O Brother! Where Art Thou?

I’ve not read Homer’s Odyssey, so I do not know what Homer intended to convey in the story. However, I enjoyed the movie, O Brother! Where Art Thou?, which was intended to parallel Homer’s Odyssey. The movie is not set in Homer’s ancient Greece; rather, the setting is Louisiana during the Great Depression. Things are not as they seem and before the final scene Ulysses, the main character, inadvertently receives the thing of which he needed the most... restoration.

Ulysses, Pete, and Delmar escape from the chain-gang because Ulysses supposedly has stolen money from a robbery still hidden on his property. Because the three are chained together, Ulysses tells Pete and Delmar about the money and offers them a share of the loot if they will escape together. Unfortunately, Ulysses property is just a few days away from being completely submerged under water because of a dam that has been built in the river nearby to create a new lake. This fact heightens the urgency of which the three convicts must escape and return quickly to Ulysses' home.

Ulysses is clearly vain and self-centered. He constantly worries about his appearance specifically his hair. I laughed each time in the movie when Ulysses woke from sleep thinking that something terrible had happened to his hair. This was comical because nightmares supposedly reveal our worst fears, and for Ulysses his greatest worry was his hair.

Pete and Delmar eventually learn the truth about Ulysses desire to escape from the chain-gain. There is no money; in fact, Ulysses was never even arrested for robbery. Although Ulysses property is a few days away from being flooded, his estranged wife is a few days from remarrying as well. It is this marriage that Ulysses hopes to prevent which was the real motive for his escape. Again, Pete and Delmar had to be tricked into coming along because the three had been shackled together.

Before the truth is revealed and while the three convicts are on the run, they experience a number of adventures. One scene finds them down by the river where a local church is baptizing its new converts. Sensing their own need for restoration and repentance, Pete and Delmar do not delay; they run down to the rivers edge, break in line, and make their way out into the water to the preacher and ask to be baptized. But Ulysses rejects the notion of repentance and salvation and seems to have a measure of contempt for Pete and Delmar for doing such a thing.

Ulysses, Pete, and Delmar have already wondered into a radio station that was doing a promotional stunt by allowing people to come by and make a record. The three convicts make a recording that is eventually played on radio stations throughout Louisiana. The three are referred to as the Soggy Bottom Boys, and they become the most popular singing group in the state. Yet, because they are on the run, they are unaware of their popularity. When their identity is revealed, the incumbent governor who’s running for reelection gives them a full pardon knowing that such a move would benefit his campaign due to their popularity.

Because the man to whom Ulysses wife was to marry worked for the other candidate and because the other candidate became unpopular, Ulysses has, at least for the moment, won back his wife. But has he found restoration?

Ulysses returns to his house (shack) and property to retrieve a ring for his wife so that they can be remarried. However, he walks into an ambush set by those who had been tracking the three fugitives. Ulysses, Pete, and Delmar try to explain that they had been pardoned and that the news of their pardon had even been reported on the radio. But those who had been tracking the three remind them that they have no radio. Thus the ropes are draped over the tree branch in order to hang the three and the graves have already been dug.

Certain death seems to be coming, but wait! Ulysses notices a trickle of water flowing across the ground. He then hears a roar. As he looks up, he sees a wall of water rushing from behind his shack; the day in which Ulysses property was to be submerged under the new lake has arrived, and Ulysses, Pete, and Delmar are swept away to safety by the onslaught of water.

The water I believe is significant to the story. Ulysses rejects baptism along with notion of repentance earlier, but in the end, Ulysses is overwhelmed by water... a baptism of sorts. I believe the scene is comparable to irresistible grace. Ulysses’ baptism was coming and he would not escape it.

In the final scene, Ulysses is not preoccupied with his hair. His pride and self-centeredness have vanished, and his only concern seems to be for his wife and her happiness as he follows her down the street. The final scene reminds me of Ephesians 5:25... Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Ulysses has found restoration and sanctification. People may miss the beauty of how this movie ends with Ulysses following his wife down the street. He is not preoccupied with whether his wife his doing her job as a wife and being obedient; in fact, she doesn’t stop nagging him about that ring. But to be occupied with whether she is fulfilling her role is to be occupied with whether she is fulfilling his needs. But Ulysses has stopped worrying about his needs. He’s stopped worrying about his hair. He’s no longer the center of his own universe.

So what do we see? We see the once proud Ulysses loving his wife sacrificially as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. This is restoration; this is the way it’s suppose to be; Ulysses follows his wife down the street... the screen fades to black... the end.


I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow
By Norman Blake
(Performed by the fictional trio the Soggy Bottom Boys)
(Originally performed by the Stanley Brothers)

(In constant sorrow through his days )

I am a man of constant sorrow
I've seen trouble all my day.
I bid farewell to old Kentucky
The place where I was born and raised.

(chorus) The place where he was born and raised

For six long years I've been in trouble
No pleasures here on earth I found
For in this world I'm bound to ramble
I have no friends to help me now.

(chorus) He has no friends to help him now

It's fare thee well my old lover
I never expect to see you again
For I'm bound to ride that northern railroad
Perhaps I'll die upon this train.

(chorus) Perhaps he'll die upon this train.

You can bury me in some deep valley
For many years where I may lay
Then you may learn to love another
While I am sleeping in my grave.

(chorus) While he is sleeping in his grave.

Maybe your friends think I'm just a stranger
My face you'll never see no more.
But there is one promise that is given
I'll meet you on God's golden shore.

(chorus) He'll meet you on God's golden shore.