By Dan Skip Allen

“The Odyssey” hasn’t been one of those things I’ve thought about all that much over the years, but it was one the things I learned about in high school. In  English class and history there was a crossover section where we read “The Odyssey”, which is a long poem and we studied the world that it took place in in social studies. We talked about the Greek gods and such. This was my extent of this story by Homer. Until I started seeing pop up in television mini-series and in films such as The Coen Brothers, “ Oh Brother Where Art Thou”. That came out in 2000. It was a fun version of this story with the music being a key to the entertainment value of the story. When I heard Christopher Nolan was going to turn this epic into a big budget spectacle I knew it was a big deal and that I had to pay more attention to this piece of literature, long poem if you will. The time has finally come after a long wait to see this epic story brought to life only the way Nolan can. It’s everything you’d think it would be and more.

Odysseus (Matt Damon), the King of Ithaca, Is a soldier, father of Telemachus (Tom Holland), and husband to Penelope ( Anne Hathaway). He embarks on a journey to fight in the Trojan war with his fellow soldiers Menalaous (Jon Berthal), Eurycholes ( Hamish Patel), Sinon (Elliot Page) for their leader Agamemnon (Benny Safdie). After a long campaign and a lot of death and bloodshed they decide to trick the Trojans by hiding in a horse that they gifted to the Trojans. The Trojans bring the horse into the walls of their kingdoms and that’s where these men spring their trap. After they’ve won the war Odysseus embarks on a perilous journey back home to his family. Except on the way back to his loved ones the Gods decide to put him and his crew through various tests. This journey is where the title of the film comes from and why this is such an important tale to tell.

Along the way Odysseus and his men face various trials against a giant cyclops, some Sirens, Scylla the six headed serpent, Charybdis the devouring whirlpool and Calypso (Charlese Theron) a goddess who is stranded on an island and feeds Odysseus lotus flowers to keep him with her on the island. The film depicts these creatures and events in a literal form. Along with bad weather, starvation, and mutiny, the long journey back home for these men, specifically Odysseus, was fraught with many obstacles. Nothing would keep this man from his beautiful wife and child, though. Little did he know his son, much older than when he last saw him, would go on his own journey to find his father and back at home there would be many men who would try to get the hand of his beloved wife. One in particular Antinous (Robert Pattinson) wasn’t much of a fan of Odysseus or his son for that matter.This would eventually cause problems back in Ithaca.

Nolan is the writer and director of this film, so he used a few interesting things to try to get into the mindset of the main character. He wanted him to feel the guilt of the things he did while fighting in wars for Agamemnon and how he led his own men on their journey back home. He specifically used the moment where they cut the dead off of Athena in the temple of the Trojans. He made him see this character as a ghost figure portrayed on screen by Zendaya as a penance. This, along with the seven years he spent on the island with Calypso and other trails, was designed to show the penalty he must pay for the mistakes he made. Nolan brought all of this to life perfectly. I felt this man’s pain and anguish all throughout this almost 3 hour film. Daman also showed the wear and tear on his body and face throughout the movie. He looked like he aged in real time throughout the runtime of this movie, which is a testament to the hairstyling and makeup people on this production. I genuinely felt bad for what this character was going through in the course of this story. That’s the effect that this story had on me while I was watching it.

The writing was an interesting part of the film. Nolan used narration mostly from Damon’s character to tell the story, but occasionally, he told the story from other people’s perspectives. Moving the story around kept it from becoming stale and boring. He used a framing device as well. So the viewers know when the story begins and ends. I just had a few interesting story elements in the middle that kept the narrative going in an interesting place. This is a text that isn’t easy to put on the screen, but Nolan does as good a job as humanly possible considering the changes he made to the story. I don’t think many will have a problem with the story structure.

One issue I had with the film, though, was the cinematography by Hoyt van Hoytema, who has worked on a few films with Nolan. He decided to use natural light to light the film for the most part. This worked in the many scenes that were outside or on a body of water. The landscapes and oceans were shot beautifully well. The various locations that were chosen for many of the sequences looked gorgeous. The main problem I had with the cinematography was the indore or nighttime scenes. He used fire most of the time to light these scenes, but the characters were not able to be seen even with the 70 mm camera that was used in the screening I was in. I understand if Nolan and Hoytema wanted to give a grounded realistic look to the film, I need to see the characters even at night or in darkly lit rooms.That’s a minor quibble with the movie though.

This film had to give audiences a reason to be in their seats besides the fact that this is a Christopher Nolan film. There had to be a motivation to want to tell this story as well as to give it to audiences. The journey of the main character is one thing, but there had to be an underlying tale here. And there was. I liked how Nolan added in a story of deception and betrayal. Little Easter eggs throughout the films gave viewers clues to where the story was going. I liked how the main narrative of the film was weaved throughout the movie and ended with a nice bow. Not bow and arrows, but they played a big part in the ending of the movie as well. The rest of the story of Odysseus and his journey felt separate from the main narrative. I couldn’t distinguish which was the main story. They both ended up meeting in the end, so I guess that’s okay. The story as a whole was a bit disjointed, though. Even though it ended in an acceptable way for me.

The film had some great technical aspects to it including the score by three time Academy Award winner Ludwig Goranson. It’s a score that matched this incredible story. It’s grand and loud but also soft and somber at times. The music matched the overall events going on on the screen. The costumes looked incredible, especially the armor worn by Agamemnon. These felt like the garb that these people would be wearing at this time in history. They felt real. From the dresses to armor and everything in between the costumes looked amazing. The production design on this film couldn’t have been easy. The boats looked real, and all of the sets looked like real places that you could reach out and touch. I know Nolan likes practical  but this brought practical to the next level. Even the Trojan horse looked heavy and genuinely made out of real wood. The way these men in the movie dragged it made my back ache with pain.Nolan spares no expense when it comes to making his films look as authentic as they can be and he did just that here with this one.these craft departments did an excellent job of bringing this epic to life.

“The Odyssey” needed to live up to the expectations of the name itself. The story had to be big. I’m here to say it was big in every definition of the word. It’s epic filmmaking at its best from Nolan. He used all of the things he’s learned up until this point to bring this story that was deemed unfilmable to life in a very practical way. Sure, there are a few CGI characters, but even they look pretty realistic. The main thing is that the journey of this man trying to get back home to his loved ones was depicted in a way that most people would expect. The side story involving his son and wife was also very dramatic and impactful within the context of the film. The technical aspects from the score, costumes, production design, and cinematography were all top notch.The incredible ensemble cast that Nolan brought into this production were all terrific. From the smaller roles to the biggest, everyone gave their best on screen. Damon, of course, will get the most love from the audience watching, but John Leguzamo, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, and Anne Hathaway were all excellent in this movie. Nolan has done it again. He has made an epic for the ages. Hopefully, English and Social Studies teachers around the world will use this in their classroom studies. It’s that good of a film and history lesson even with its adjustments to the story.

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 1/2 stars