Product: The Odyssey [VHS] (1997)
Rating: 1.0
Could not be worse
This film has nothing to do with Homer's epic, save that the names of the characters are kept as well as the bare outline of the story. Book 9 (The cylcops episode) perhaps he greatest book of the poem is reduced to [junk](oh by the way Odysseus does not kill Hector- Achillles does).And Achilles would never lead his men into a cave and steal food in the first place, Anyway the poem among many other things explores the nature of KLEOS--(reknown) and Odysseus's kleos does not fit any of he conventional definitions. 1 He is a Bowman (not pictured in the film)--which means he gets to fight behind the lines of the hoplites 2 He is self-serving--almost hubristic as he himself reveals in Books 9-12 the longest sustained 1st person narration in epic (Virgil ties to copy it) 3 He constantly gets his shipmates into trouble (not a great commander). He is a liar and the opposite of the traditional Greek Hero (This is why Ajax turns his back on him in the underworld) He is however a great storyteller--and that itself is a kind of KLEOS. The language of Book 9 is so replete with puns and formulae whose natures become ironically charged coming from Odysseus mouth, that it is one of the most subtle exploations of tradition ever composed. One (and this includes Sophocles) does not know what do make of him--do we admire him or hate him? He is finally sui generis which is why he has been depicted in so many ways throuhout history. This is the CORE of the poem--a center which the film ignores. For a good rendition of the Odyssey watch O Brother Where art Thou? Or read Joyce's ULYSSES.