The maker of the film "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?- has transformed the Odyssey of Ulysses into a film for many reasons, and with great effect. He took many things directly from the text and put them into his film without much alteration to show an obvious link between the two texts, some of these include names of characters, or the role that is played by certain characters. He also transforms many of the threats or monsters present in the text to be played out by more modern "monsters- and uses scenes from the text, although modified in his film. His transformation is modern enough, and brought into the real world enough that the transformations and the origin of the storyline are not obvious unless someone has read both the text and watched the film and is looking for connections.
Some of the more obvious transformations that the filmmaker uses are the names that are taken from the text and given to characters in the film. .
The main character in the text is Ulysses and while the main character in the film is usually referred to as Everett, his name is actually Ulysses Everett McGill. As well having the same name, Everett is given the same problem solving skills and, like Ulysses, he is very clever and good at getting out of bad situations. For example, Ulysses' plan is that which conquers Troy, and Everett hatches a plan to save the Negro guitar player from the Ku Klux Klan. .
Ulysses wife's name is Penelope, and the slightly altered name of Everett's wife is Penny. His son Telemachus is also replaced by 6 little girls, who, rather than helping him, have taken their mother's side, agreeing that she should marry her new suitor.
Pete and Delmar represent Ulysses' men in the film. Like the men in the text, they do a very good job of making Everett look even cleverer than he really is, as they aren't exactly the smartest men. Ulysses' men and Pete and Delmar are very similar. In the text, they are constantly doing something that lands them in trouble, for example, eating the goats, which gets them in trouble with Polyphemus.
