A look at The Return ((R)
The Trojan War has been over for two decades when Odysseus, the King of Ithaca in the Greek islands, washes up on shore from his ship-wrecked vessel.
He’s battled it out with six-headed monsters, a sorceress, sirens, a Cyclops and cannibals on the return voyage from Troy and is barely alive.
Not only that but Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) is unrecognisable to the farmers and fisherman of the coastal region, but fortunately is befriended by swineherd Eumaeus (Claudio Santamaria).
How to win back his kingdom with his grieving wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche), beset by a mob of unruly suitors who are rapidly depleting the island kingdom’s supply of livestock and vegetables, is his main concern.
Penelope has never accepted a suitor in the two decades since Odysseus departed for Troy although she’s constantly pressured by court officials to pick a second husband.
She’s clever and manipulative and bides her time by telling everyone she’ll choose a new king once she finishes knitting a shroud for her sick father-in-law.
Although the suitors don’t know it the shroud is going to take forever. Penelope laboriously unpicks parts of it each evening before she goes to sleep.
Odysseus and Penelope’s son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) hover on the edges of the gatherings of suitors and their underlings, although you get the feeling the son will be killed if, and when, his mother picks a suitor
The unrecognisable Odysseus visits the inner court where the suitors eat and drink. They refer to him as ‘the beggar’ and toss him little bits of the evening feasts as he listens in to their discussions.
Eventually things come to a head one evening when Telemachus brings a giant war-time bow into the feasting.
The task at hand – to re-string it so the bow can be used to fire arrows. One by one the suitors attempt to bend the bow back far enough so the string can be re-attached.
None of them have the strength to do it. Eventually one of them derisively hands it to Odysseus, the beggar, and of course he succeeds pretty well straightaway.
This is Odysseus’ real opportunity. He calls on Telemachus to hand him the quiver of arrows and one by one he slaughters the suitors.
Penelope is called and she immediately recognises her long-lost husband because she was fully aware of his archery skills. The loom is up-ended, the door to their private bedroom is unlocked and the king Odysseus re-ascends his throne.
Although director Uberto Pasolini doesn’t show us, Homer’s The Odyssey reveals Penelope’s housekeeper Eurycleia told Odysseus which housemaids had had sex with the suitors and they’re all put to death.
As a committed student of Greco-Roman mythology since my pre-teen years this movie was a must-see for me.
So on a month-long trip around Greece some years back my wife and I cycled around the roads of Ithaca and stayed in a local hostel.
We also visited the world heritage-listed Temple of Delphi in central Greece and the city of Sparta in the south where we saw the helmet and armour of the legendary king Leonidas. His 300 Spartans temporarily held off the invading Persian army for three days at the Battle of Thermopylae.
Rating for The Return, a long slow burn: three-and-a-half stars.
australianrules.com.au 