The Odyssey (TV miniseries)

The Odyssey
Promotional poster
Distributed by	Hallmark American Zoetrope
Directed by	Andrei Konchalovsky
Produced by	Nicholas Meyer Francis Ford Coppola Dyson Lovell
Written by	Homer Andrei Konchalovsky
Starring	Armand Assante Greta Scacchi Isabella Rossellini Vanessa L. Williams
Music by	Eduard Artemyev
Cinematography	Sergei Kozlov
Editing by	Michael Ellis
Country	United States
Language	English
Original channel	NBC
Release date	May 18, 1997
Running time	176 min.

The Odyssey is a 1997 Emmy award-winning and Golden Globe-nominated American television miniseries. Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, the miniseries aired in two-parts beginning on May 18, 1997 on NBC. The series later won the award for "Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or a Special". The series is based on the ancient Greek epic poem, The Odyssey, which is usually attributed to Homer. It was filmed in Malta and Turkey, as well as many other places around the Mediterranean Sea, where the story takes place, plus parts of England. The international all-star cast includes Armand Assante, Greta Scacchi, Irene Pappas, Isabella Rosselini, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Lee, and Vanessa L. Williams.

The creature effects for this miniseries were provided by Jim Henson's Creature Shop where they used a talking animatronic pig roasting on a spit, a CGI for Scylla, a rod puppet sea slug-like sea monster that devours Laocoön, and the full-bodied version of Polyphemus.

Plot

Odysseus, the king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Ithaca, is called to service in the Trojan War right after the birth of his son, much to the dismay of his wife, Queen Penelope. Odysseus is worried that he may not return, and tells Penelope to remarry should he not return after the war. The war winds up lasting a whopping ten years, during which Greece's best soldier, Achilles, is killed and they avenge him by using a giant horse to sneak inside and destroy the city of Troy, winning the war. On the way back, Odysseus' ego gets the best of him and he tells the Gods that he did it himself, which angers them to the point where they promise to make his journey home to Penelope nearly impossible. However, Odysseus is smart and quick, and may end up getting home after all. First, they wind up on an island dominated by gigantic one-eyed beasts. The cyclops named Polyphemus traps them in his cave intending to eat them, but Odysseus gets him drunk on wine, causing him to pass out. Then, he sharpens a tree branch into a stake and blinds the cyclops, allowing them to escape by hiding under sheep skins when he removes the heavy stone door. Polyphemus screams for help, but Odysseus had tricked him, stating that his name was "nobody", so the cylops is shouting that nobody has tricked him, arousing no suspicion. Odysseus and his men escape, but Odysseus taunts the Cyclops, who asks his father, Poseidon, to make the journey much harder. Next, they wind up on the island of Cerce, a beautiful witch who turns his men into animals and blackmails him into sleeping with her. She tells him that Hades is where to go next, and only then does Odysseus realize that he has actually been tricked by Cerce, who put a spell on him so he actually stayed on the island for five years. Odysseus digs his ship out of the sand and tide and sails to Hades, where Hades torments him, recognizing his courage and wit, but criticizing his ego and foolishness. As he is running in terror from the underworld, he finds that his mother has committed suicide because Odysseus was away for so long. She informs him that there are multiple suitors planning to marry Penelope for her money and power. Odysseus leaves and is given a magical bag of winds by the God of wind, but his men foolishly open it, right as they were approaching Ithaca, blowing them to the island of Scylla and Charybdis. Scylla's six snake heads wreak havoc on the crew, killing many, but everyone but Odysseus is killed when Charybdis creates a whirlpool and destroys his ship. Odysseus finally travels home and slays the suitors after his wife, reuniting with his now fifteen year old son.

As well as the Odyssey, the series takes some scenes from Homer's other epic poem, the Iliad, and others from Virgil's epic poem, the Aeneid.

Cast

• Armand Assante as Odysseus
• Greta Scacchi as Penelope
• Isabella Rossellini as Athena
• Bernadette Peters as Circe
• Eric Roberts as Eurymachus
• Irene Papas as Anticlea
• Jeroen Krabbé as Alcinous
• Geraldine Chaplin as Eurycleia
• Christopher Lee as Tiresias
• Vanessa L. Williams as Calypso
• Nicholas Clay as Menelaus
• Adoni Anastassopoulos as Perimides
• Paloma Baeza as Melanthe
• Ron Cook as Eurybates
• Reid Asato as Polyphemus
  • David Barclay as Polyphemus (face operator)
• Mark Hill as Orsilicus
• Pat Kelman as Elatus
• Vincenzo Nicoli as Antinous
• Sally Plumb as Arete (Queen Alcinous)
• Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Polites
• Katie Carr as Nausicaa
• Marius Combo as Agelaus
• Alan Cox as Elpenor
• William Houston as Anticlus
• Oded Levy as Leocrites
• Peter Page as Philotus
• Michael J. Pollard as Aeolus
• Alan Stenson as Telemachus
• Stuart Thompson as Antiphus
• Tony Vogel as Eumaeus
• Heathcote Williams as Laocoön
• Michael Tezcan as Eurylochus
• Richard Trewett as Achilles
• Yorgo Voyagis as Agamemnon
• Peter Woodthorpe as Mentor
• Derek Lea as Hector
• Freddy Douglas as Hermes
• Miles Anderson as Poseidon
• Alan Smithie as Priam
• Vernon Dobtcheff as Aegyptus
• Josh Maguire as Young Telemachus
• Kresimir Novakovic as Phoenecian Sailor (uncredited)
• Max Oddball as Greek Juggler (uncredited)
• Shawna Wenger as Servant (uncredited)

See also

• List of historical drama films
• Greek mythology in popular culture

External links

• The Odyssey at the Internet Movie Database
• The Odyssey at Rotten Tomatoes
• Hallmark Entertainment: The Odyssey
• The Odyssey at Muppet Wiki