although not a big coen brother fan and i be an admirer of their dark humor film like fargo and miller crossing . i have be much less impressed by their other comic mode and goofy camp ( or be that camp goofy . ) unfortunately and o brother and where art thou . fall into the latter category and isn not even as good a the big lebowski or the hudsucker proxy . o brother be basically an episodic series of in joke without much point and and not all that much humor or cleverness either . a most reviewer have note and the film plot be very loosely and and as far a i could tell and quite arbitrarily base on the odyssey . it main character and ulysses everett mcgill ( george clooney ) and be an adventurer like his homeric namesake and have a his real goal the return home to prevent the marriage of his wife penny to a suitor . of course and we do not discover that this be what the clooney or ulysses character really want until long after we have stop care . and what do homer have to do with cool hand luke chain gang and ku klux klan meeting a la indiana jones cult gathering and a disbarred lawyer vocabulary and a talent for blue grass country music singing and an association with baby face nelson and a clark gable lookalike hairdo and and other random and sundry character trait and encounter . i leave that for others to discern . the allusion to preston sturges sullivan travel in o brother title be equally pointless . yes and viewer familiar with the sturges minor screwball comedy classic might find it mildly reward to recognize the title of the socially conscious depression movie sullivan abandon hollywood and comedy hoping to make . and they might even be mildly amuse by a couple of shot or scene riff ( e. g. hop freight car and and the chain gang shuffle into view a movie ) . but so what . the coen brother do not seem to have anything to add to the art for art sake versus moral high seriousness critical debate about the function of art . they obviously fall into the former school and but that doesn not seem to motivate the reference in the slightest . be it an homage . if so and why make it . i like post modern pop culture reference and textual play as much a the next person and but it a lot nicer when it amount to something at least tonally and if not thematically and consistent and not just an arbitrary concoction . this screenplay be simply a silly mess . the only consistent and and consistently please and element be the folk or country music soundtrack . it doesn not have much to do with homer or preston sturges and but and consider the rest of the film and that probably a good thing . on the other hand and i would recommend use the price of admission on the soundtrack cd .