Ari- I was so glad to read this. I had wondered whether Nolan’s scale and technical mastery could hold the breadth and depth of The Odyssey without flattening it into spectacle, and your review gives me real hope that he has done something much more ambitious.
What seems most exciting is the way myth has been brought forward into our own moment, not merely updated, but allowed to act as a fulcrum against the flattened moral and political complexity of the present. The story is more than three thousand years old, yet the questions it carries about war, loyalty, exile, homecoming, virtue, and the corruption of power remain terribly alive. Your review suggests that Nolan has trusted the myth enough to let it speak across time rather than simply borrowing its plot.
I was also glad to hear that the acting, music, visual scale, and structure all seem aligned with the immensity of the project. I will never forget some of the great visual moments in Dunkirk, including that ferris wheel standing over the beach, or the tremendous cumulative force of Oppenheimer. Nolan is capable of making history feel not simply observed but entered, something nearly physical, and Odysseus’s world seems especially suited to that kind of storytelling.
As well, your recognition that beneath all the violence, wandering, political resonance, and spectacle, this is finally a story about the kind of love that survives absence, temptation, suffering, and time because it is bound to recognition at the soul level.
Thank you for such a rich report from the other side of the screening. I am very much looking forward to seeing it now. Blessings, Sheila Grace
I just saw it tonight in a crowd of extremely polite Canadians - no cheering the neck shot, only a smattering of applause at the end of the movie. It was an impressive feat of filmmaking, but the best part was when we saw Odysseus realize that war was not actually the answer to any of society’s ills. It literally never is. Glad you liked it, Ari!
Ari- I was so glad to read this. I had wondered whether Nolan’s scale and technical mastery could hold the breadth and depth of The Odyssey without flattening it into spectacle, and your review gives me real hope that he has done something much more ambitious.
What seems most exciting is the way myth has been brought forward into our own moment, not merely updated, but allowed to act as a fulcrum against the flattened moral and political complexity of the present. The story is more than three thousand years old, yet the questions it carries about war, loyalty, exile, homecoming, virtue, and the corruption of power remain terribly alive. Your review suggests that Nolan has trusted the myth enough to let it speak across time rather than simply borrowing its plot.
I was also glad to hear that the acting, music, visual scale, and structure all seem aligned with the immensity of the project. I will never forget some of the great visual moments in Dunkirk, including that ferris wheel standing over the beach, or the tremendous cumulative force of Oppenheimer. Nolan is capable of making history feel not simply observed but entered, something nearly physical, and Odysseus’s world seems especially suited to that kind of storytelling.
As well, your recognition that beneath all the violence, wandering, political resonance, and spectacle, this is finally a story about the kind of love that survives absence, temptation, suffering, and time because it is bound to recognition at the soul level.
Thank you for such a rich report from the other side of the screening. I am very much looking forward to seeing it now. Blessings, Sheila Grace
Thanks for your kind note! He really did something so breathtakingly ambitious with this story. I can’t wait to watch it again.
I just saw it tonight in a crowd of extremely polite Canadians - no cheering the neck shot, only a smattering of applause at the end of the movie. It was an impressive feat of filmmaking, but the best part was when we saw Odysseus realize that war was not actually the answer to any of society’s ills. It literally never is. Glad you liked it, Ari!
Glad you liked it too!
I am so happy I follow your writing - what beautiful written, thoughtful review. Can't wait to see it!