Odissea

This movie of 370 minutes was aired by the Italian public television during the early seventies. It tells you the myth attributed to Homer of the Journey home of Odysseus after the Troy war. It is an epic story about the ancient Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations, told at list 500 years after those events toke place, around 1100 BC.

This is a 1969 movie, so if you buy the DVD version you would find that the sound is just mono and there is no other language than Italian, even the close caption is in Italian. Pity. Many people would enjoy this masterpiece if it had at list the English subtitles. But if this is not a problem for you, than I would strongly recommend to watch this movie.

It's very simple to qualify that movie: "A PURE MASTERPIECE". This opinion is formulated for the following reasons: the performance of the actors, they seem to be citizens of that epoch, 1100 B.C. They personalize perfectly the characters. A second reason is that the poetry expressed by Homere in his poem is well given by the production. Among others the narrations made by the chorus give a particular atmosphere that makes us party of the artistic rendition. Third reason: the reconstitution of the decor is absolutely perfect, in Mediterranean regions, where the action of the poem occurred. And most of all, the emotion is on the rendezvous. I repeat my appreciation: "A PURE MASTERPIECE".

I've been trying to find out about this series for ages! Thank you, IMDb! I saw this as a child and have never quite been able to get it out of my mind. As a 6-year old, of course, I was particularly struck by the episode of the cyclops, which was absolutely chilling (I talked about it so much that my older brother made me a cyclops out of a plastic cave man figurine, which I still have) What I also remember, though, was the atmosphere, which was unusual right from the beginning - mysterious, austere, and extremely authentic. When I read the original many years later I experienced that same sensation. It's a very hard thing to capture - and probably impossible in Hollywood. Every 'Odyssey' I've seen since has been an enormous let-down. The characters in this series seemed genuine, real people - ancient Greek people - and not some Hollywood stars in costumes. This is a real masterpiece! But - Why is it not better known? And why isn't it available on VHS or DVD? I would just love to have the chance to see this again!

The Odyssey as a book is a masterpiece of world literature by itself. Sadly enough, every movie version of Homers epic, hardly make any impression on me, and from comments below I can see I'm not the only one.But seeing this version was entirely different experience. I don't know why, but no movie ever awake in me such sense for longing, nostalgic, a feel for time that past by, like this series. I was delighted to find Italian subs for deaf persons & translate it to my native Serbian.Latter, on my vacation on Kefalonia & Ithaca, I'v got desire to translate to English, and partly as a homage to Bekim Fehmiu who commit a suicide at that time in Belgrade. With only few minor diversions from Homer, F. Rossi made this series as best adaptation of any classical work, as by my opinion.Omittion of Scylla & Charibdes was probably due to budget constraints. Also, displacing the episode with Lestrygonians into openings of Odysseus story (& reducing Odysseus fleet to one ship), he cunningly enable himself easier & cheaper (but equally effective) performance.In places where he change Homer (ex.suitors decide to string bow day after failed competition), he does so artistically, that I have impression that even Homer would congratulate him. With obviously only two constructed ships (one large & one small-that of Telemachus), he accurately depicted on of most famous sea voyages in history.Unique depiction of ships, cities, Trojan horse or Odysseus bow just adds to astonishment. Dialogues are special thing in this series:natural, proverbial, romantic & never boring.Actors plays in such manner, that I cant remember anyone who deserves any critic. This series also affect me to look on another works of Franco Rossi. Thus I watch Eneid (1971), which is mostly deficient comparing to his previous work (ie Odissea), but have nice description of destruction of Troy & still its only full film version of Vergil epic.My recommendations.

...then stumbling upon it by pure chance on Youtube? That is how fabulous this version of the Odyssey is: so sure-footed, so unexpectedly faithful to the poem, so jaw droppingly gorgeous to look at that you are constantly re-checking the end credits for Fellini's name in there, surely, somewhere? I came on here, though, to answer the previous heartfelt pleas as to when this utter masterpiece can be seen again - someone this year has put it in four parts on Youtube. Search for 'The Odyssey Franco Rossi' And prepare to be quite, quite blown away