There are two major screen versions of Homer's
The Odyssey:
The 1955 Italian film
Ulysses with Kirk Douglas, 115
minutes;
The 1997 American TV Miniseries The
Odyssey, 176 minutes.
Because the 1955 film is
better known, I assume that is the one you are referring
to.
Ulysses was filmed in 1955 in
Italy, and almost every actor except Kirk Douglas speaks Italian; the original English
dubbing is famous for being quite bad and mismatched. At the time,
Ulysses was one of the most expensive movies
ever made, and due to budget concerns, they had to shorten and modify the
story.
Three major scenes are
cut:
(1) Ulysses's 7-year stay
on the island of Calypso
(2)
Aeolus's bag of wind blowing Ulysses's ship away from the shores of
Ithaca
(3) The attack of
Scylla and Charybdis at sea.
Otherwise, the film is
considered to be very faithful to the source material, if a bit dramatized and
dumbed-down so as not to bore the audience. Most reviews mention the strong presence and
charisma of Kirk Douglas, and the expensive and technologically superior (for the time)
special effects. A great deal of the narrative and repetition is excised, as well as the
three scenes mentioned above; they were likely cut for time and expense, as well as
being the most superfluous to the plot.
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