The Odyssey trailer 2 (full trailer)
- Thread starter dahliaclone
- Start date
It's been a few days since I saw it. There are a few scenes I just can't get out of my head for various reasons.
Circe's scene.
Siren scene.
Hades scene (just unfuckingbelievable all around and the images are just bonkers)
The entire Trojan horse scene.
The last 45 minutes
- Mar 27, 2006
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Just got back from watching.
Overall, I enjoyed it. The use of sound and music was incredible. Truly a film where the best way to see it is in a theater. I'm not sure many home theater setups would be able to do it justice.
A few segments really stand out. The Trojan Horse, cyclops, Hades, and Circe are the ones that come to mind.
I will say, and I realize that I might get flamed for this, but the characterization of Odysseus was kind of lacking. Wise Odysseus. Clever Odysseus. Smartest of the Greeks. We didn't see much of that guy. And the opportunity was there. For example, they established that the cyclops could speak. So, why not have Odysseus talk to him like he does in the source material. His cleverness is what gets them out of that jam, but it doesn't play that way in the film. His character just felt a little flat. Not bad. Just a bit more muted than I was expecting.
Overall, I enjoyed it. The use of sound and music was incredible. Truly a film where the best way to see it is in a theater. I'm not sure many home theater setups would be able to do it justice.
A few segments really stand out. The Trojan Horse, cyclops, Hades, and Circe are the ones that come to mind.
I will say, and I realize that I might get flamed for this, but the characterization of Odysseus was kind of lacking. Wise Odysseus. Clever Odysseus. Smartest of the Greeks. We didn't see much of that guy. And the opportunity was there. For example, they established that the cyclops could speak. So, why not have Odysseus talk to him like he does in the source material. His cleverness is what gets them out of that jam, but it doesn't play that way in the film. His character just felt a little flat. Not bad. Just a bit more muted than I was expecting.
- Mar 27, 2006
- 43,027
- 34,546
- 113
I slept on it, and I think I was wrong. I think I understand what they were going for with a more muted portrayal of Odysseus. Until the 3rd act, these are his retellings of what happened to him and his crew, told to Calypso, and under the haze of the lotus. Told from the perspective of a man who sees his greatest "triumph" (the Trojan Horse) as an act of barbarism and a betrayal of human decency. A man with the blood of all of his men on his hands. A man wracked with guilt over the things he's done. Of course he's going to downplay his own cleverness in the stories. He's going to highlight his mistakes. He's going to focus on his own hubris and cowardice.
This Odysseus ruined the world, in his eyes.
From that perspective, I think I get it now.
I'm glad you slept on it.
Nolan specifically chose a subdued version of him. Here's are a few personal takes on why I think that creative choice works so well:
Odysseus in this film is the unreliable narrator. For the first two hours, these aren't objective, omniscient historical events; they are filtered through the mind of a broken man. When you are drowning in survivor's guilt, you don't star as the hero in your own memories, you star as the architect of the tragedy.
The 'weight' of the horse. The Trojan Horse is traditionally celebrated as the ultimate display of cunning. But in the psychological reality Nolan builds, a man weighed down by the deaths of his entire crew would look back at that trickery not as genius, but as the original sin that cursed them all. It’s the act that set the gods against him and kicked off a decade of bloodshed.
Nolan also subdued the myth and humanized him. If you play Odysseus as the swaggering, untouchable mastermind straight out of the gate, to me, you lose the tragedy. By stripping away his legendary armor and making him small, haunted, and defensive under the influence of Calypso and the lotus, Nolan earns the third act. The cleverness has to return only when the fog clears and he has to reclaim his life at home.
It turns a standard, larger-than-life action-myth into a psychological character study.
And to address the other post: those scenes you mentioned are all ******* awesome. I can't get Hades out of my mind. Everything from the dialogue to the visuals to the makeup. Just awesome.
