‘The Odyssey’ Is An Epic Hero’s Journey Through Film Adaptation

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Any time an adaptation is involved in film, there will be fierce critics. This is especially true when adapting an epic poem that was first put to paper. Choices have to be made in order to avoid a run-time that renders the film unwatchable. Christopher Nolan’s “Memento,” for example, began as a short story written by his brother and published in the pages of Esquire. It occupied five pages of the magazine, at least according to the Internet Archive. The movie ended up just under two hours.

With “The Odyssey,” we’re talking a much larger volume of words. The copy sitting on my bookshelf, published as paragraphs rather than verse, runs 324 pages. The story can be told on the screen, faithfully, but there will be no appeasing the purists. There is too much content to cover every detail and subplot. Can the end result still be a faithful and enjoyable adaptation? Of course.

The most important part of “The Odyssey” is the love Odysseus has for his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus. After the Trojan War, he longs to return to them but proves his own worst enemy almost every step of the way — much of it involving pride and lust. The Greeks’ idea of fidelity was, after all, more malleable than even the most creative of adaptations.

Thankfully, that is not lost in the cinematic version of “The Odyssey.” It’s true that Odysseus and his men struggle along, aided by Athena, but also constantly thwarted by Poseidon, who is angry at the soldiers for blinding his son. There are the travails with the sorceress Circe, who turns Odysseus’ men into wild beasts. There is the time spent with Calypso, the goddess who keeps Odysseus and his men lulled into a stupor on her island for seven years.

These are but a few of the key moments in the poem and in the movie. And while much has been made of several casting choices, damn, Vanessa Williams is hot. Her depiction of Calypso is perfect; the struggle Odysseus faced in choosing between her unaging visage and Penelope, for whom 20 years have passed since his departure, leaps off the screen.

Isabella Rossellini is likewise radiant as Athena. Greta Scacchi’s Penelope does honor to the original character. Armand Assante as Odysseus is a bit of a stretch, but Odysseus is a character that almost defies portrayal. He is too large, too complicated, too mythical to make the journey from the spoken word to film. Nevertheless, Assante is adequate in the role, thoroughly portraying the man on his journey back to the family he loves.

While the special effects at times leave the viewer wanting, Scylla and Charybdis are menacing. Odysseus’ trip to the underworld is mildly frightening, if one of those moments where the viewer is left wondering why the director chose that as an area to trim some of the story. The less said about Hermes, the better, unless your idea of the messenger of the gods is akin to Tinker Bell, but played by a man. And people act like wokeness is something new.

I shall not spoil the ending for you, but suffice it to say that the chin hairs Telemachus develops are reminiscent of an Eastern European EDM DJ, while mullets are sported by a surprising number of the suitors for whatever reason. Eric Roberts as Eurymachus, whose mullet is the most resplendent, shines up until the moment he gets killed.

Bernadette Peters plays the role of Circe while Francis Ford Coppola was an executive producer, so “The Odyssey” has that going for it. Additionally, the boat Odysseus and his men sailed on later had a starring role in “Jason and the Argonauts.”

Clocking in at just under three and a half hours, the 1997 rendition of “The Odyssey,” directed by Andrei Konchalovsky and originally aired on NBC, is an imperfect but capable adaptation, one that you can watch if you subscribe to Amazon Prime. There are mistakes for the naysayers to pick apart, such as a point near the end when Odysseus changes the pronunciation of his own name such that it rhymes with Zeus. There is also no Argos, which is ridiculous because how can you have a hero’s journey that doesn’t end with man being reunited with his best friend before killing a bunch of people?

None of those are faults that prevent the viewer from enjoying this version, and I recommend it if you have a spare three and a half hours. Apparently, there is a more recent theatrical release that is as faithful and entertaining as this one was. If the characters, including the titular one, can consistently pronounce the name Odysseus, and if Penelope, Circe, and Calypso are as hot as they were in the 1997 iteration, then it’s not overly optimistic to suggest it will be a massive success.

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Rich Cromwell is a writer living in Northwest Arkansas. He produces the “Cookin’ Up a Story” podcast, which you can listen to here. You can also follow him on X: @rcromwell4