Trailer The Odyssey | Official Trailer

[Paul Farquhar]

And given that almost no one goes to see a Shakespeare production without knowing how it'll all play out -- and in many cases, without knowing most of the best lines -- in no way hurts their popularity.

The thing about Shakespeare productions is that everyone puts their own spin on them. Branagh’s Much Ado is a very different movie to Weddon’s take. Prospero’s Books is very different to Forbidden Planet. I’ve seen Measure for Measure done as broad comedy, and I’ve seen it done as a serious drama. It’s only high school level productions that make it all generic Tudor.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It’s only high school level productions that make it all generic Tudor.

There are plenty of filmed versions of Shakespeare that play it straight. And Shakespeare generally is more familiar to the English-speaking public than the Odyssey.

Before we get Baz Lurhmann's Romeo + Juliet, you need to get Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo & Juliet (hopefully with better and clearer consent and no underage nudity).

We don't have that straight reading of the Odyssey yet, other than the obscure TV movie mentioned on this thread, which was the first time I heard of it.

With O, Brother, Where Art Thou, the Coens were relying on Gen X and older generations reading the Odyssey in school, but the classics have been deemphasized in American classrooms over the last 30 years, in favor of diversifying the canon and adding in more parsing of non-fiction texts and being able to spot misinformation and manipulation. (All good things!) My oldest, who took multiple AP English classes, read only two works of Shakespeare in high school (Julius Caesar and King Lear) and read some Aristophanes, but no Homer.

I think for a large part of the audience -- Gen Alpha, Gen Z and many Millennials -- the Odyssey will be a new story to them.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

We don't have that straight reading of the Odyssey yet, other than the obscure TV movie mentioned on this thread, which was the first time I heard of it.

I’ve seen several. That movie was one of the more boring ones. The book is a primary school text.

Oh, and I’ve just seen Percy Jackson do it. And Eyes of Wakanda do the Iliad. Even people who aren’t familiar with the source material are going to be familiar with many of the scenes.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The book is a primary school text.

Not this century, Socrates.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Not this century, Socrates.

Sure it is. The kids do it as part of the Greek Myths part of the syllabus. They don’t have to read the book, but they are told the story.

I have taught parts of the text (in English translation) to ten year olds though, in preparation for Grammar School entrance exams.

 

[jian]

The thing about Shakespeare productions is that everyone puts their own spin on them. Branagh’s Much Ado is a very different movie to Weddon’s take.

I don’t… remember a Whedon take and I plan for it to stay that way.

But yeah, Shakespeare productions are a language and conversation in themselves, mostly with theatre.

The Odyssey has only been adapted a handful of times in English-language film (1954, 1981, 1997, 2000, and 2024) and only three of those were in the cinema (and one of them was O Brother, which is not a direct adaptation). It’s had fewer attempts at bringing it to the English-speaking screen than Robin Hood, King Arthur, the Iliad, or even Dune.

There’s also the issue that (not surprisingly) most people have not read the Odyssey in its original form (I’ve only read a few verses at school) and therefore most versions they’ve read are adaptations such as Roger Lancelyn Green or Stephen Fry, which also affects the way the story is told.

Did anyone actually watch The Return (2024)? What was it like?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The Odyssey has only been adapted a handful of times in English-language film

More for TV though, and in animation. CBBC did one narrated by Tony Robinson.

 

[jian]

More for TV though, and in animation. CBBC did one narrated by Tony Robinson.

Yup, the 1981 one is Ulysses 31.