ODYSSEY, THE {PART 1 OF 2} (TV)
Summary
Part one of two in this miniseries based on Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey," a tale of Greek hero Odysseus and his long journey home to Ithaca following the fall of Troy. The program begins with King of Ithaca Odysseus sprinting home to Queen Penelope just as she is about to give birth. After great struggle, a baby boy, Telemachus, is born, making it the proudest day of Odysseus's life. However, dark news clouds the day as he later learns that his beloved Greece has gone to war with Troy. Kings Agememnon and Menelaus come for Odysseus, calling on his blood oath of allegiance to them and forcing him to join their fight in Troy. Odysseus must leave his home, wife, and newly born son in the care of his mother Anticlea and trusted maid servant Eurycleia. Odysseus prays to the goddess Athena, his protector, wondering if there is any way to avoid battle, but receives no answer. Odysseus says goodbye to Penelope before setting sail with his men toward Troy. He makes her pledge to remarry if he doesn't return by the time Telemachus grows his first beard. En route, Odysseus sits in silence while his men drink and tell tales, wondering if Athena has left his side. She then appears, ordering him to defeat the Trojans. She claims his destiny is to win the battle and become part of his country's history. Odysseus claims he will have no fear as long as Athena is with him. Arriving in Troy, Odysseus and his men, including Achilles, enter the battle, fighting for years beneath Troy's walls. Then, Hector, Troy's most ferocious warrior, challenges Achilles to a battle to the death. Achilles kills Hector, dragging his corpse from his chariot around the city's walls. By the seventh year of war, the great Achilles is slain and Greece loses hope, wondering if they should surrender. However, Odysseus comes up with a plan, convincing his comrades to follow him. A great wooden horse -- secretly filled with Odysseus and his men -- is left on the beach as a surrender trophy. After ten years of war, King Priam believes the Greeks and accepts the gift, despite soothsayer Laocoon's warning to "beware of Greeks bearing gifts." Although Priam gives pause, Poseidon dispatches a sea serpent to eat Laocoon, helping Odysseus' cause via a sign that Laocoon's "lie" has angered the gods. The horse is subsequently wheeled through the gates of Troy. After the citizens of Troy celebrate deep into the night, Odysseus and his men descend from the statue's interior on ropes. With Troy's soldiers sleeping off their drunkenness, the Greeks attack them, easily conquering the unprepared city. After vanquishiing Troy, Odysseus yells triumphantly toward the gods, showing hubris and proclaiming he can do anything. However, Poseidon wonders why Odysseus defies him, especially after he helped him. Poseidon claims that due to his arrogance, he will make Odysseus suffer on his seas for eternity, never able to return to Ithaca. Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, Telemachus is now a playful ten-year-old. Penelope struggles with Odysseus being gone, fearful that he may be dead. For months, Odysseus is unable to return home or even find the rest of his fleet, lost in Poseidon's dense fog. One day, the men find land, though it is not Ithaca. Upon landing, Odysseus hears sheep through the fog. He goes searching for the residents of the land, only finding hunks of cheese. The men take shelter in a cave, eating the newfound food and drinking wine before the cave's resident returns, a giant cyclops. The Greeks are quickly trapped in the cyclop's cave, with the giant infuriated that they have eaten his food. They present their gifts but it is not enough, as the cyclops eats one of Odysseus's soldiers. Volunteering to be eaten next, Odysseus tells the cyclops that he will lose all the secrets of the world if he is devoured. They give wine to the cyclops, calling it "the drink of the gods," and begin playing music. The giant creature quickly passes out. Odysseus's men want to kill him but realize that they would be unable to move the stone placed in front of the cave's opening. Instead, Odysseus and his men blind the cyclops, causing him to move his door in order to get to light. The men sprint to their ship, with the flutist Antiphus sacrificing himself by playing his music to distract the giant. Sailing on for several months, the Greeks eventually hit another unknown land. There, Odysseus meets Aeolus, the god of wind, who claims that the Ithacan king is now famous for his Trojan horse ruse. Aeolus calls Poseidon a "bully," claiming that the sea is nothing without wind, and that they will "get back at him." Aeolus sucks the winds from the clouds, leaving only the west wind free and claiming it will get Odysseus to Ithaca within nine days. He gives Odysseus a sack containing the other winds, warning that it must remain unopened. Odysseus is excited at the thought of soon being home. Meanwhile, Penelope senses her husband's return, as does Anticleia. On the ship, Odysseus's men want to open his sack while he slumbers to see if it is full of gold. As curiosity gets the better of them, the opened sack causes a wind storm to be released which prevents the ship from reaching Ithaca. Many of the men are blown into the sea, with the others -- including the furious Odysseus -- allowed only a glimpse of their homeland before being blown to the other side of the world. There, some men go searching for food. They find little, but then a pig appears from the forest. Upon catching it, the men are stopped as one of the hunting party returns to alert them that the pig is a human -- the soldier Polites turned into a pig by a witch's spell. They learn that they are on the island of the sorceress Circe. Odysseus goes searching for the witch, encountering his men in animal form en route. Scaling a mountain, Odysseus is approached by Hermes, messenger of the gods. Hermes gives Odysseus a poisonous plant claiming that Circe's spell won't work on him if Odysseus eats it. Reaching Circe's palace, Odysseus is offered some wine with honey. Circe expects it to turn Odysseus into a lion, but the leaves counteract her magic. He pulls his knife and puts it to Circe's throat. She claims that the only way she will turn his soldiers back to men is if he takes her to bed. He then goes into her private chambers. Meanwhile, Polites turns back into human form, charging after those that had wanted to eat him, even as other soldiers regain their normal shapes. Later, Circe puts Odysseus and his men into pleasant trances with her potions and lotus blossoms. At the same time, Telemachus wants to string his father's old bow and go hunting with it. Per Penelope's prediction, he is unable to string it. Then, Anticleia tells Penelope and Telemachus that she can no longer go on living. Penelope tries to stop Anticleia but ultimately the old women walks into the sea, going to "meet" the son she thinks is dead. Meanwhile, Circe wonders if Odysseus has forgotten Penelope while sharing a bed with her. Odysseus thinks he has only been with her for five days but he soon learns that time has no meaning in her palace and that he has actually been there for five years. Odysseus charges outside, finding his boat destroyed, buried in the shore. He awakens his soldiers before yelling at Circe for conspiring with Poseidon against him. Odysseus cannot believe he has been away from home for fifteen years. With Odysseus threatening her life, Circe tells him that he must enter the underworld to find Tiresias. Only the blind prophet can help him find the answer to reaching Ithaca. In great pain, Odysseus and his men board their battered ship, headed toward the underworld. Meanwhile, Telemachus speaks with the nobles of Ithaca, who have gathered at his house. The scheming Eurymachus claims Odysseus is long dead and that one of them will soon marry Penelope and become king. Telemachus goes to his mother, furious that she is accepting the men's gifts and hearing their offers of marriage. She tries to explain her promise to Odysseus, but Telemachus runs off. She then tells the servant Melanthe that she has her own plan for postponing the suitors' requests. Upon reaching the entry to Hades, Odysseus and his men are fearful. Inside, they reach the River of Fire, which Odysseus claims he must cross himself, without his warriors' aid, telling them to try to head back to Ithaca if he doesn't return. Carrying only a sacrificial ram and surrounded by menacing spirits, Odysseus heads onward toward Tiresias. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: May 18, 1997 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:31:21
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:56620
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV, 1997
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Francis Ford Coppola … Executive Producer
- Fred Fuchs … Executive Producer
- Nicholas Meyer … Executive Producer
- Robert Halmi … Executive Producer
- Dyson Lovell … Producer
- Chris Thompson … Line Producer
- Andrei Konchalovsky … Director, Writer
- Chris Solimine … Writer
- Homer … Based on the epic poem by
- Edward Artemyev … Music by
- Armand Assante … Cast, Odysseus
- Greta Scacchi … Cast, Penelope
- Geraldine Chaplin … Cast, Eurycleia
- Jeroen Krabbe … Cast, King Alcinous
- Christopher Lee … Cast, Tiresias
- Irene Papas … Cast, Anticleai
- Bernadette Peters … Cast, Circe
- Michael J. Pollard … Cast, Aeolus
- Eric Roberts … Cast, Eurymachus
- Isabella Rossellini … Cast, Athena
- Vanessa Williams … Cast, Calypso
- Ron Cook … Cast, Eurybates
- William Houston … Cast, Anticlus
- Alan Cox … Cast, Elpener
- Roger Ashton-Griffiths … Cast, Polites
- Michael Tezcan … Cast, Eurylochos
- Andoni Anastasse … Cast, Perimedes
- Stewart Thompson … Cast, Antiphus
- Nicholas Clay … Cast, Meneleus
- Yorgo Voyagis … Cast, Agamemnon
- Alan Stenson … Cast, Telemachus
- Vincenzo Nicoli … Cast, Antinous
- Tony Vogel … Cast, Eumaeus
- Freddy Douglas … Cast, Hermes
- Paloma Baeza … Cast, Melanthe
- Heathcote Williams … Cast, Laoccon
- Richard Truett … Cast, Achilles
- Mark Hill … Cast, Orsilicus
- Peter Woodthorpe … Cast, Mentor
- Pat Kelman … Cast, Elatus
- Katie Carr … Cast, Nausicaa
- Reid Asato … Cast, Cyclops
- Josh Maguire … Cast, Young Telemachus
- Oded Levy … Cast, Leocritus
- Vernon Dobtcheff … Cast, Aegyptius