Director: Mario Camerini
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Silvana Mangano, Anthony Quinn
More info: IMDB
Tagline: One of the greatest adventures of world literature! Packed with fury...excitement...cunning and tempestuous love!
Plot: Kirk Douglas stars in the ambitious adaptation of Homer's classic The Odyssey as Ulysses, the valiant hero doomed to a perilous, 10-year journey home following his triumph in the Trojan War. Anthony Quinn also stars in this epic tale as Antinoos, the smooth-talking suitor who takes advantage of Ulysses's absence and sets out to win the hand of the general's faithful wife, Penelope (Silvana Mangano).
My rating: 6.5/10
Will I watch it again? Sure.
#4 from SWORD & SANDAL TRAILERS VOL. 1. (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)
Here's one that's been on my radar for more than twenty years, one that I'd get around to eventually. Thanks to my sad dedication to watching every movie on these trailer compilations, I've gone and watched it. I've always enjoyed Kirk Douglas, even when he's skirtin' that fine line of overdoing it. He's from the old school of film making and that's just fine. A lot of those films work because of it. It's very easy to see him in a role of a man who is self-assured; a man who is not unlike Beowulf in his cockiness and feats of strength and cunning as a warrior and a king. But he's also aloof and fun.
Now, I've never read THE ODYSSEY so I don't know how this strays from the original story but I'm guessing it strays quite a bit. I'm sure he meets a giant cyclops, for example, but I've got wonder if everything went down the way it did. Being how it's a movie, I'm sure they hit some of the main beats of the story and went from there.
Having said that, the film feels disjointed. I really want to read the story now because I'm sure it plays out far better than this adaptation. There were some things that bugged my like the aforementioned cyclops scene. Ulysses and his men are caught by the cyclops in his cave so he shuts them in. Ulysses gives him some of their wine and the cyclops, not knowing what wine is, REALLY digs it and wants more...naturally. Wouldn't you? They offer to make it so the cyclops leaves and returns with a giant basket filled with grapes. Ulysses and his men happily and rapidly stomp on the grapes. When enough juice has collected in the large bowls, Ulysses gives it to the cyclops who promptly drinks it and proceeds to get drunk. Apparently the film makers are taking the audience to be a bunch of saps who wouldn't know about having to ferment the juice that turns it into wine. You might thing this is a small detail but it's the entire device that hinges on their escape. I'm beside myself with the leaps of logic they expect us to take. I can somehow buy that there's a fucking one-eyed giant but I have trouble believing in simple grape juice getting you liquored up. Go figure.
I like some of the other bits of the story but, again, the film as a whole seems slapped around. The segment where Ulysses is seduced by some mystic queen or something was nice. There's a point at the end of it where his men are fed up and demand to leave but Ulysses doesn't see the problem as it's only been a day since they arrived. It turns out she's got powers beyond his control and they've actually been there for six months. That revelation was neat but the best part of the film is the end.
SPOILERS: BLOOD & SAND!
OK, so Ulysses (from now own I will just call him U) has been away at war for ten years, away from his kingdom of Ithica, his wife, Penelope (P) and his son, Telemachus (T) who was a child when U left but is now a young man. Recently his household has been overrun with potential suitors for P as everyone has given up on U except for P & T. They drink their wine, eat their food, live in their castle - basically they're just taking advantage of P during this dark time.
Antinoos (A - Anthony Quinn) shows up and starts throwing himself around as THE one who's going to get the whole sha-bang. His plan is to win P's favor of marriage, and on their wedding day he will have T killed as to let him live would be trouble. U makes his way back to Ithica and disguises himself as a beggar. He finds P and tells her about how he knew U and that he sends his love, yadda, yadda, yadda. She doesn't recognize him and after he's said what he wanted to say he heads to the courtyard where A and the rest of the assholes give him a hard time. The next day P announces the contest for her, ahem, vacancy. The winner will take U's place as king and husband and, well...just watch for yourself...
IS THAT NOT FUCKING BADASS OR WHAT! He slaughters them all. He doesn't waste any time. He just fucking does it. OMFG!!!
END OF SPOILERS...YARRRRRRR!
Now if the rest of the movie had been that gung-ho and ballsy, it would have been a masterpiece. I was shocked, sitting there slack-jawed during the final minutes. It was akin to how I felt watching the last half hour of RAMBO (2008) with the excessively delicious carnage. WOW! What a payoff!
I would say this deserves a remake but Hollywood would fuck it up royally. They'd cast some big actor in the Quinn roll and have a big duel between A & U, and not like it was here. They'd diminish the power that this film gave that scene. The last 15 minutes of the film has so much going for it that it's too bad the previous 87 minutes couldn't live up to it. Still, it's a good movie with another good performance by the always fun Kirk Douglas and that's good enough for me.
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