The Odyssey is an epic poem about Odysseus who had to go away to fight in the Trojan War for 10 years when he did not wish to do so. After the war the gods had Odysseus go on an adventure from which he could not get home, this lasted for ten more years. Throughout the adventure, Odysseus was faced with many dilemmas and challenges that delay his journey home. Throughout hundreds of years, there have been many remakes of the famous poem of this epic hero. Some remakes involve poems, shows, books, and even movies. Two of the most commonly heard of are the movies The Odyssey, by Hallmark Entertainment, and the movie O Brother Where Art Thou?, written by the Coen brothers. Both the movie The Odyssey and the movie O Brother Where Art Thou?, take very different approaches to Homer's classic epic story of the wanderer try desperately to reach a long-awaited goal, but there are also many similarities between the two movies. .
In both versions of this epic poem, the epic hero Odysseus is portrayed as two different yet similar people. In the movie The Odyssey, Odysseus is forced to go fight in the Trojan War for ten years, and then the Gods forced Odysseus to wander the seas for another ten years afterwards. Odysseus was gone from his home for twenty years, and missed seeing his son grow up and the joy of being with his wife Penelope. Contrary to Odysseus, Everett Ulysses McGill, in O Brother Where Art Thou?, was sent to the Mississippi state penitentiary for a few months before he was able to escape. However, upon escaping Everett was forced to bring the two men he was chained to along with him. In order to persuade them to escape, Everett told them he had to get home in order to retrieve a treasure he had buried in the valley that was about to be flooded out. However, the real reason Everett wanted to get home was to see his wife and six children. Everett's wife Penny had written to him to tell him she wanted a divorce so that she could remarry a "bona fide" man.