I'd like to recommend two excellent films based on Homer's epic
Odyssey, the original story of the "voyage of discovery" theme. The first is the film
Ulysses, with Kirk Douglas (a.k.a. Issur Danielovitch) in the title role as the voyaging hero from Ithaca. The second is
The Odyssey, with Armand Assante playing Odysseus. Both films are brilliant in their own ways and excellent enactments of the Homeric epic (in abridged versions).
Ulysses is a more minimalist, theatrical production that uses a great deal of the original epic verse (in translation) to convey the feel of the oral tradition from which the epic springs. It think it does a great job in capturing the core/essence and simplicity of that tradition.
The Odyssey is a made-for-TV movie that uses digital special effects superbly to convey the epic sweep and grandeur of scale of the world of Homeric mythology and the splendor of the Mycenean civilization. (Incidentally, a quick aside, I love the phrase "wine-dark sea" used by Homer to describe the Mediterranean in the
Odyssey). Both films are spectacular, each in their own way, and I highly recommend them both.
An interesting note about
The Odyssey, incidentally--the entire story of the voyage of Odysseus/Ulysses, in Homer's original epic, is recounted by the hero himself in the course of dinner-table conversation (with the exception of the climactic ending, of course--the terrible homecoming of the hero). This is interesting because, in this way, Homer is able to incorporate fantasy elements into his story of the hero's fantastic voyage without really compromising on his gritty realistic style, as seen in the
Iliad, his great wartime epic. I thought it is a clever literary/artistic device to make the hero the storyteller of his own mythical adventures.
This is a picture of Kirk Douglas as Ulysses:
And this is a picture of Armand Assante as Odysseus:
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