The Odyssey (1997 Film Review)

1997 Hallmark Entertainment/American Zoetrope
Written and Directed by: Andrei Konchalovsky
Starring: Armand Assante, Greta Scacchi, Isabella Rossellini, Vanessa Williams, Bernadette Peters, Alan Stenson, and Eric Roberts
MPAA Rating: PG-13; Running Time: 176 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 10/10

On the day his son is born, Odysseus is forced to leave his kingdom to fight a war against Troy. The war goes on for ten years, until Odysses uses his own ingenuity to end it. Victorious, he roars to the ocean that he doesn't need the gods' help--he defeated Troy all by himself. Bad idea. Poseidon, god of the sea, promises from the waves that Odysseus will now never make it home. Poseidon's wrath grows even hotter when Odysseus and his crew stop at an island populated by a man-eating cyclops, and have to blind the one-eyed monster to escape...not realizing that cyclops is Poseidon's son. Now, Odysseus, already ten years gone, must face another ten years on an Odyssey to reach home. But back home, suitors are vying for his wife's hand...and want to take away the kingdom that he made with his hands, and his sweat, and his blood...
I won't even try to hide my bias here. I've read The Odyssey twice (in classic translations, not the Emily Wilson one) and it is one of my favorite things. The Odyssey 1997 NBC mini-series, later deservedly compiled on home media as a feature film, is an incredible three-hour adaptation of that source material. Events are changed, conflated, or omitted, not because the filmmaker has a different vision, but so that this film could be three-hours instead of ten. The spirit and themes of the 300-plus page epic poem are intact.
As Odysseus, Armand Assante gives his all. He later stated that writer/director, Andrei Konchalovsky, is the only one he's ever fully trusted, and that trust and commitment results in a perfect page-to-screen translation of Odysseus, with all the swagger, brains, and brawn that entails. Konchalovsky, once the writing partner of legendary Russian writer/director, Andrei Tarkovsky, is the perfect choice to adapt this material. Konchalovsky imbues the film with just the right amounts of pathos and humor, reverence and mythological camp. As a creator, he values emotion, and that pays dividends in the end, whether its Odysseus' reunion with his adult son, his confrontation with the suitors, or his final reunion with Penelope. The catharsis of these moments cannot be overstated.
The rest of the cast is great, and look and act the part. Even in the rare case where their appearance is different, i.e. Vanessa Williams as Calypso is not fair of arm and hair, they still ACT the part and capture the feel of the character from the page. The special effects from the Jim Henson Company bring the supernatural side of Greek Mythology to life and most of their work here is great--even when it's not, the results are at least fun and feel visceral. Scylla and Charybdis are particularly magnificent. Konchalovsky's writing and dialogue is sharp, and the imagery here is often brilliant, full of color, making great use of light and shadow. Meanwhile, award-winning Russian composer, Eduard Artemyev, provides a score that matches and enhances the film's Mediterranean and mythological flavor. Simply put, this may not be the biggest budget, highest-grossing production titled The Odyssey, but it's easily the best, and the greatest cinematic adaptation of the source material to date..