The Odyssey ’97

• Written and Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky
• May 18 to 19, 1997
• NBC
• Based on Odyssey by Homer

King Odysseus, mastermind of victory in the Trojan War, struggles to get back to his kingdom of Ithaca.

I am extremely late to the 1997 miniseries The Odyssey. I just let it pass me by though it was something that should have been in my sphere of interest. Who doesn’t like a Greek fantasy epic? While on the surface this is a fanciful tale of a man struggling to get home, it is also the story of how unbridled hubris can be harmful.

Armand Assante was probably the best choice for the time to play Odysseus. This Odysseus has a big ego (though tempered by blatant kingly virtues) and to be honest every time I see Assante perform no matter what he does, it sounds like he has a very a bit of an ego about him.

Sometimes you can look back on the cast of something and see it as a slice of the talent of the time. In this case we have the likes of Greta Scacchi, Irene Papas, Isabella Rossellini, Bernadette Peters, Eric Roberts, Geraldine Chaplin, Jeroen Krabbé, Christopher Lee and Vanessa Williams. Eclectic to be sure but all talented.

Visually this takes its hints mostly from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys which was popular at the time not only the costumes but the effects. I am not calling it cheap but rather sterile in appearance with walls being bland and blank or characters wearing rags rather than something hinting at proper clothing. It can also look like a documentary from the time. I think of the ones with vaguely costumed actors milling around on sets that allude to a place and time as a very educated sounding narrator speaks on something. All that was missing was the panning shot of ruins or some dig.

Narratively the story can get a little bland. Perhaps due to the visual presentation. The Odyssey ‘97 has its moments but when compared to the likes of other preceding fantasy films it feel like it lacks a sense of grandeur of adventure or simply scale. With deities interfering or simply beings of great versus mere mortals, this should come off as more significant than it does.

Some of this is mitigated by solid acting from the cast to get the point of writer/director Andrei Konchalovsky’s version of the story across. This covers all the best-known portions of the story. At three hours (or four with commercials) it comes off as both rushed and occasionally flaccid.

I applaud the ambition to tell such an epic tale, but television of the time was not the right place to do. There were so many limitations placed on any effects heavy production. CGI was still in its infancy and could look unintentionally flat or cheap. Andrei Konchalovsky or any director needed to choose what was more important to show and Konchalovsky decided on effects rather than convince you with sets and characters.

For me, its special effects have not aged well. Since I did not watch this when it first came on television I can’t comment on how they looked then but time has not been kind. Particularly to a flight sequence involving Hermes (Freddy Douglas) and Odysseus who is climbing up the side of a mountain to rescue his men from Circe (Bernadette Peters). It’s unintentionally comical. Dodgy video effects aside there are some nice perspective shots to accomplish some things and a few instances of intriguing prosthetics. The scene with the cyclops is a very fine combination of multiple techniques.

I can’t say The Odyssey ’97 is great. A talented cast improves things but does not help overcome the weaknesses.