The Odyssey at the Movies and on TV
1. Wizard of Oz
Question: Compare the outlines of the plot of The Wizard of Oz and The Odyssey. How
are they alike?
Each story is that of the return home of the hero. The hero did not voluntarily seek the
quest. The hero is taken into an imaginary world. He/she has a protector (The goddess
Athena for Odysseus and Glinda for Dorothy) who doesn't help him/her all the time, but
only some of the time, particularly at the end. The hero slays several opponents and
undergoes several ordeals. The hero is steadfast in his/her devotion to the desire to return
home.
Credit: TeachWithMovies.org
2. Finding Nemo
A. Finding Nemo is The Odyssey with gills, sending clown fish Marlin (voiced by Albert
Brooks) and his son, Nemo (Alexander Gould), on a journey that's as big as the ocean.
Set pieces include everything from a coral reef to a fish tank to the inside of a whale.
Credit: The San Francisco Chronicle online
B. Finding Nemo is a beautifully-drawn animated film about a little fish trying to get
home and an overprotective father fish trying to find his son. ... The story dates back
several thousand years to The Odyssey, at least.
The story starts with a couple of clownfish, Marlin (voice by Albert Brooks) and his son,
Nemo (voice by Alexander Gould). ... Nemo, fed up with his father's fussing, swims into
deep water one day and is captured by a diver and put into a fish tank in a Sydney
dentist's office. Marlin is determined to find his son. He sets off on an odyssey to find
Nemo. Along the way he meets an array of interesting characters. ... The story has a lot of
moral and philosophical overtones. One of its messages is that you should not let fear rule
your life. Another is to believe in yourself, your family and your friends. Another is that
it sometimes takes a lot of courage to obtain one's freedom. The story is mainly about a
father's love for his son, but it is also about growing up and facing the world head on.
Credit: Laramie Movie Scope
3. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The opening credits of Joel and Ethan Coen's new film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?,
announce rather grandly that the picture is "based upon The Odyssey, by Homer." The
filmmakers even supply a ritual invocation of the muse, who is asked (via Robert
Fitzgerald's translation of Homer's epic) to help them sing of "the man skilled in all the
ways of contending."
It doesn't take a classics scholar to notice that the wily brothers have taken a few liberties
with their source. Their hero, played with toothy glee by George Clooney, is a hyperarticulate escaped convict named Ulysses Everett McGill, who wanders the dusty byways
of Depression-era Mississippi with a pair of dimwitted companions, searching for wealth,
his wife and his favorite hair treatment ...
When McGill finally catches up with Penelope (Holly Hunter), she turns out not to be the
embodiment of wifely constancy Homer rhapsodized but rather the harried, impatient
mother of seven daughters who has thrown over her vagabond mate for a weaselly
political operative named Waldrip (Ray McKinnon). ("He's a suitor," one of the girls
explains to her baffled father.)
There are Homeric moments scattered through the ambling, shaggy-dog narrative — a
blind soothsayer, a one-eyed Bible salesman (John Goodman) in place of the Cyclops, a
governor (Charles Durning) whose Christian name is Menelaus (though he prefers to be
called Pappy) and a trio of honey-voiced sirens.
Credit: The New York Times
5. Apollo 13
Homer himself could not have written a more captivating story than the fight of Apollo
13. On April 11, 1970, veteran astronaut Jim Lovell and his crewmates Jack Swigert and
Fred Haise rode atop the eighth launch of the Saturn V juggernaut to begin their ill-fated
journey to the moon.
The aptly named Command Module Odyssey and the reluctant Lunar Module – lifeboat
Aquarius were to take the three men to a date with the lunar highland area known as Fra
Mauro but fate and a faulty circuit in one of the vehicle’s oxygen tanks would irrevocably
alter their plans and turn the flight of Apollo 13 into an epic to rival the original Odyssey.
After an explosion in the Service Module crippled the spacecraft while it was still
outward bound, the crew would spend several harrowing days in near frigid temperatures
while the technicians at home worked around the clock to devise new and ingenious ways
to keep them alive and bring them home safely. In 1970 some considered Apollo 13 a
catastrophic failure, but it has since been recognized as one of NASA’s truly great
moments, when the spirit of daring and ingenuity came to life in the team at Mission
Control as the successfully brought the crew home. (This true story was turned into a
blockbuster 1995 film starring Tom Hanks.)
Credit: Spaceshots.com synopsis on the Apollo 13 NASA Mission Report Book
6. Star Trek
According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the starship USS Odyssey was named for the
command module of the ill-fated Apollo 13 moon mission. Furthermore, that name was
taken from the works of Homer, The Odyssey being the epic tale of Odysseus. The
Odyssey's dedication plaque bore a quote from Arthur C. Clarke's film 2001: A Space
Odyssey: "Its origin and purpose, still a total mystery."
Credit: Memory Alpha Star Trek website