entertaining an audience, I feel friendlier toward Joel and Ethan for distorting the traditional brooding, clever Odysseus prototype to meet that goal in a modern sense.
As an adaptation of the Odyssey, O Brother walk a fine line between retelling and departing from Homer's narrative entirely, and I do think it is a successful tightrope act. There is much room for interpretation when contrasting the poem with the movie, and I think this lack of definitive parallels (in many cases) makes the relationship between the two works all the more interesting.
I won't elaborate too much on this point, as it would spoil the content of my essay, but I will draw one parallel that I find intriguing. Athena, in The Odyssey, plays a major role, but in the film there isn't a character that emerges as a clear Athena figure. So who makes Everett feel more confident, look better? Who is ever-present and godly--an unattainable and immortal figure? Could it be a certain Dapper Dan? We see that lovely shot near the end of the film with the flood swirling hundreds of tins of Dan through the water in something of an epic display. Athena restoring peace to the men of Ithaca? Or just yet one more tongue in cheek joke by the Coen brothers?
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