Analysis of The Odyssey Film

The Odyssey, Homer’s epic poem written in 700 BC, at last found its way to the big screen. The production company, Hallmark Home Entertainment Inc. offered Andrei Konchalovski, the director, the chance to transform this poem into a movie thriller with the cast featuring stars. Armand Assante, playing Odysseus, goes to battle and, because of the disrespect to Poseidon, is compelled to make a laborious trip back home. Great Scacchi, playing Odysseus’ beloved wife, suffers equally as various suitors damage the abode that belongs to her beloved husband. Irene Papas, the famous Greek Actress, has been assigned the responsibility of being Odysseus mother. Vanessa Williams, former Miss America, assumes the role of Calypso, a goddess who deeply falls for Odysseus. Isabella Rosellini acts as Athena, Zeus’ daughter as well as the goddess of wisdom who greatly help Odysseus in his trip back home. These actors, together with leadership of the movie director have developed a 165-minute big screen thriller based on the legendary poem “The Odyssey”. 

Question a: Odyssey and the Current society

The culture as described in the Odyssey was described by the people who occupied it, unlike today’s societies where individuals conform to the conventional or accepted description of culture. In the film, the human communities revolved around safeguarding peace with one another as well as the gods. In this way, individuals relied heavily on their leaders or kings who possessed the experience and wisdom to guide them, for example, Laerte, Odysseus father. 

Thinking about hospitality as one of the main themes in a literary work, for example, the movie may seem terribly odd to contemporary or modern readers of such works. However, in Homer’s world, hospitality is a subject that is very essential. Other scholars have noted that hospitality is a dominant part of the single system of moral behavior obtained in the insecure realm of The Odyssey. 

Arriving strangers are often as depicted in the modern societies as potential threats, and residents are often aware for the necessity to get ready for trouble. However, often, strangers are but a part of wayfarers, possibly in want of at least certain forms of help. The film illustrates that similar to residents themselves, any individual may at some time be caught up in the net of sojourning. Civilized individuals, therefore, form an investment in hospitality to illustrate their quality as human beings with the hopes of being treated well by their people. Moreover, in Homer’s world, communication is very primitive, and strangers often receive and bring news.

Question b: Use of literary sources 

The director uses a range of special effects ranging from horrible to good, but which effectively provide the audience with the necessary image of all occurrences. Most of the classical sources are the book written by Homer along with some of the Greek mythology works expressing the features of the Cyclops and other mythical creatures. The movie effectively portrays the battles, and the application of the special effects renders them very realistic and bloody. The scene where Odysseus’ wife’s suitors are slaughtered by the husband and Telemachus is depicted as precisely as illustrated in the book. These scenes fail to define the horrid deaths, but indicate the suitors being sliced by gouged spears and arrows. The imaginary creatures defined in the poem are also showcased in the film, like creatures not previously described in the book. Except for the Cyclops, the animals fit well with their depiction and show to the crowd that this event happens in antiquated Greece. 

The Cyclops was not meticulously considered like the alternate animals and looks somewhat fake. The eye is counterbalanced since he simply concealed his other eye and his form is not trustworthy. While Odysseus strolls through the corridor of Hades, the audience will see a few decent and awful impacts. The chunks of flame tumbling from above are exceptionally practical yet the magma running down the dividers looks ghastly and truly fake. Utilizing embellishments is important however, since the depictions are not given as they are in the novel. This was presumably an awesome test for the executive to have the capacity to adequately depict every one of the scenes, as Homer would need them. In general the enhancements are great except for the couple of poor impacts specified previously.

Question c

Any individual who has read the poem possesses their personal mental images of the possible appearance of gods. In the film, the goddesses as well as gods are depicted as somewhat differently as they are described in the novel. Many times in the book, Athena is depicted as grey-eyed goddess, but with deep blue eyes in the movie. She was additionally given extremely tame hair and was less fun loving than alternate divine beings. The previous Miss America, Williams, depicts the goddess Calypso. By utilizing somebody so wonderful to play such role, they demonstrate how troublesome it was for a mortal to oppose a divine being. This gives Odysseus a reason for selling out his significant other and he can in any case claim to be loyal despite the fact that he has been with another. Aeolas, divine force of the winds, appears to be exceptionally silly and does not consider anything important. He continually makes jokes and prods Odysseus the whole time he is inside his nearness. This demonstrates his irrelevance and unimportance contrasted with alternate divine beings, particularly Poseidon. His picture is left to the psyches of the gathering of people, and Poseidon is given a profound, male voice. The scene in which Poseidon converses with Odysseus through the waves gives him a monstrous measure of force. Odysseus' life has been placed in the hands of Poseidon and can be finished at any minute if Poseidon needs. Showing these divine beings with these distinctive characters and appearances makes a progressive system between the divine beings that is shaped in the content with long portrayals and formal learning of the divine beings.

The movie director makes several changes to the movie script to make his production more dramatic than the novel. The film begins with Telemachus’ birth, but the book fails to even describe this occasion. Moreover, the film expresses Odysseus as a very committed and loving husband and father, something that the poem assumes. The book starts the actions after the Trojan War, but the film shows the actual occurrence of the Trojan War. It is noteworthy that most of today’s audience prefers action-packed movies, a perfect depiction by the film. These scenes give foundation data to the people, with the goal that they are not lost in the matter of what is going on. The story line is revamped in the film to make an all the more sequentially defined plot. 

The book tends to skip around in the story and really has Odysseus recount part of the story to the readers. Numerous scenes of Odysseus' family at home are added to show how much his family misses him. His own mother even slaughters herself out of misery for the loss of her child. A significant number of the subtractions from the film are to save money on screen time and on the grounds that they are not required anymore. The Phaeacians are totally expelled from the film in light of the fact that in the book it is the place Odysseus recounts his story. Since the film demonstrates what happens there is no requirement for them to show Odysseus visit the Phaeacians. Indeed, even with the executive's increments and subtractions from the onset, the film is still ready to get over an indistinguishable point than the novel does.

In conclusion, the film clearly depicts Odysseus story and insignificant changes exist from the epic book and poem. The movie illustrates the power of the gods in addition to how futile it is to strive to escape them, similar to how Homer’s version is rendered. This movie is targeted at the adult and teenage audiences and has garnered a ranking of PG13. The film comprises many bloody and gruesome armed clashes that are not particularly suitable for young individuals. Reading the poem along with the novel offers more information than the film actually offers and is more interesting the movie itself. Overall, even individuals who have never gone through the Odyssey as a poem will still find the movie very appealing.