THE ODYSSEY
****
Directed by Christopher Nolan.
Starring Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson.
Fantasy, US, 172 Minutes, Certificate 15.
Released in Cinemas in the UK on July 17th by Universal Pictures.
How do you tackle one of the staple texts of literature in adapting it for the cinema screen? Especially after so many times.We have already recently bore witness to Ralph Fiennes depicting Odysseus’s lengthy journey home in Uberto Pasolini’s scaled back THE RETURN. It could also be argued that the definitive version already sprang forth at the start of this century with the Coen Brothers quasi-musical O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU, where George Clooney played a Dapper Dan man breaking out of prison, running across a near mythical deep South of America to reunite with his wife. Even the original author's animated namesake adapted the epic tale in severely truncated fashion in THE SIMPSONS anthology episode “Tales from the Public Domain”. After these and so many screen adaptations, not to mention the countless literary and televisual knock-offs and re-do's, is there any point in adapting a tale that is already so ingrained in the public consciousness?
Well, if you are Christopher Nolan and you just swept the Oscars after making an absolute dime at the box office with your nuclear physicist biopic, you can use the well earned clout to adapt it like never before, bringing the epic tale with all of its fantastical elements and gigantic scale in a way that can finally be realised convincingly. A worthy task for any filmmaker, but is there any other reason to adapt such a tale on spectacle alone? Thankfully, Nolan disproves his doubters yet again by delivering a double whammy of a big budget blockbuster, which we have been lacking so far this year, combined with his own personal spin on the stories themes that deliver a tale that while classical in its roots and delivery feels thoroughly modern, perhaps even timeless, with its themes of love, guilt and the burden of legend and worship while showing us the true terror of a one eyed giant in a cave for good measure.
Nolan kicks proceedings off in grand style with rapper Travis Scott, holding court as a bard, delivering the tale of Odysseus and his great victory in Troy to a grand hall of Odysseus’s wife’s suitors. While Penelope, Anne Hathaway, waits for her husband's return behind a curtain, spinning a shroud, her son Telemachus (Tom Holland) stands idly by watching the likes of Robert Pattinson’s scheming Antinous plans to take her for himself while making sure Telemachus cannot take the throne vacated by his father. Meanwhile in a mysterious land far away Matt Damon’s weary and exhausted Odysseus struggles to complete his decades long quest for home after not only a great war but a number of otherworldly encounters that truly, and in the context of the film believably, couch the film in “an age of apparent magic.”
Whether you had to read Homer’s bestselling novel in school or are a lifelong scholar of the classics, or even through plain old cultural osmosis there is a lot to sink your teeth into here. As a piece of old fashioned Hollywood blockbuster summer fun, it is quite unbeatable, especially in a season where the likes of Spielberg have failed to deliver. The swords and sandals blockbusters that have come before, especially Wolfgang Petersen’s half baked effort TROY, which Nolan was briefly attached to direct at one point, failed to deliver what you will experience here, especially in its willingness to tackle the fantastical elements of the tale which so many other filmmakers have shied away from before. Although the use of contemporary dialogue, especially when Telemachus refers to his parents as Mom and Dad, rings out of place for the most part, Nolan’s take on the story delivers in spades. If you ever doubted or wondered how a wooden horse fooled an entire city, Nolan manages to display the situation in a spectacular and often gruelling style that convinces the viewer.
Most exciting, especially for readers of a site like this, is how horror tinged a great part of this is. The encounter with the cyclops in the dark is unsettling enough, but the actual visual of him mindlessly picking up a Trojan soldier to chew on is nightmarish enough. Even more impressive is the trip to Hades that paints it as a desolate land where fallen soldiers rise and struggle from the depths to confront the men they believe responsible for sending them there. Most surprising, and unsettling than all of that is the encounter with Circe, played expertly by Samantha Morton. When you are watching a big budget Christopher Nolan historical romp, the last thing you expect to be reminded of, of all things is Brian Yuzna’s SOCIETY and that film's most despicable set piece (if you know, you know). That it fits in so seamlessly with what has come before and after pays testament to Nolan’s skills as a populist filmmaker who despite the seeming familiarity of his source material delivers something so fresh and unexpected and in such an unsettling fashion.
Simultaneously there is something else thematically that underscores all the spectacle on offer here. The burden of legend was mentioned earlier and it is examined in great depth here, alongside the crushing weight of guilt, that calls the whole heroic aspects of such sagas into question. Damon, always an appealing action hero, delivers what could be the best work of his career here with his portrayal of a haunted man who has seen, committed and lost, so much in the name of war, and a war that was launched over one woman as well. Looking weathered and beyond his years, wracked both physically and mentally, Damon’s Odysseus is a flawed hero, yet one who is so easy to root for. For all of his faults, needlessly goading a cyclops being one example, you cannot but help inwardly cheer when he finally comes face to face with Robert Pattinson’s snide and cowardly Antinous. Tom Holland also impresses and delivers his best work yet as Telemachus, showing what he is truly capable of when freed from the shackles of Marvel Studios.
It is not easy for everyone to get to a true IMAX screen, but it is best that you can experience this on as big a screen as you can to experience Nolan’s grandest vision yet. While it is not without flaws, some events are skimmed over a tad too quickly, this is one of those rare films that warrants a return viewing on the big screen to fully take in all of its director's hyper focused vision. Truly enjoyable on its cinematic and visual storytelling alone, its thematic elements and ability to convincingly tell its story on all levels is quite a feat. Three years ago we were all asking how he would follow up his film about a nuclear physicist. Well how on Earth is he going to follow up his adaptation of one of the greatest tales ever told? Start speculating now and looking forward to it, whatever it is, especially if he doubles down on the horror elements he so expertly displays here.
Iain MacLeod