I doubt I need to fully recount the tale of The Odyssey that is set immediately after the destruction of Troy,. Other than to say, this is the original fantasy source for all protracted and impeded return journey stories, from Lord of The Rings to Lost In Space. The Odyssey was an important development in Western literature. Both The Illiad and The Odyssey are not verbatim accounts, they are mythical stories. The Illiad may draw on half remembered almost mythic figures and recognisable details, but it is definitely storytelling, not history. The Odyssey is even more horrific and fantastical.
It is then perfectly legitimate to interpret the story, introduce new angles into it, to cast a black Helen of Troy, and use designs of armour that are not historically accurate for the supposed period. We are not dealing with literal fact, but literary fiction here. However, because this film is of a story so long beloved, there are plenty of experts, both legitimate and armchair, who can't wait to tell you where Christopher Nolan got it all wrong with this film. Does it capture your imagination, does it enthrall you through it's near three hours running time, despite its familiarity, does it grip you and carry along with it, does it move and shock you? The answer to all these questions is, yes, by the triumphant bucket load.
Odysseus (Matt Damon) is a psychologically broken man, consumed with traumatic stress and guilt. He created a peace offering to Athena as a deception, that enabled the rape and destruction of Troy. The slow decimation of all his fellow Ithacan crewmates, on his journey back home, was caused by his offending Poseidon. Odysseus can be cunning, he can be reckless and brutal, but usually he is trying to do good, to be honourable, to save the lives of his comrades. But somehow his good intentions are never sufficient to appease the punishment of the gods.
In Nolan's script he blames himself for having erased a whole civilisation. There are also passing references, to the growing attacks of the Sea People, which is a historical fact. The evisceration of Troy, becomes another of Odysseus's actions that has a tragic consequence, here it is the progenitor of the fall of the entire Bronze Age civilisation. Though none of these are mentioned specifically in the original Odyssey, they were known of in the period of Homer, they do place the stories within a timeframe that it is a meaningful juxtaposition to highlight.
There are then plenty of references and echoes ricocheting through the film, associations and foreboding oracles of things to come. You never really see Agamemnon ( Benny Safdie ) his face is hidden beneath his heavily stylised, evil looking black polished helmet and armour. When he strides into a scene wearing it, he instantly communicates the type of domineering, malevolent, menacing person he is. He is the classical world's equivalent of Darth Vader. A man who would sacrifice his own daughter to obtain an advantage with the gods, who later was to die at the hands of a vengeful wife, on his return from Troy. And Odysseus too has seriously wronged the gods, his long suffering wife Penelope ( Anne Hathaway ) waits distraught for lack of news of him, whilst his journey home becomes so plagued with impediments placed there by the gods. And it is the ghost of Agamemnon who warns him to conceal his identity on his return to Ithaca, to avoid succumbing to a similar regicide of his own.
Some critics have commented that they thought Nolan's film was not dark enough. I think it retains a remarkable amount of the stories bleakness, of Odysseus being caught in a hell somewhat of his own making. Whilst they're all lost at sea, being pounded by storms, no one cracks a light hearted joke for hours. Being held in the Cyclops cave or turned into pigs by Circe ( an awards worthy performance from Samantha Morton ) are two standout truly sinister and horrific moments in the entire film. I myself was wondering quite how they would handle the scene of his return to Ithaca, where Odysseus slaughters all the suitors who have been menacing his wife and regularly living off his food and drink for years. In the book, I found that scene truly shocking in how graphic and wantonly cruel it is. Causing me to mentally turn away, to question just how fucked up Odysseus was?
In the film, Nolan uses all his consummate editing and brilliantly suggestive visual skill, to portray this furiously unbridled slaughter by building up visual and sonic intensity, that does not resort either to the grotesque or the gratuitous in order to draw blood. It conveys a darkly menacing, if not, on the edge of being mad form of revenge. I held my breath for most of its carnage, wondering when it would come to an end. When Penelope pleads with Odysseus not to die the very moment he has returned to her, emotionally broke me. Nolan invents Penelope and Odysseus leaving Ithaca to be ruled by their son Telemachus ( Tom Holland ) They sail west to fulfil Odysseus's promise to his crewmen to perform ceremonies to honour their deaths. After all his struggles to survive, to exact revenge, we reach remorse, and the need to bring a concluding peace to his disordered life. His son needs time to grow into being King. As the burnished sun sets over a story of one Ithacan King. All this, and to retain a 15 certification is, to my eyes. a minor miracle.
Taking Mark Kermode's recommendation to see The Odyssey in an IMax, we took a day trip into Norwich. Christopher Nolan shot The Odyssey entirely on IMax cameras. In my experience I can't believe any other projection format would have quite the same visual and aural impact. A good deal of the foreboding and tension in the film is created by the sound track, huge thundering noises, earth shattering booms and waves punching hard against people and boats. You feel the sound in an IMax cinema in your bones. Combined with the visuals, this means you come out of this movie in a state of shellshock, totally stunned.This film is so full frontal and in your face. It raises the stakes on what epic can be.
CARROT REVIEW - 8/8
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