There are many instances today of films based on novels, novels based on films, even indoor decorations based on outdoor scenery. As an example, when the film "O Brother Where Art Thou?" is compared with the popular novel, The Odyssey, the parallels become apparent. Directly look at the movie and the epic, look at themes, plots, characters, settings, common appearances by The Sirens, and the role of both music in the movie and nature in the novel, and the similarities are obvious.
In the movie and the epic, the themes and plots resemble each other. The first theme in the movie that is recognizable from the book is that the three main characters who decided to escape from their dull, overworked lives are always using their intellect rather than their strength to overcome obstacles while on their journey home. When they are in the face of danger, such as when the police have discovered their hideout, they use their brains to devise a way to escape. In the book, Odysseus uses his cunning to defeat the suitors when he returns home. In the movie and the book, the plot involves main characters searching for their homes and longing to embrace their families. Odysseus, in the epic, has been separated from his home and family for ten long years fighting in the battle of Troy. Even after he sets sail for home, it takes him another ten years just to reach the shores of Ithaca. Ulysses McGill, in "O Brother where Art Thou", has been sentenced to splicing rocks in half day after day in the burning hot sun. Fed up with his life, he embarks on an adventure to regain his old way of life, forced to bring along his chain mates, Pete and Delmar O"Donnell. .
In addition to the plots being similar the characters and settings are also aligned. In the movie you are led to believe that Ulysses is in search of a treasure that he stole and hid, you do not realize that the real treasure is his family.