Troy (2004)
The movie "Troy" appeared in 2004 and tells the story of the Iliad. Helen of Sparta is taken away by the Trojan prince Paris after they had fallen in love. Her husband Menelaus, however, is more than upset and wants his wife back. Consequently the Greeks sail to Troy and besiege the city for years. To set an end to this sheer endless war, clever Odysseus (the hero of the Odyssey) comes up with a plan: the Greeks build a huge horse and give it as a gift to the Trojans. In the inside of the wooden horse, however, they hide soldiers who come out at night in order to attack the city.
Wolfgang Petersen's version of the Iliad looks very impressive. Yet, there are some important flaws in the plot that interfere with the plot of the Odyssey. King Menelaus, for instance as well as his brother Agamemnon, are slain in Troy. Therefore, they could not appear in the Odyssey where they play important roles. Menelaus is the one who gives advice to Telemachus about how to find out about the whereabouts of his father. On top of that, Helen escapes together with Paris to an unknown destination. Thus, she remains an adultress. In the Odyssey, she is back together with her husband Menelaus and regrets her "life as a whore". These plot changes are apparently problematic for the Odyssey. However, the movie is very interesting to watch since the setting looks very beautiful and the actors embody the heroic characters such as Achilles (Brad Pitt) or Odysseus (Sean Bean) very well.
"O Brother, Where Art Thou" (2000)
This movie is a very interesting version of the Odyssey made by the Coen Brothers. It is set in the US of the 30s. Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) and his two friends escape from a chain gang and set out to retrieve the $1.2 million in treasure that Everett claims to have stolen from an armored car and buried before his incarceration. They have only four days to find it before the valley in which it is hidden will be flooded to create a lake. This Odyssey is, therefore, quite different. The protagonists make a journey through Mississippi after the Great Depression. A number of blind people appear in the movie who are references the Homer, the blind poet, the cyclops and also the blind prophet. The soundtrack is also very catchy, especially the song of the Sirens. Altogether, the plot of the Odyssey as well as the characters of the Odyssey are recognizable in this modern version, too.
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