Rambling notes. Spoilers, maybe. See my friend GT’s frustrations with Odysseus’ crew.
Absolutely commanding piece of filmmaking by Nolan et al. I wonder how many other directors can attempt things at this grand a scale (Villeneuve and Ridley Scott come to mind.)
Was surprised to hear “Mom” and “Dad”. Considered the film by itself and didn’t care whether it was aligned with Homer’s vision and think that people who fret over things like these are silly (unless they’re Classics profs or the like.)
Also loved the frustrations over a trans man playing a fictitious man, a black woman playing a fictitious woman, and humanity’s loneliest and wealthiest piece-of-shit committing to saving Western Civilization from these Woke-washings by making a white “historically accurate” version of, again, a fictitious fucking epic1. And that too with his AI that, not until long ago, allowed you to disrobe anyone you pleased – per Western Christian Values of course.
But wait, there’s more. This is not the only Odyssey adaptation that Musk has expressed support for on X. According to Forbes, that same day, a different X user went viral when they asked for Musk to give Mel Gibson—the patron saint of canceled men—$100 million to make an Odyssey adaptation with “painstakingly historically accurate ships, armour, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken straight from the original poem and delivered in Homeric Greek.” In true reply-guy fashion, Musk responded, “I’m down.” So, for those counting at home, Musk has now shared interest in the production of not one, but two different Odyssey film adaptations—one AI-generated, the other Gibson-directed, both “historically accurate.”
by Ben Jennings
Agamemnon’s helmet was fire. You don’t get to see his face too well but he was played by one of the Safdie brothers.
I felt terrible for Polyphemus2, especially when he sits down sadly at the beach, but remembered that him and Odysseus were punished by Zeus (him in his only eye 😢) for them violating xenia with respect to each other so there’s that. The internet tells me that his dad Poseidon, a historical figure who was once the God of The Sea, doesn’t restore his vision.
I predicted that I would be a puddle of tears when I saw Argos greet his master one last time and I was right.
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Nice grandma and I chatted outside the theater and she wondered where all the men for each round of massacres came from. She noted, and I agreed, that “That boat was too small.”
The part where Odysseus reflects upon the consequences of breaking every sacred unwritten bond between people is the closest Nolan got to political commentary. We discussed the meditation over and tension between free-will and destiny.
The soundtrack’s by Ludwig Goransson, just fits the movie so well, and is an adventure unto itself.
“Homer’s nearly 3,000-year-old epic is populated by mythical Greek gods like Zeus, Poseidon, and Athena, as well as imaginary mythical monsters like Cyclopes, giants, sirens, and a witch who can turn men into pigs. The opening chyron of Nolan’s film acknowledges this: His story takes place “in a time of apparent magic.” But if you were to take Musk and his cronies at face value, you’d have to believe not only that all of these magical, mythical beings could be found in documented history, but also that Nolan did a piss-poor job of rendering them onscreen. Apologies to Bill Irwin’s towering and vulnerable performance as the one-eyed Polyphemus.”↩︎
A bit surprised to see just one recent post on the Sympathetic Monsters subreddit…↩︎