The Odyssey Review | Behold a True Cinematic Work of Art
In this review, we dive into Christopher Nolan’s latest epic, The Odyssey. Packed with non-stop action and a star-studded cast, the film focuses on one man’s quest to return home to his wife and son after a long and bloody war. It takes place over 3200 years ago.
by Garry Murdock
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It is 1200 B.C. For ten very long years, General Odysseus (Matt Damon) and his soldiers have been fighting a war against the city of Troy (present-day Turkey). Odysseus comes up with a daring plan to build a beautiful giant horse statue as an offering of peace to the Trojans. He will then secretly fill it with some soldiers, while others pretend to sail away in full view of the enemy. Once the Trojans accept the horse and have it transported into their gated city, the soldiers inside will wait for nightfall, then emerge and open the gate from the inside—allowing the rest of their returning troops to pour in.
The plan works. And it works a little too well, because much to Odysseus’s dismay, a brutal slaughter ensues that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Odysseus will be sickened by the murder of women and children that he is unable to stop. When the dust settles and the city is destroyed, the war-weary general is commended for his strategic thinking. Now it’s time for everyone to go home and reunite with their families. Odysseus is king of Ithaca, and he knows that after so long everyone back in his kingdom must think he is dead. He must return, and quickly, before his wife and throne are taken by someone else.
And this is where Odysseus’s odyssey begins.
Odysseus and his men will face many obstacles in their journey: a hungry cyclops, impossible sea conditions, starvation, giant merciless soldiers, and a devious witch named Circe. They will come upon the Land of the Dead, where Odysseus will get an unexpected last chance to talk to some of his fallen soldiers. They will barely escape the clutches of the Sirens and a ship-devouring whirlpool. And after a brutal storm is cast on them by the god Zeus, Odysseus will find himself the sole survivor—all alone on a beautiful, deserted island except for one inhabitant, a nymph named Calypso (Charlize Theron).
Calypso means him no harm, but she has fed Odysseus the lotus flower, which causes him to forget about his loyal wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland), waiting patiently for his return. For a very long time, things are peaceful. And then Odysseus gradually realizes things aren’t as they should be, and his memory starts to return. He knows what he must do: return to the sea in a last desperate attempt to get home. What awaits him there I will not tell you.
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Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is based on the works of Homer, a Greek poet, and is one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature in existence (having been written seven or eight hundred years before the birth of Christ). However, it’s been argued that Nolan’s script is a very loose translation of Homer’s poem. But that doesn’t mean his film is not wondrous in its own right. Here is a world where man coexists alongside gods and their curses, where witches can cast spells, giants roam the Earth, futures are foretold, and dead men can rise from the underworld. All of this unfolds within a story of survival, betrayal, jealousy, vengeance, and love.
Nolan shot this story around the globe, with filming locations in England, Morocco, Malta, Greece, Italy, Scotland, Iceland, and the United States. Shot entirely in IMAX film (the first IMAX film to do so), the resulting visuals are stunning. And more than that, you feel you are a part of this strange odyssey. When Odysseus washes up on the beach, alone and near death, it’s as if you’ve been through this exhausting ordeal with him. Maybe that’s part of the IMAX effect.
The film is, without a doubt, Damon’s finest role. Having worked with Nolan previously in Oppenheimer (my review of which you can read here) and Interstellar, Damon delivers a commanding performance. Slimmed down and sometimes seeming smaller than his 5’10” height, Damon must play a leader of men, a warrior, a strategic thinker, a husband, and a father. He must also deal with the guilt of his actions, as he finds himself haunted by the memory of a woman (Zendaya) whom he witnessed being murdered during the assault on Troy. There’s a lot here, resting on this man’s shoulders. And Damon is completely believable, trying to defy the gods and save his men, while growing increasingly frustrated that home may now be beyond his reach.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see an Oscar nomination in Damon’s future—and, of course, for Nolan as well (who previously took home two Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for Oppenheimer).
Damon is joined by a huge cast of A-list movie stars and reputable character actors. This includes Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland, who as wife and son must battle suitors who wish to claim the throne—the most conniving of which is Antinous, played by Robert Pattinson. He plays Antinous as a bully, too afraid to fight but smart enough to know just what to say. John Leguizamo is unrecognizable in his role as the blind man Eumaeus—perhaps the only other person on Ithaca who remains steadfast in the belief that their king will return.
The film also stars Charlize Theron, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Elliot Page, Himesh Patel, Logan Marshall-Green, Jon Bernthal, and Samantha Morton. Strangely, three of the film’s actors—Holland, Zendaya, and Bernthal—also star in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, released on July 31 and in direct competition with The Odyssey, which released two weeks earlier.
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I had written in my review of Oppenheimer that Nolan is the kind of director everybody wants to work with, and he proves it here again. He also doesn’t seem confined to any one genre—Oppenheimer was the true story about the building of the atomic bomb, Tenet was a sci-fi action film about a CIA agent recruited into a secret organization involving time travel, Dunkirk was another true story—this one about the evacuation of stranded soldiers during a battle in World War II, Interstellar took a crew of astronauts to the far reaches of space in a quest to save humanity…well, I could go on, but the diversity of his film bio is astonishing. And it seems whatever he puts his mind to is a hit. Indeed, The Odyssey is the highest-grossing film of his career, generating $1.35 billion worldwide to date and also becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film in history.
For a film this grand, its one weak spot was the musical score. It’s astonishing that an orchestra wasn’t used for the soundtrack of a film of this scale. Instead, Nolan hired Ludwig Göransson, who had composed the scores for Nolan’s Tenet and Oppenheimer. They chose to use organic sounds to represent the film’s time period. This meant the use of bronze gongs, an aulos (an ancient Greek wind instrument with two pipes), and a lyre (a stringed musical instrument much like a harp). Synths and vocals were added. The result was, let’s say “interesting,” but hardly commanding. I really didn’t notice the soundtrack at all.
However, even without an orchestral score, what Nolan’s created here is a true cinematic masterpiece—one which I’ll definitely rewatch when it hits streaming. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to call this a triumph of filmmaking, and it makes me wonder what his next film will be. Whatever it is, it will be hard to top The Odyssey. But if Nolan somehow succeeds, I wouldn’t be surprised.
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