Product: The Odyssey [VHS] (1997)
Rating: 4.0
What was that teacher's name again??
"Mr. Noteboom"?? Are we supposed to take that name seriously? Anyway, please disregard the negative reviews you may have seen elsewhere at Amazon. This movie really is one of the top two or three mini-series/TV movies I've ever seen, the others being "Gulliver's Travels", "Merlin" and, while I couldn't follow the plot to save me, the art direction for "The Magic Legend of the Leprechauns" was unlike ANYTHING you've ever seen! I hate to admit it. but NBC was really on a roll back then! However, they were overreaching by the time "The 10th Kingdom" came out.This is the classic story of Odysseus/Ulysses and his trip back from the Trojan War that is delayed for 20 years by his own hubris and the incompetency and mischief of his sailing crew. Armand Assante parlays this role well, and as far as I'm concerned, is the most "Italian" Italian-American actor I've seen in my years of watching TV and movies. His way works for ancient Greeks too, as the accent he uses, borrowed from his own background, makes you feel as if you are indeed watching the adventures of an ancient Mediterranean soldier and his men returning to their home in Ithaca.The producers of this well-directed and produced gem help also, by assembling some of the best art directors, actors and locales for this gift from Newton Minnow-land that they could get. One of the great little cameos in this movie is the one made by Michael J. Pollard as Aeolus, God of the Wind. He plays the part like an impish leprechaun who wants to teach his bullying brother Poseidon a lesson by helping Odysseus, who is in the mess he's in because he initially OFFENDED Poseidon with his boast that he didn't need the gods to do what he did in winning the battle in Ilium. The upshot of Aeolus' help?: Aeolus gives Odysseus a bag filled with a powerful wind and is told not to open it unless absolutely necessary. His foolish crew, and they are generally portrayed AS buffoons, opens the bag just as they approach Ithaca, and are blown way off course as the tornado within Aeolus' gift bag is released!Other good performances in this movie, (besides the myriad of excellent bit parts by various character actors,) are: Greta Sacchi as Penelope, Odysseus' "wife"; Isabella Rossellini as Athena, his guardian angel; Irene Papas as his mother and Bernadette Peters as Circes, the sorceress who "bewitches" his crew by turning them into animals. And yet again, her nibs, Geraldine Chaplin, a woman whose taste in movies to play minor roles in is impeccable, is also in here as one of Penelope's most trusted servants. You'll love the guy playing the musician in Odysseus' crew! Isabella Rossellini, however, is a charmer of the first water. This woman has more charisma than the goddess she's portraying, as far as I'm concerned. Between that innocent, plaintive voice, those big aquamarine eyes, those continental features, and that gentle way she inherited from her mother, Ingrid Bergman, she just has "it" in bags! She should really think about starring in larger regular features, instead of the art house fare she's usually in. She shines in both this mini-series and "Merlin", in which she has a much larger role. Her gamin-like quality truly comes out in the Arthurian drama, produced by the same people.To top this all off, there's TWO of her!! Ms. Rossellini actually has a twin sister! The Lord worketh in mysterious ways!Make no mistake, there is a warmth, a definite "sangre", to this production, that is wholly missing from just about any other TV movie I can remember. There is definite humor...feelings of love and loyalty and all around good acting are involved here.Most of the scenes from the original Homerian epic are in here, but a notable absence is that of the ship encountering the Sirens and Odysseus being tied to the ship's mast so he won't fall prey to their lure, perhaps the most famous scene FROM the poem. What was the director thinking when he left this out? The scenes in Hades are also excellent, as you really are put in a gloomy, somewhat eerie mood by the effects, and the long-awaited tableau of the return of the warrior to his beloved Ithaca and the dispatching of his rivals for Penelope's affections are also done well.Who is this Professor "Noteboom", anyway....is he any relation to Corrie Ten-Boom??