The Odyssey
I can’t remember the last time I read The Odyssey. Homer’s epic poem about the story of Odysseus, and his journey home after the sacking of Troy, is foundational text when it comes to literature, as well as adventure storytelling. Any narrative which has a hero working their way home, and coming upon perilous dangers along the way, owes a debt to Homer. Following up his Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer” with an adaptation of the story, and filming that story entirely using 70mm IMAX film cameras, Christopher Nolan understood that ambition was necessary to bring the story to life in a way that people would connect with. And it has more than enough narrative concepts in its bones to fit in with his filmography as a whole.
As a character, Odysseus (played by Matt Damon in one of his best performances) is not far removed from Robert Oppenheimer, or his Bruce Wayne, or Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman’s magician in “The Prestige”), and even- as we’ll discover- Leonard from “Memento.” When we meet him, he is alone, with Calypso (Charlize Theron), recounting the story of what’s happened to he and his crew since leaving Troy. It is foggy, but as we follow his story, we see how his arrogance gives way to humility as the threat to his crew increases. Meanwhile, at his home in Ithaca, his wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and their son, Telemachus (Tom Holland), are struggling to keep hoards of greedy suitors at bay, who are awaiting Penelope to take a new husband in Odysseus’s long absence. Chief among the suitors is Antinous (Robert Pattinson, playing a mustache-twirling villain quite awesomely), who was not selected by Odysseus to fight at Troy. Eumaeus (John Leguizamo, in a performance justly getting recognition for its authority and frailty) is also loyal to Odysseus, but not many in Ithaca are without their King at home.
Homer’s poem is one that would have been told through oral history, and there are many things that point to that idea in Nolan’s film. We start with the Bard in Ithaca’s palace (played by Travis Scott) who is recounting the story of Troy. We get Telemachus going to Sparta to meet with Menelaus (Jon Bernthal), Agamemnon’s brother, in hopes of getting any information about his father. (Menelaus was in the Trojan Horse with him). And then, there is the use of Odysseus’s unveiling of his narrative with Calypso that, essentially, is the framing device of the film. It’s a clever nod to the oral tradition of storytelling, as well as a continuation of Nolan’s fascination with fractured narratives, unreliable narrators and exploring the concept of time. Throughout his journey home, Odysseus sees Athena (Zendaya), and even interacts with her. Yes, this is a reference to the story’s use of the Greek Gods as an entity in the narrative, but as we get closer to the end, we see that her role is much more profound, and more representative of the guilt that Odysseus feels by the time he arrives home. It’s the strongest 3rd act gut punch Nolan has pulled off since “Memento.”
At this point, what is left to say about the craftsmanship that goes into Nolan’s films? Yes, his use of the sound mix- something he’s become increasingly involved with since “Interstellar”- is a jarring experience, but the sound design is tremendous in this film, and really goes hand-in-hand with Ludwig Göransson’s thunderous score, which eschews a traditional orchestral base, and is all the better for it. (I say this as someone who loves Hans Zimmer, and his Nolan collaborations, but I do think Göransson has topped him as a musical collaborator for Nolan.) The cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema is breathtaking, regardless of format you watch it in, but the use of space in the bigger aspect ratios IMAX allows leads to some of the most staggering visuals Nolan and Hoytema have put onscreen. The set design and costumes- absolutely perfect for the vision Nolan has for this film. The visual effects- favoring practical effects yet again- are otherworldly in their tactile nature, especially when Odysseus and his men come across Circe (Samantha Morton, absolutely crushing the role), and give in to their hunger too much. And Jennifer Lame’s editing keeps the narrative moving at a breakneck pace. It’s hard to imagine that Nolan topped himself with “The Odyssey,” but he and his collaborators really did.
Even though “Oppenheimer” had two Oscar winners- and four nominees- from its cast, I think “The Odyssey” might be the best acted of Nolan’s films to date collectively. Start with Damon- yes, I’ve heard the jokes of this being yet another film about bringing the actor home, but his Odysseus allows him to bring physicality and haunted guilt to the role in a way that challenges our expectations for the character, but is also perfectly at home. Hathaway’s Penelope has beauty and stature, as well as fierce loyalty to Odysseus- she is holding out every hope for his return, and knows that a new suitor will use her for their own purposes, not what’s best for Ithaca. Some of the strongest scenes in the movie have her talking to Telemachus (whom Holland plays as an honorable son, even if he’s not a superhero in terms of strength), and a beggar that was with Odysseus at Troy in the last third of the movie. Odysseus’s trip to Hades allows for stellar work from Elliot Page as Sinon, whose place in Odysseus’s army Antinous was trying to take, and Bennie Safdie as Agamemnon, who made it home, only to meet a violent end when his sins come back to haunt him. Theron brings empathy to Calypso, who is a necessary ray of warmth in Odysseus’s trip home, but her warmth comes with a tradeoff that Odysseus may not like. Also noteworthy as Himesh Patel as Eurylochus; Lupita Nyong’o in a dual role as Helen of Troy, and her half-sister, Clytemnestra; Mia Goth as Melantho, one of Penelope’s handmaidens; Corey Hawkins as Polybus, another one of the suitors; and Ryan Hurst as Mentor, who watches over Telemachus.
Prior to watching “The Odyssey,” I started to think about what makes an epic truly epic. In part, this was because some people online were comparing moments between this and Wolfgang Petersen’s 2004 film, “Troy,” and how the earlier film felt more epic because it had multitudes of more people on screen, compared to some scenes that seemed sparsely populated from what we saw in trailers and stills in Nolan’s film. Because of films like “Troy,” “Saving Private Ryan” and “Braveheart” (the latter two of which I kind of love), as well as battle scenes in the “Lord of the Rings” films, I think a generation has been conditioned to look at large masses onscreen and think, “this is what an epic is.” And yet, on the other side of “The Odyssey,” I find myself thinking of films that don’t necessarily fit that bill. Yes, “Lawrence of Arabia” has masses in certain battle scenes, but the most epic moment of the film is T.E. Lawrence coming out of the punishing desert from a far, first seeming like a mirage, then gradually making their way close into the frame. Tarkovsky’s “Andrei Rublev”- which also has guilt as a fundamental part of its narrative- has its most epic moment as the casting, and ringing, of a bell in a small town. “The Last Temptation of Christ” is one of the best examples of what I call the “intimate epic,” with its take on the story of Christ that was made on a shoestring budget, but also has some of the most powerful imagery a filmmaker has ever put onscreen, such as Jesus’s “return to God” moment at the end of the film. The film I kept thinking about watching this film unfold, however, was Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah,” which is another radical adaptation of a well-known narrative, but balances spectacle and personal in a messy, but impactful, way that I still think about a dozen years later. “The Odyssey” may not meet some people’s expectations of what an “epic” is, but it is an epic in every way, whether it’s showing the sacking of Troy; soldiers on the inside of the Trojan Horse, where Zeus’s Law was first defied; Odysseus and his men caught in a cave with a giant cyclops; having to “pick their poison” at sea; their trip to Hades; or Odysseus’s long-awaited homecoming. Nolan knows that big or small, any moment can feel epic.
To close, I want to speak about the idea of film presentation. Yes, it is true that Nolan show the film entirely on IMAX film stock, the first narrative feature of this length to be shot this way. (Thank you to the people pointing to Jean-Jacques Annaud’s “Wings of Courage,” which was a dramatic film shot in IMAX, but is only the- at the time- standard 40-50 minutes long for IMAX presentation.) And yes, if you have the opportunity to see it at one of the 41 locations that can present it that way, you should try and do so; because of the proliferation of digital IMAX screens over the past two decades, a lot of people have never had a “true IMAX” experience in cinemas, and so, for a lot of people, they are questioning whether it’s worthwhile. As someone who has vivid memories watching the “Everest” IMAX documentary and “Fantasia/2000,” I can tell you that it’s an experience you won’t forget. But “The Odyssey’s” strengths that make it top tier filmmaking are not dependent solely on the ideal presentation, but the way Nolan and his collaborators have told the story. At just shy of three hours, there was not a moment where I felt the film meandered, and the collective emotional weight of the story is paid off by the time the film’s finale begins. Yes, Nolan is obsessed with presentation, but not at the expense of how a story impacts the audience. And he continues to challenge us in that way every film.
