We saw it last month and loved it, howled thru all the parts where we weren't singing. I personally don't care what liberties they took with the Odyssey or the American character or the time frame. I'm with Amos, and his remark about showing us in all our wrinkled glory or some such.
More Odyssey stuff: if I remember correctly from my HS studies, Ulysses' problem was that he had too much hubris, that he figured he didn't need no gods to help him make it home.
Looked to me like George Clooney's hubris came in a can and was called "Dapper Dan". Without that stuff the Powers that Be (Sheriff and dogs) wouldn't have been able to track him. And I suppose the blind black poet on the pump car was Homer hisseff, right?
I think the main liberty that got past my willing suspension of disbelief was that a TVA flood in all its muddy glory would look like the inside of a swimming pool from a glass bottom boat. I'd have liked to see a couple tons more dirt and debris, and maybe Scylla and Charybdis caught in the undertow.
The music was wonderful! I'm gonna buy the video when it comes out this week and invite all my friends over that missed this the first time.
Blessings,
Barbara