After reading the Odysessy, I decided to watch this painfully 90's two episode series out of curiosity. Some parts of the film are partway decent, with a few talented actors and interesting scenes here and there. Unfortunately, the majority of the acting was sub-par and many scenes were written so poorly it was utterly laughable. I guess if you must watch a film adaptation of the odessey for a class or whatever it'll do, but I wouldn't watch it otherwise.

This 1997 TV movie by Andrey Konchalovskiy is an almost-three-hour rendition of Homer's Odyssey, the epic Greek poem that details Odysseus' decade of wandering from one adventure to another after his victory in the long Trojan War, trying to make it back to Ithaca, Greece, and his beloved Penelope. Armand Assante plays Odysseus, Greta Scacchi his wife and Alan Stenson their son. Some of the numerous guest stars include Isabella Rossellini, Bernadette Peters, Eric Roberts, Christopher Lee, Vanessa Williams and Michael J. Pollard.While the cast, locations and score are excellent, the story is conveyed in a relatively dull manner in the first half and is hampered by the manifestations of "the gods." Yes, I realize the filmmakers' were only trying to be true to Homer's epic, but some of these manifestations are eye-rolling and take the viewer out of the story. This explains why 1954's "Ulysses" and 2004's "Troy" played down this element or cut it out altogether. However, after the first half you start to accept it as part of the adventure/fantasy and roll with it, particularly because the second half is nigh exceptional, starting with the crew's confrontation with the three-headed Scylla, which is a truly horrific sequence, and then the entire final act, especially the action-packed fight between Odysseus & his son and the brutish suitors of Penelope.Assante isn't larger-than-life as Douglas was in "Ulysses," but he evokes Odysseus' intelligence, guile, and versatility, as shown in the poem. Once you catch a grip there are some potent scenes/acting, like the initial revelation of Odysseus with various Ithacans. Furthermore, some parts have a palpable spiritual quality. Unfortunately, it does take a while to get into the groove, but the second half is more than worth it (not to mention the score and the magnificent Mediterranean locations).Lastly, some people have erroneously summed up the moral of the film as "Don't anger the gods." While this is true on the surface, the subtext is way more than this and totally applicable to reality. It's revealed in the second half: *** SPOILER ALERT*** Odysseus was condemned to wandering from crisis to crisis for a decade because of his arrogance after his victory at Troy. Before finally returning to Ithaca we observe a humbled and enlightened man. This is the core message. Once Odysseus is humbled a potent nugget of wisdom is revealed: Sometimes it's necessary to temporarily kowtow to the arrogant in order to assess the situation and bide your time for an effective strike.The film runs 176 minutes (the VHS 165 minutes) and was shot in Turkey and Malta.GRADE: B

I've read a lot of reviews. Many are favorable and many say the film was dull. But the truth, as I see it, is that it is a very accurate depiction of the way people were back then. Odysseus is even recognized by one of the gods as "the first man to use his head". The rest of the characters are emotional, animalistic sometimes, the gods are petty and egotistic and always in conflict to one another and Ithaca is harder to reach than Hades's realm.The effects are not great, the actors play almost like in a Bible movie, but actually, it's the best adaptation I've seen yet. So give it a try, enter the world of hard men and gorgeous women from which only Irene Papas is Greek, and you might also like it as I did.

I was surprised the first time I saw this how much fun it was as an adventure film, and just picked it up again after about a decade's rest. It won't do any good to pretend this is anything other than Homer's "Odyssey" as condensed to emphasize action and romance. It also would be rather pointless to act like these are some of the great performances in film, or even in fantasy film. Still, the whole thing does work mostly because of the excellent location photography and Armand Assante's charismatic performance.Quite a few of the other performances suffer for whatever reason, sometimes due to bad casting. Bernadette Peters is a good actress I guess, but just totally wrong for the part of Circe. She came off like the trailer park version of Circe. Isabella Rosselini, she was just horrible in this movie. Never was her awkward way of speaking English more obtrusive, and the odd sense of humor that she seems to want to bring to Athena is out of place. However Christopher Lee has a fun scene as the blind prophet Tiresias, who Odysseus must go to the land of the dead to meet. And Michael J. Pollard, always a fine actor and very amusing, is good as the god of wind. Some of the blame is surely with the director, since Peters for example is not as good as Vanessa Williams in a similar role, and I'm pretty sure in general she's a much better actress.This is a good film to introduce kids to the story of the Odyssey. It doesn't go into some of the ideas of the book, which is sort of an exploration of the ethics of hospitality and the moral value of truth (as well as of course the moral value of lies). Special effects are well done, and the conflict with Troy is covered in a suitable way. Assante carries the whole film with his performance. He's good at conveying the pride and then the pain of Odysseus.