Product Details

• Format: Color, EP, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Best Film & Video Co
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1987
• Run Time: 40 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303379133
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #341,410 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars CliffNotes meets Video, June 2, 1999

By 

Billie Hara (Fort Worth, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Iliad (Homer) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I was expecting a filmic version of Homer's classic (something along the lines of _Helen of Troy_ or even the more recent tv version of _The Odyssey_). Instead I received a 40 minute "CliffNotes" version of this classic text on video. Stilted dialogue, bad acting, and amatuerish sets and costumes (Zeus carries around a cardboard lightening rod, while all the other gods continually walk around, and wave their hands at, a mirror ball that is suppose to represent Earth), mock Homer's text more than enlighten anyone to it. This tape may be useful in explaining _The Iliad_ to 1st graders, but then, maybe not.

56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy "The Iliad!", January 14, 2000

By 

J. Powell (The Southeast) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Iliad (Homer) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Don't be fooled, as I was, by the name "Best Film and Video Corporation!" This amateur production is laughable. It looks like a class project put together by high school students in the mass media lab. As a student production, I would give it an A; as a video which I paid good money for, I'm angry that I was taken in.

5.0 out of 5 stars Get Perspective First, September 9, 2011

By 

Literary Patriot - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Iliad (Homer) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I purchased this video fifteen years ago for my advanced ninth grade class; I hoped it would help assist students through Homer's epic. After being completely fooled by the marketing, I made the purchase and sat down to preview it. Imagine my shock as the two narrators, while sitting at a tiny table with a backdrop right out of a cafe in Tijuana, Mexico, began their assault on my senses. Dressed in extremely dated garb and failing even to blink, they both started in on Greek history. Historical inaccuracies abound, shots of the Parthenon and Athens when speaking about those from Mycenae, Ithaca,and Sparta, and immediately I questioned my purchase and vowed to never show this horrible excuse for a video to my students; however, I had an epiphany immediately thereafter and realized this gem was ripe for mockery. After fifteen years of showing this piece of excrement to my students as a reward for finishing The Iliad, it has become legendary on campus. Zeus and the gods wandering around with carnival face-paint, cardboard cutouts of thunderbolts, and a disco ball representing earth could not be more amusing. Agamemnon trying to say he will "become very angry" in a stern tone truly should be part of every drama class' analysis of horrible acting. Hector, looking like Al from the old "Home Improvement" show, yelling at Paris for being a wuss, provides wonderful entertainment for students trying to recover from over three hundred pages of death. I spent the money, was suckered in by this community college production, and have definitely found a way to make this stink bomb smell rosy to students. The entire video was filmed with one camera. No separate angles and edited shots(other than freezing actors so gods can appear and disappear). It is so bad it is good. The pictures and graphics appear pasted on a wall and the camera just zooms in on them for effect. Currently I am getting the VHS tape put on DVD to try to keep the tradition going. The tape will break soon from multiple plays. Students request it now and anyone who has been through my class comes back to ask about "that Iliad video" and see if it is still in play. My students asked me to check if Amazon actually sold it. Imagine my laughter when I saw the price was over $120. Don't get duped, but if you do, make sure to keep watching the gods on Mt. Olympus... someone should have done a drug test on them... oh, and enjoy Menelaus as well. He looks 70 years old. He was probably the community college professor who organized the whole fiasco. If Menelaus looked like this guy, Helen certainly made the right choice. Finally, the tight shots of Homer's face delivering narration from The Iliad put you almost in the area where you can see the tartar on his teeth. Be warned. Enjoy!!!