O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a comedy film made by the Coen Brothers. Released in 2000, the film is set in Mississippi during the Great Depression (specifically, 1937).

The film is loosely based on the story of Homer’s Odyssey and the 1989 novella A Dozen Tough Jobs by Howard Waldrop, which sets the labors of Hercules in July 1937 in Mississippi.

By its very title, the film displays a sly reference to another type of mythmaking: filmmaking, specifically the 1941 satire Sullivan's Travels by Preston Sturges, in which the title character sets out to make a grim, socially conscious film to be called O Brother, Where Art Thou? After the privileged director experiences hardships of his own, he decides that comedic films are of more value than self-important dramas. Similarly, the Coen brothers' movie also has the tone and imagery of Depression-era realism interlarded with the comedic element.

The film stars George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning. The American roots soundtrack won a Grammy for Album of the Year in 2001.

Loosely based on Homer's 'Odyssey' the movie deals with the grotesque adventures of Everett Ulysses McGill and his companions Delmar and Pete in 1930s Mississipi. Sprung from a chain gang and trying to reach Everetts home to recover the buried loot of a bank heist they are confronted by a series of strange characters. Among them sirens, a cyclops, bankrobber George 'Babyface' Nelson (very annoyed by that nickname), a campaigning Governor, his opponent, a KKK lynch mob, and a blind prophet, who warns the trio that "the treasure you seek shall not be the treasure you find." Written by Armin Ortmann

Disenchanted with the daily drudge of crushing rocks on a prison farm in Mississippi, the dapper, silver-tongued Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney, The Perfect Storm) busts loose. Except he's still shackled to his two chain-mates from the chain gang -- bad-tempered Pete (John Turturro, Summer of Sam) and sweet, dimwitted Delmar ( Tim Blake Nelson, Hamlet). With nothing to lose and buried loot to regain -- before it's lost forever in a flood -- the three embark on the adventure of a lifetime in this hilarious offbeat road picture. Populated with strange characters, including a blind prophet, sexy sirens and a one-eyed Bible salesman (John Goodman, Cyote Ugly), it's an odyssey filled with chases, close calls, near misses and betrayal that will leave you laughing at every outrageous and surprising twist and turn. Written by Anonymous

Mississippi, 1937. Three convicts escape from a jail chain-gang intent on getting to the loot stashed away by one of them. As this is at his house soon to be flooded by a new dam, speed is of the essence. They find themselves fast-talking their way out of one jam after another, and along the way not only have to be wary of riverside sirens but even get to make a pretty good country record. Written by Jeremy Perkins