TeeVee Odyssey?

[Maureen Scobie]

Reading the cast list convinced me to watch it. It was not a total
stinker. Given the fantastic events of the original, this film version,
using good actors (Greta Scacchi as Penelope, for example) was better
than the Hercules/Zena comics. The settings (all those waves crashing on
seacoasts of beautiful islands) whetted my appetite for Greece. (I don't
know where it was filmed, though. Could have been the Yugoslav coast for
all I know.) I was interested in the buildings, Menelaus' palace, for
example. His palace was painted red and blue which, I understand, was
the practice. I had grown up with the old illustrations of stark white
temples on pristine slopes. Details of the setting were interesting: the
olive oil press Penelope uses; the loom on which the tapestry is woven
and ripped out; Odysseus' bow (first time I've ever seen how it might
have been strung.)
Athena (Isabella Rossellini) was delightful. Hermes was a hoot, though,
zooming around in space held up by his hidden spacebelt. Sleepy as I was
throughout the first episode, I had to laugh at the pig/sailor scene.
The second evening, I was moved by the depiction of the enduring love
between Penelope and Odysseus. I was amused by the disco-dancing Calypso
maidens. The slaying of the suitors was horrific as it would have to
be.
Getting out my various translations (I have no Greek) of the Odyssey, I
hoped that many new readers were born out of these films.
Enough.
Maureen (insomnia-stricken tonight.)

[Colin Rosenthal]

On 21 May 1997 09:59:03 GMT, Maureen Scobie <ssc...@uvic.ca> wrote:
I was interested in the buildings, Menelaus' palace, for
>example. His palace was painted red and blue which, I understand, was
>the practice. I had grown up with the old illustrations of stark white
>temples on pristine slopes.

Menelaus palace was virtually a reproduction of the Minoan palace
at Knossos, complete with bulls' horns motif.

--
Colin Rosenthal
High Altitude Observatory
Boulder, Colorado
rose...@hao.ucar.edu