sarahcyn

The Homeric parallels are very thin, very over-hyped, and don't go much further than calling the main guy Ulysses and his wife Penny. The real Penelope didn't get engaged to anyone else while Odysseus was away. She knew he would come back, and wanted him to come back. The film is more a picaresque tale in the didactic style of Voltaire.

Look, say the Coen brothers, here is this aspect of the Depression, here is another; here are Baptists, here is a rough gubernatorial campaign, here an early radio station, here a bent Bible salesman, here the KKK; see how wittily we touch on each and make it quaint by stringing them along our loose little tale of convicts looking for treasure, using very old and rather wonderful songs that we didn't write, but which are well out of copyright, so we didn't have to pay for them.