By Leah Falcon
WARNING: spoilers (of a nearly 3000 year-old story).
On 17 July, The Odyssey came out to a frenzied response. Director Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s 2 800-year-old epic poem has been anticipated by classical scholars, far-right conservatives and grown-up Percy Jackson kids alike. The film grossing $264 million globally on opening weekend – a Nolan record – is a testament to this.
Christopher Nolan made filmmaking history with The Odyssey being the first feature-length film to be fully shot on iMax cameras. Photo: Julian Rael Gordon
The Odyssey is an ancient Greek myth which follows the story’s namesake, Odysseus, on his 10-year-long journey home to his kingdom, Ithaca, after his victory in the Trojan war. The most astonishing part of Nolan’s adaptation is the extent to which he managed to avoid using computer generated imagery (CGI). From building an animatronic puppet to-scale on a Greek Island for the cyclops scene, to sailing in circles in Scottish seas with real dolphins – everything that could be real was real. For viewers in the age of Grok deepfakes and artificial intelligence (AI) hallucinations, this dedication to realness invites you to believe – to engage.
Discussions before and after the film’s release have taken issue with countless aspects of it. Greek scholars lament its historical inaccuracy, Homer fans lament its faithlessness to the epic, and the political-right lament that transgender-actor Elliot Page is rumoured to play Achilles (despite Elon Musk’s shock, he does not in fact play Achilles. Achilles does not appear in the film). But Nolan’s film, however, transcends the chatter. His dedication and production genius enchant viewers for nearly three hours – not a small feat in the soundbite age.
One scene has risen to the surface in commentary about the film. Odysseus’s men stumble upon Circe (played by Samantha Norton), looking for food in an isolated part of the coast. They gorge themselves on a meal in her home. She punishes them by turning them into pigs. The grotesque beauty of this scene is the lingering body-horror as the viewer watches Norton mould, stretch and distort the flesh. With on-set sculpting of animatronics and no CGI, the scene is a chilling example of Nolan’s practical genius.
This is not just for ego-points. Its harrowing effect is used to show the dark side of the hospitality required by Zeus’s law (the ancient Greek code that hosts must welcome, feed and protect any guest in their home) – particularly for women. The abandoned weapons of previous men and Norton’s crushing performance of fear and anger recontextualises her violence as a trauma response to previous and systemic male violations against her. In a film dominated by the “Great Man” trope, this moment of female rage digs deep and stays.
Another thing that stays with a viewer is the woven soundscape of the film. The soundtrack was composed by Ludwig Göransson and uses instruments and melodies reconstructed from ancient Greek papyrus and stone records. Once again demonstrating Nolan’s dedication to crafting an experience for its viewers. The film also blended diegetic sounds (within the fictional reality) and non-diegetic sounds (background music). This creates a sensory-enveloping experience. The most prominent example is Odysseus’s bow which is accompanied by a mesmerising thrum, resonating into the viewer’s chest. The Road House cinema’s new sound system, which they upgraded this year, rises to the challenge of Göransson’s soundtrack. The new GDC Theatre Surround Sound System envelopes the audience in the heavy heart-beat bass that races through the action scenes.
It would be amiss not to mention the casting of this film. Star-studded does not begin to describe the grouping of Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Travis Scott, Elliot Page, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Samantha Morton and Lupita Nyong’o to name only a few. Some have described this approach as distracting with many of these top performers getting minimal screentime and dialogue, particularly Zendaya and Nyong’o.
But even if some of these A-list actors were underutilised, the power each of them brought to their scenes is undeniable. As for the leading lady and her man – Hathaway conducts a scathing performance of Penelope from fairly average dialogue and Damon brings depth, pain to Odysseus in what could have been a superficial “hero” role with a different actor.
This culminates to a must-watch film. While three hours is a sacrifice for a Stellenbosch University (SU) student hitting the swing of second semester, it’s a worthwhile one for this rich cinematic telling of a millennia-old tale.
