O Brother Where Art Thou Essay

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O Brother Where Art Thou is a film set in 1920’s America and begins with an invocation to the muse. This film takes a modern twist on the Greek Epic, The Odyssey. Many themes come to mind when discussing O Brother Where Art Thou and Sullivan’s Travels. A Theme I find heavily intertwined in both films is the power of laughter and especially, civil inequalities. These films are about a journey of self-discovery that take the character’s everywhere and then back home. The Coen Brothers seem to not only be influenced by The Odyssey, but also of Sullivan’s Travels while filming O Brother Where Art Thou. It seems like O Brother Where Art Thou is meant to be the film within the film that Sullivan would’ve created. Some shots of Sullivan’s Travels …show more content…

In this scene, the colors of the shots are dark, considering the rally is during the night. Racism and discrimination is a very dark theme that is explored in the film. There are many man dressed in white cloaks and there is only Pete, Delmar, and Everett trying to save Tommy from being hanged. However, the three men manage to escape with Tommy. The Coen Brothers managed to make this very dark tragedy comedic in it’s own way. The mise en scene of O Brother Where Art Thou is effective, the lighting of the film goes from high key to low key, which is fitting considering the film is a dark comedy. O Brother Where Art Thou was released in 2000, but the atmosphere of the film felt like old times, the colors in the film are reddish brown and capture a lot of light during the day, which is why the shots look like old photographs. Lastly, Overall, the cinematography, characters, mise en scene, and the references to The Odyssey make these films especially poignant in society. The films portray hard times in a way that shows the power of laughter in facing struggle. These films also depict civil inequalities during a time in America where things were most inequal. The mise en scene was especially powerful in O Brother Where Art Thou and the cinema scene was most powerful in Sullivan’s

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