Watch Ulysses For Free

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Great Film overall

Good movie but grossly overrated

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I rented this movie a few weeks back because I was preparing to honor Kirk Douglas on Hot Toasty Rag. I groaned and rolled my eyes during the first fifteen minutes. The production values weren't very good, some Italian actors had had their voices dubbed in English, and the acting style was extremely dated. As the scenes progressed, I started to get a sense of déjà vu. Halfway through, I started predicting what was going to happen! "If they meet a giant with one eye and get him drunk, I've seen this movie," I said to myself. Turns out, I saw the movie in a high school English class!My teacher had assigned Homer's works for required reading, but when the entire class flunked the test afterwards, she knew something was wrong. No one understood what had happened in the story! She tried explaining it and cited passages to help our little brains connect the archaic language to what she was saying, but again, it went over our heads. Finally, she knew there was only one way for us to learn Odyssey: she showed us the movie.The second time around-once I remembered I'd seen the film before-I was taken on a very enjoyable trip down Memory Lane. "There's the giant! There are the sirens! The pigs!" My review, as you can probably tell, is a little colored by my past. I have no idea how much I would have liked or disliked Ulysses if I'd seen it for the first time last month. You might turn it off and think it's ridiculous, or you might think it's a clear, understandable adaptation of a very dense classic poem. I consider this movie a sentimental favorite, like the first version of The Nutcracker my teacher showed the class in fourth grade. Plus, for half the movie, Kirk Douglas practically prances around in his underwear, so that's always fun.

It took 10 years for the Greek hero Ulysses to make his way back to Ithica after the Trojan War. Kirk Douglas is Ulysses. He overcomes the Cyclops, the Sirens, and Circe. His final challenge is the suitors who want his wife and throne. Chief among them is Antinoos (Anthony Quinn). With help from Athena, Ulysseus regains his kingdom and Penelope. Gorgeous Silvano Mangano plays both Penelope and the enchantress Circe. Scenes focus on Silvano's hypnotic eyes and sensuous lips. In fact, the film has a way of getting right up in the faces of its characters. The film seems old by modern standards, but the strength and acting prowess of Kirk Douglas makes it relevant and worthwhile. Douglas recently turned 100 years old.

Hello? Like, did movie-audiences back in 1954 really take this cheesy, cheap, badly-acted, Italian, costume drama (with its truly dreadful special effects) seriously? For me, I thought that actor Kirk Douglas, as the title character, was an utterly terrible choice. Wearing his little mini-skirt and sandals outfit, he looked more like a total wimp who actually belonged amongst the women rather than the men.Playing his part with absolutely no conviction, whatsoever, I thought that Douglas completely disgraced the name and the legend of this Greek hero/warrior named Ulysses.And, besides that, I thought that Douglas was far too old (almost 40) to be at all convincing as this supposedly robust, virile and gallant champion of the common man.Douglas' presence in this film did absolutely nothing to improve the overall amateurishness of this less-than-thrilling production.My guess is that Douglas (who was at the very height of his career at this point) was probably paid some really big bucks to appear in this garbage. And, so, with that, how the heck could he have possibly been expected to refuse the part? Ulysses' painfully predictable story, pretty much, contained every single, stinking "Greek Hero" cliché in the book, and then some.And, on top of all that, not one actor in the entire film put in a performance that could be described as anything else but "pure wood".And, the English dubbing was atrocious beyond words.Anyways - On the unintentionally hilarious side of things - The really weird eyes that were painted on the Trojan Horse got a howl-and-a-half of laughter out of me. And, the scene with the doofus Cyclops was so bloody moronic that it's certainly worthy of mention here for the chuckles that it produced, as well.All-in-all - This dumb movie (which had 8 screenwriters backing up its dreadful story) was the purest piece of trash to the 10th power.

Odysseus' journey told in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. After fighting in the Trojan War, Odysseus spends years trying to return home to Itaka. This is the story of a man who left his home , his wife and his son to go away to war.. He destroyed the city of his enemies and started back home . But Neptune , protector God of the conquered people , pursued him with his anger and kept him murdering for ten years . It is the story of Ulysses who dared defy the god and continued his journey to Ithaca , his home, where his wife Penelope was waiting.. and waiting.. The dust of centuries has not dimmed the glories of Ulysses' heroic deeds. the cave of Pholiphemus still reverberates with the with the bellowing roars of the son of Neptuno . The sorrowful face of Penelope still gazes longingly across the open sea. And on a distant shore Circe still casts her spill . For the immortality that Ulysses refused of a goddess was later given to him by a poet ..And the epic poem that Homer sang of the hero's wanderings and of his yearning for home will live for all time .Good rendition deals with Ulysses on his Odyssey home to Penelope and Telemaco after the Trojan War . The classic version ever of Homer's epic produced by two greatest Italian producers as Carlo Ponti and Dino De Laurentis . Based on Homer's Odyssey adapted by seven writers ,including the American prestigious Irwin Shaw and Ben Hecht , Billy Wilder's usual. As a tale , the Odyssey is an unparalleled metaphor of the struggles of a man's life. The cast is brilliant and international with American as Kirk Douglas , Anthony Quinn and Italian actors as Silvana Mangano , Rossana Podesta and Franco Interlenghi. Silvana Mangano gives us a typical Greek tragedy style performance in a double role as Penelope and Circe , but most amazing is Kirk Douglas acting as the brave and valiant Ulysses , really good looking , impulsive and totally convincing, it seems the role was really written for him . Partially shot in natural locations in the Mediterranean and Ponti-Laurentis studios. The exteriors of this Lux motion picture were filmed on the Mediterranean coast and islands described in Homer's Odyssey . The sea and the sky are strikingly blue, the islands green and wild . Colorful and spectacular cinematography by Harold Rosson . Evocative and impressive original score by Alessandro Cicognini , well conducted by Franco Ferrara . The motion picture is professionally directed by Mario Camerini and some scenes by Mario Bava though uncredited . Rating : Better than average take on that will appeal to classic film lovers and Kirk Doglas fans . Another excellent adaptation results to be ¨L'Odissea¨ (1968) TVseries directed by Franco Rossi and also by Mario Bava with Bekim Fehmiu as Ulysses and Irene Papas as Penelope.