Homer's Odyssey (1997)
(The Odyssey)
Country: US/GB/IT/GER/GR/TUR/MAL
Technical: col 174m TV
Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
Cast: Armand Assante, Greta Scacchi, Irene Papas, Isabella Rossellini, Eric Roberts, Michael J. Pollard, Nicholas Clay, Bernadette Peters, Vanessa Williams, Christopher Lee
Synopsis:
Odysseus leaves Ithaca to fight in the Trojan War but is dogged on his journey home by the vengeful anger of Poseidon, who tosses his ships from one catastrophe to another, while his wife Penelope fends off suitors against his increasingly unlikely return.
Review:
As good a version of Homer's classic text as cinema has yet given us: the sets and costumes are, for once, acceptably those of the bronze age, the monsters and set pieces are pretty effective and inconsistencies are mostly those of omission rather than commission, e.g. only one ship instead of twelve, some landfalls not made. Still, it's incredible that a tale as powerful as this has not yet been given an A-list star/CGI treatment of the kind of Gladiator. The acting can tend towards the theatrical, with Assante intoning his lines in a guttural whisper no one more than a few feet away would hear. Scacchi, though, does pretty well, most memorably lying legs akimbo in the surf as she moans for her absent husband!
(The Odyssey)
Country: US/GB/IT/GER/GR/TUR/MAL
Technical: col 174m TV
Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
Cast: Armand Assante, Greta Scacchi, Irene Papas, Isabella Rossellini, Eric Roberts, Michael J. Pollard, Nicholas Clay, Bernadette Peters, Vanessa Williams, Christopher Lee
Synopsis:
Odysseus leaves Ithaca to fight in the Trojan War but is dogged on his journey home by the vengeful anger of Poseidon, who tosses his ships from one catastrophe to another, while his wife Penelope fends off suitors against his increasingly unlikely return.
Review:
As good a version of Homer's classic text as cinema has yet given us: the sets and costumes are, for once, acceptably those of the bronze age, the monsters and set pieces are pretty effective and inconsistencies are mostly those of omission rather than commission, e.g. only one ship instead of twelve, some landfalls not made. Still, it's incredible that a tale as powerful as this has not yet been given an A-list star/CGI treatment of the kind of Gladiator. The acting can tend towards the theatrical, with Assante intoning his lines in a guttural whisper no one more than a few feet away would hear. Scacchi, though, does pretty well, most memorably lying legs akimbo in the surf as she moans for her absent husband!
(The Odyssey)
Country: US/GB/IT/GER/GR/TUR/MAL
Technical: col 174m TV
Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
Cast: Armand Assante, Greta Scacchi, Irene Papas, Isabella Rossellini, Eric Roberts, Michael J. Pollard, Nicholas Clay, Bernadette Peters, Vanessa Williams, Christopher Lee
Synopsis:
Odysseus leaves Ithaca to fight in the Trojan War but is dogged on his journey home by the vengeful anger of Poseidon, who tosses his ships from one catastrophe to another, while his wife Penelope fends off suitors against his increasingly unlikely return.
Review:
As good a version of Homer's classic text as cinema has yet given us: the sets and costumes are, for once, acceptably those of the bronze age, the monsters and set pieces are pretty effective and inconsistencies are mostly those of omission rather than commission, e.g. only one ship instead of twelve, some landfalls not made. Still, it's incredible that a tale as powerful as this has not yet been given an A-list star/CGI treatment of the kind of Gladiator. The acting can tend towards the theatrical, with Assante intoning his lines in a guttural whisper no one more than a few feet away would hear. Scacchi, though, does pretty well, most memorably lying legs akimbo in the surf as she moans for her absent husband!