The Odyssey

You know what I’d like to see?

A really good film or play adaptation of the Odyssey.

I mean, I love the actual text.  The text is awesome.  And in no way do I suggest reducing it or demeaning it or any other of the accusations that are usually levelled at film adaptions, particularly of something as awesome as a +2000 year old piece of spoken poetry.  Hence the word ‘good’ in my initial suggestion.

But!  We have the technology now.  We can do cyclops, we can do oceans, even on stage (with suitable budget) and at the end of the day, the Odyssey isn’t just a great fantasy adventure, it’s one of the oldest known texts which deals with loss, loneliness, homesickness, seduction and betrayal on a really personal, exciting level.  And the character of Odysseus – clever, cunning, stubborn, and generally surrounded by idiots – has been appealing from the first touch of rosy-fingered dawn.

And sure, sometimes people have tried.  I caught a few minutes of a made-for-TV attempt at the Odyssey a few years ago, and had to turn off it was so terrible.  Mostly because Odysseus isn’t a well-oiled heroic hunk of a man; he returns to his wife as a sea-tossed beggar, and spends most of the book clinging onto bits of raft or trying to satisfy gnawing hunger.  Arguably the best attempts at doing the Odyssey are the less literal-minded adaptations.  I’ve been informed that Cold Mountain (desperate soldier trying to get home to determined-yet-pursued love of his life) has a lot of the Odyssey in it, and in that it’s a tale of two people divided by distance and adversity, I totally see it.  However, my personal favourite attempt at (lovingly) re-working the Odyssey has to be O Brother Where Art Thou?  Because no, it’s really not the Odyssey, but yes, it has a cyclops, and a long-lost wife who’s being pursued, and tempting sirens, a great deal of travelling, and even if all this were to be ignored, it’s still be a great film.

But yes….

… so, read the Odyssey.  But if someone wants to actually have a punt at doing something more with it, that’d be groovy too…