The Odyssey

 The Odyssey

Directed by Christopher Nolan

2' 53"

You have probably already heard that the Odyssey is a brilliant movie. You may have even heard that it is an instant classic.

Everything you have heard is true. 

This is an epic story and an epic film. It will join the canon of movies like Lawrence of Arabia and Ben-Hur.

Those films were done in a time without CGI.

The Odyssey was done without CGI. Every frame is shot from film. The result is stunning,

I loved this movie. I saw it on the biggest screen I could locally. I am ready to travel across the state to Michigan's only 70mm IMAX film theater to see it again. You don't have to make an odyssey to see it in this format, but do see it on the biggest screen you can, in digital IMAX if possible, and if you live near one of the 24 theaters in America with 70mm IMAX film, skip the other theaters and see it there.

The Odyssey promised to be one of the big movies of the year, and I did not want to be unprepared. 

I had never been forced to read the Odyssey in school, and I never read it on my own. I knew the general outline of the story. Enough to know that it was ridiculous of Honda to name a minivan after a story where only one person survives the voyage. 

I started reading a great translation (Emily Wilson) of the epic poem by Homer. Unfortunately, I was slow to start and had to return it to the library before I finished. I could not renew because apparently a lot of other people wanted to read it and it was on hold. 

But I read enough, and then read a few detailed synopses. Enough to tell you this: Outside of the final act, the film hews closely to Homer's narrative.

Odysseus fights the cyclops (and angers Poseidon). Circe turns his men into pigs. He visits the underworld and is foretold the future. He hears the Siren's song. All of these encounters are rendered to stunning effect. And the story of the Trojan Horse is the most vivid depiction ever.

What is strikingly different is the meaning of the story. The tale told by Homer is a tale of a hero's journey home. He comes home to reclaim his life, his home, his family, and his kingdom.

Nolan makes it a very modern parable of loss of a way of life. Nolan cryptically alluded to Citizen Kane in a recent interview. Kane lost his innocence when he lost his sled, though it would seem to have been a stroke of good fortune. Odysseus loses his moral ground when he uses deception and the Trojan Horse to defeat Troy. It would seem to be a great feat, but instead it is a violation of Zeus' law, the law at the center of his sense of morality and cicilization itself.

No such self-doubt exists in Homer.

To be clear, this is an  observation, not a negative criticism. It is a director's purpose and obligation to present a viewpoint. 

The cast of thousands is incredible. Yes, he used 2000 actors for the destruction of Troy rather than a CGI army. The leads are incredible. John Leguizamo has a career-defining performance as the blind servant Eumeaus. Spiderman (Tom Holland) as Telemachus is surprisingly effective. Samantha Morton kills it as Circe. And who else could you get to play someone trying to get home than Matt Damon (Interstellar, The Martian, Saving Private Ryan). Let's just keep dropping him far from home and watch him find a way.

Great performances by Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Elliot Page, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o to name a few.

And I would not be me if I didn't mention the score. They can just give the Oscar to Ludwig Göransson now. Nolan and Göransson decided against the use of the traditional orchestra. Instead, he used ancient instruments, some of which we know only by pictorial renderings and had to be reinvented. It is a modern score, but the ancient instruments are for an amazing backdrop to the movie. I mentioned Lawrence of Arabia earlier. That movie would not have been what it was without the Maurice Jarre score. Göransson's score provides that to the Odyssey.

If you've read my reviews, you know that a long movie better earn every minute. This is not even a consideration. The 2' 53" fly by. Highly recommended. Go to the theater. See this movie.