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Sullivan's Travels is a 1941 comedy about a movie director, John Sullivan (Joel McCrea) who always directed comedies. Deciding he wants to make a more socially relevant film, he decides to do a drama called Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

His idea for this film was to show exactly what people down on their luck had to deal with. His bosses at the studio, however, wanted him to stuck with directing comedies.

To get a true feeling, for how the movie should be, he dresses as a penniless hobo so he could experience it first hand.

In his travels he meets a young failed actress, The Girl (Veronica Lake), who is thinking of quitting show business. They became traveling companions.

Finally getting his wish, and experiencing what he wants after traveling and sleeping in homeless shelters he returns to Hollywood. His experience is highly publicized but the studio.

Deciding he wants to thank the homeless for their assistance, he goes back on the road to give them each $5 a piece. On this trip he is ambushed by a vagrant who had previously stolen his shoes, in which an identification card was hidden.

Wanting more than just $5, the man robbed Sullivan and put him on a train heading out of town. He was then hit and killed by a different train. Because of the ID hidden in the shoes, everyone thought Sullivan was dead.

When the real Sullivan wakes up in the boxcar, he has no memory. He assaults a railroad worker who is trying to help him. As a result, he is sentenced to 6 years in a labor camp, where he finally learns "trouble" first hand.

After regaining his memory, Sullivan learns the importance of laughter from his fellow prisoners making him realize comedy can do more good than the movie he had in mind. Even though he realizes this, he still has a major problem. Everyone thinks he is dead and he can't convince them he isn't.

Finally he manages to get his picture in the paper after confessing to his own murder, where he is recognized but the Girl and finally released. The movie ends with him being able to divorce his "widow" who has taken up with a crooked business manager and he reunites with the Girl.

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? is a comedy released in 2000 set in 1937 during the Great Depression. It is based loosely on the story of Homer's Odyssey with some slight references to Sullivan's Travels.

It is the story of 3 escaped convicts, Everett McGill (George Clooney), Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar O'Donnel (Tim Blake Nelson). They escape from a chain gang and go to get the $1.2 million that Everett says he stole and hid before he was incarcerated.

After being shot at, robbed, beat up, and in Pete's case recaptured Everett finally admits that there is no money. That he told them that so they would help him get back to his wife before she remarried.

In looking at both movies, there are some things that are very similar, besides the obvious of the title of one and the would be title of the movie in the other. In both films, the men set out in search for one thing and end up finding something totally different.

For Sullivan, in his search for "trouble", he finds laughter is much more important. For Everett, in trying to get back to his wife, he finds true friendship.

Both Sullivan and Everett are robbed by someone who feels they deserve more than their due.

In their search for what they both think they need and want, they both learn so much more. They learn lessons that will serve in other aspects of their lives, and teach those who watch the films as well.

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