Hector and Achilles, was: matching game

[Antonio Santos]

On Sun, 23 May 1999 GavinRees at aol.com wrote:

> This is probably unhelpful, and I am going to apologise in advance for that. 
> I can't think of any Japanese films that are particularly homeric, but The 
> Thin Red Line, which is currently showing in Japan, perfectly captures the 
> same sense of war that is  in the Iliad -- of slaughter that nobody can see 
> any end to. In fact the character played  by Nick Nolte spends large sections 
> of the film quoting from Homer "Rosy fingered dawn, the child of the morning, 
> starts its chariot across the sky...." kind of thing. 

I do think that  The Thin Red Line is a very homeric film. Moreover, 
there are some other film  suggestions:
- The most literal should be: Helen of Troy (Robert Wise, 1955. It 
includes the classical themes of the wrath of Achilles and his duel 
against Hector); La Guerra di Troia (Giorgio Ferroni, 1961); or  Ulises 
(Mario Camerini, 1954).
- There are some more free versions of those Ancient myths: Edipo Re 
(P.P. Pasolini, 1967); and Medea (P.P. Pasolini, 1969).
One of the finest films  of this decade freely updates the odyssey 
journeys: Ulysses?gaze (Theo Angelopoulos, 1995).
-About Antigona I can not remember any film version. Nevertheless a 
Spanish novel, Miguel de Unamuno?s La tia Tula, updates the topic of 
sacred love between sisters. The author depicts his character as a modern, 
christian Antigona. There is a very good film version of this tale: La 
tia Tula (Miguel Picazo, 1964).
Unfortunately I am not aware about any Japanese version of these topics, 
even though Kurosawa?s epic looks sometimes homeric.


Antonio Santos