The Odyssey Film Review
I was prompted to watch The Odyssey because I found the film for free online, so it was very convenient and saved time from going out and buying a twenty-dollar movie. I watched the movie alone so there were no interruptions from my parents about what something meant in English every five minutes.
The Odyssey, for the most part, stays true to the original epic by Homer. The story faithfully chronicles the many adventures of Odysseus , his crew as they encounter a variety of mythical figures, including Odysseus's spiritual guide Athena , the seductive Calypso and the treacherous Eurymachus The film portrays Odysseus as a traditional epic hero who possesses unusual strength or special powers, participates in a quest, overcomes great obstacles but still maintains humanity, is unaware of his true identity, is aided by supernatural helpers, and is a great leader who is identified strongly with a particular people or society.
Front page of a Danish copy of Homer's Odyssey. 18...
English: Homer's conception of the world during th...
English: Frontispiece and Titlepage of a 1752 edit...The film also shows how powerful the gods are and how futile it is to try to escape them, just like Homer's epic poem.
There are parts from the movie storyline where it strays and borrows sections from The Iliad and the Trojan Wars. Whereas the epic tells its tale through a series of flashbacks, the movie runs in a chronologically ordered plot. Homer's novel is one of many adventures and plot twists, so the director had to add climatic battles and dramatic moments in the movie to stay loyal to Homer's style. There are, however, some omissions like the Sirens, the Lotus Eaters, and the Laestrygonians from the film probably because the whole running time needed to be less than three hours. Even with the director's additions and subtractions from the original the film is still able...