Yesterday afternoon I went to see The Odyssey at the Odeon Cinema in London’s glitzy Leicester Square.
You don’t usually have to issue a spoiler warning for an adaptation of a 2,700-year-old text…. But spoilers below!
First a few comments:
It was a long film. Very long.
I probably enjoyed it more upon reflection than as I was watching it. And for that reason I expect it to be a fantastic rewatch.
I went in expecting a Nolan-level Gladiator or Troy. It was not that, and that took me a bit by surprise. No clockwork owls!
The tone is more like Beowulf or The Green Knight, with a sprinkling of Arrival. Visceral. Guttural. ‘Real’.
I enjoyed it.
Christopher Nolan does a great job. He makes it feel like a three hour fever dream with giant puppets, practical nightmare fuel, and enough volume to summon Zeus himself.
In fact, the invocation of Zeus's Law is interesting.
The idea that you have to treat strangers well because they could be a God in disguise.
But essentially the Greek army believes it can just roll up on a town and say, “we need all of this and you can't deny it to us because Zeus says so.” This is an incredibly convenient device for the army, but devastating to the countryside and a population that is probably already on a razor's edge. It’s a sort of corruption of the idea treat others as they would do to you. And bends it round to a colonial aspect of give us everything because our God says you have to. It’s a sort of mole justification for colon colonialism, and war.
This gives so much more context to one of the big twists towards the end about the threat of the ‘sea people’ coming to invade, but in fact, Odysseus’s realisation that they are themselves the sea people all along.
Yes, The Odyssey is a true triumph of imagination. Its central message, to me, is a powerful one: when a civilization turns away from its own values and principles, it risks destroying itself from within.
Top 5 scenes:
1. Telemachus recognizing Odysseus through the tail wiggle of Argos🐶
2. The bow string being plucked and fired through 12 axes by Odysseus 🔥🏹
3. The song of the sirens 🧜🏻♀️
4. The opening of the gate of Troy while Agamemnon stands in the middle👑
5. Circe’s scene with the pigs 🐽
All the actors, especially Matt Damon, Tom Holland and Samantha Morton, are superb.
@odeoncinemas @mattdamon @tomholland2013 @samanthamorton #TheOdyssey #Film #London
