Educational Media Reviews Online

This offering from the Discovery Channel School’s Great Books series would be a good accompaniment for a class reading The Odyssey. The DVD contains a 60-minute video that discusses the work’s themes, its history and creation, and its significance in the literary tradition. Much of the video consists of commentary by a very interesting selection of people: Judith Martin (Miss Manners) speaks about the theme of hospitality in the Odyssey, James Lovell reflects on several aspects relevant to his experience as commander of Apollo 13, Robert Fagles comments on the work he so expertly translated. These people (and others) were not merely quarried for comments given in the past, but were interviewed for this video, and have obviously read and thought about Homer’s Odyssey at length. The producers are to be commended for selecting commentators with qualifications beyond the scholarly (though Robert Fagles and Bernard Knox have those in plenty).

The video recapitulates the plot of the Odyssey (over the course of the video, not all in a piece), so it could be used as a supplement for a class reading The Illiad or only portions of The Odyssey. It would make a poor substitute by itself, though; it should accompany a reading of the work for students to really benefit from the commentary and discussion questions. The plot-summary portions of the video provide footage from an old movie version, so even these sections will interest a class that has read the work.

The “Video Index” and “Thematic Units” give the teacher the ability to play only a certain portion of the video. The pre-viewing and post-viewing questions (one each) that accompany the thematic units are appropriate for the intended audience (grades 6-12). These questions won’t impress anyone with their originality, but they should generate class discussion. “Teacher Resources” points to the Discovery Channel School Web site, and to the 12-page pamphlet of questions and activities that comes with the DVD. (The pamphlet sent to this reviewer was the victim of a printing error, with some pages from The Scarlet Letter interspersed randomly with pages from The Odyssey.)

The video is dated (a VHS from 1996 converted to DVD), with references to Indiana Jones and a discussion of civility that centers on a joint appearance of Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich. This doesn’t vitiate the video’s educational value, but will regrettably make it appear stale to a young audience.