Product: The Odyssey [VHS] (1997)
Rating: 2.0
A Big Disappointment
I teach Homer's "The Odyssey" to high school students, and I also teach at Rutgers University in the Modern Greek Studies Program. Using this movie as a teaching aid to the reading of Homer's epic story is frustrating. There are countless errors between the epic and the movie. Apparently, those that worked on the script of this film thought they could improve upon an epic piece of literature that has stood the test of time for 3000 years. What arrogance! I used this film to have discussions with my students about why they thought the film makers changed so many things from the book. It is appalling to see how erroneous this film is from Homer's glorious epic. For example, Anticleia, the mother of Odysseus, is depicted as committing suicide in the film. The book says she died from her sorrow of waiting for Odysseus' return. The scene with Telemachos, Odysseus' son, visiting King Menelaos in Sparta in the film has Menelaos telling Telemachos that his father is dead and that he should go home. In the book, Telemachos finds out from Menelaos that his father is alive and held as a prisoner on Calypso's island. Telemachos also does not go home from Sparta until the goddess Athena goes to Sparta to tell him to go home in Book 15. In the slaughter of the suitors scene in the film, Telemachos kills the suitor Antinoos first. No! Odysseus kills Antinoos first. Also, during the slaughter of the suitors, Penelope is upstairs sleeping in the book, but in the film she is awake waiting in another room. These are just four examples of many from a film that deviates blatantly from the original. Anyone who gives this film a high rating simply does not know the Odyssey epic well enough to realize just how horrendously inaccurate this movie is. It is a shame that with all the special effects and the talented actors and actresses in this film (including the great Irene Papas) that the film fails so miserably.