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O Brother, Where Art Thou is a musical comedy film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, set in Mississippi during the Great Depression. It was released in 2000.

The film stars George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, and Holly Hunter. The Coen brothers claim to have based the movie on by Homer, but admit to not having read the poem. (However, Tim Blake Nelson, who plays the rather dim-witted character Delmar, did read at university.) The film's American roots music soundtrack became a surprise hit, and won a Grammy for Album of the Year. (See

The hero of the film is a dapper, smooth-talking con man called Ulysses Everett McGill. Ulysses escapes from a chain gang and brings along the two fellow prisoners chained to him with the promise of recovering buried treasure from a heist. In fact, he only wants to get back to his wife before she marries someone else.

. Everett tends to come off much worse than his mythical counterpart Odysseus. A viewer familiar with may often expect the hero to triumph. Typically, this does not happen, although things turn out all right later, partly because the hero is so irrepressible, partly by sheer luck. Among the similarities:

A blind prophet - possibly a Teiresias figure - who foreshadows that "the treasure you seek shall not be the treasure you find."A trance-like progression of worshippers seeking to be baptised. Their glassy eyed placidity draws a parallel with the Lotus-Eaters of Sirens, who lure the hero with their singing, and treat him to corn liquor until he passes out. The sirens also have an element of Circe by appearing to transform one of his companions into an animal.A Cyclops in the form of a one-eyed Bible salesman, "Big Dan" Teague. Although in the original story Odysseus outwits the Cyclops, in the movie it is Teague who outwits Everett. At one point it seems that he is about to be defeated by having a pole rammed through his eye (as in ), but he catches it just in time. However, he is later struck by a burning cross which the heroes cause to topple upon him.As Odysseus outwitted the cyclops once it was blinded, Everett and his friends scam the blind proprietor of a radio station.A rival for his wife Penelope (Penny). Where Odysseus slew the other suitors, Everett challenges Penny's new fiance to a round of fisticuffs and is beaten soundly, then thrown out of the Woolworth.Driven by bad luck ultimately caused by pride. Everett's obsession with his Dapper Dan "hair treatment," and his insistence on its use, allows the Sheriff's bloodhound to track him by the scent. In Odysseus had provoked Poseidon's wrath with his hubris when he boastfully shouted his name to the Cyclops, Poseidon's son, after injuring him, and it was Poseidon's wrath that drove Odysseus from misfortune to misfortune.Pappy O'Daniel's first name, Menelaus, is the name of the king of Sparta who fought alongside Odysseus.and musicians clearly modeled after the blues singer Tommy Johnson (whom the protagonists first encounter, naturally enough, at a dusty crossroads) and the Carter Family, the bluegrass musicians Sara, Maybelle and A.P. Carter., another theme of the film is the connection between old-timey music and political campaigning in the southern U.S.. The character of "Pappy" O'Daniel, the Governor of Mississippi and host of the radio show , is loosely based on W. Lee O'Daniel (who was actually Governor of Texas). The real O'Daniel used a backing band called the Hillbilly Boys on his radio show, rather like the that the protagonist founds in the film. Jimmie Davis, Governor of Louisiana, used a theme song "You Are My Sunshine", just like the O'Daniel in the movie.

The title of the film is a reference to a satirical 1941 film, directed by Preston Sturges, called but is being forced to direct another film instead; the director wants to experience poverty and keeps trying to but is constantly returned to his posh surroundings. This director's experience is the opposite of that of Odysseus in : Odysseus wants to return home and is constantly being diverted from it. The film contains references to many other films including .

The "Everette McGill" in the name of Clooney's character may be a reference to actor Everette McGill, an actor who appeared in the film Quest for Fire. McGill portrayed the leader of a group of three early humans on a journey to find fire and bring it back to their tribe. The name "Ulysses Everette McGill" may refer to Clooney's character's leadership of a similarly dim-witted trio on a quest.