‘Odyssey’: Epic Fun Mixing Myth, Brains and Brawn

Even more surprising than Troy falling for that stupid wooden horse trick is NBC’s striking success in bringing “The Odyssey” to television.

There is so much brawny spectacle in Homer’s tale of ancient Greek folklore and myth. You’d think that a gigantic Cyclops and tidal waves alone would demand a big screen.

Now, no one is guilty here of committing great literature. For that, read the book. Yet this two-parter from Hallmark Entertainment and American Zoetrope ranks almost with their 1996 miniseries, “Gulliver’s Travels,” in delivering a whopping escapist adventure definitely worth four hours of your time.

Sexiness, action, heroism, nice special effects--all here. Gore galore, too. And heartbreak? You thought Gulliver had troubles.

Some of us are always confusing “The Odyssey” and “Ulysses.” The latter is the James Joyce novel whose 1904 Dubliners correspond somewhat to Homer’s characters in “The Odyssey,” which chronicles the epic perils and hardships of Odysseus, a guy known also as Ulysses. Go figure.

The teleplay that director Andrei Konchalovsky wrote with Chris Solimine frontloads a bit of “The Iliad,” Homer’s story set during the 10-year Trojan War, in “The Odyssey,” his more popular account of Odysseus taking another tormented decade after the war to return home to his kingdom of Ithaca and wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus.

We meet Odysseus (Armand Assante) in the picturesque hills of Ithaca (the exteriors are actually Turkey and Malta) preparing to push off for Troy with his warriors, bolstered by Athena, goddess of wisdom (Isabella Rossellini), while sadly leaving behind Penelope (Greta Scacchi) and their newborn son.

“Turn Troy to dust,” says his mother, Anticlea (Irene Papas).

That takes 10 bloody years. But finally, when the Trojans buy the horse bit and unknowingly let Odysseus and his boys inside their walls, Troy is toast. Now to return home--no simple task after Odysseus seriously ticks off Poseidon, grouchy god of the sea, by boasting that he humbled Troy with no help from the immortals.

This is definitely a blunder, setting the stage for a dangerous marathon voyage launched by an encounter with Polyphemus, Poseidon’s carnivorous, one-eyed giant of a son who devours one of Odysseus’ men and then, much worse, belches.

Every god here has a gig. And inspired casting makes some of these smaller roles come vividly alive, as in Michael J. Pollard’s goofy resonance as Aeolus, god of wind (“Poseidon this, Poseidon that; he’s a bully!”) and Bernadette Peters as that little vixen, Circe, a sweet-talking sorceress who has her dishy assistants turn Odysseus’ men into four-legged animals after rubbing their nude bodies with oils and feeding them grapes. A horrible fate.

Winters turn to summers, of course, and it’s a measure of Odysseus’ madness that he later still prefers that aging homebody, Penelope, to an offer of eternal youth and life ever after on Ogygia with the ravishing Calypso (Vanessa Williams) and her sea nymph babes.

On that home front, meanwhile, rowdy suitors are lining up to succeed Odysseus while engaging in the inevitable drunken feasts. It’s here, back at Ithaca while dragging out the rightful king’s triumphant return, that this TV rendering of “The Odyssey” runs out of miracles and falls from Olympus, spending its final minutes wallowing tediously in violence and romantic ooze.

Until then, however, all’s right, including the versatile Assante, whose face was made for angst and body for a hero’s swagger. You will enjoy this. The gods command it.

* “The Odyssey” airs at 9 p.m. Sunday and Monday on NBC (Channel 4). The network has rated it TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14).