ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — “The Odyssey” has arrived. “Oppenheimer” and “The Dark Knight” director Christopher Nolan delivers an unbelievably immersive and impressive interpretation of the epic story. Read our review below.
Legendary storytelling with a modern twist
“The Odyssey” is a colossal achievement on every single level. Its scope is huge. Its performances are staggering. Its score is all-encompassing, its cinematography is sweeping and its storytelling is layered, detailed and rich. Even its villains are gigantic: Polyphemus the Cyclops, for example, or the armored Laestrygonians. The sheer scale of the production hearkens back to 20th-century epics like “Lawrence of Arabia,” yet “The Odyssey” has all the cinematic tricks of the 21st-century to work with, too. The combination of classical adventure storytelling with Nolan’s modern instincts and camera innovation makes a strong argument for “The Odyssey” as the defining blockbuster achievement of this millennium.
To use an anachronistic metaphor: Just three years after running the bases with “Oppenheimer,” which grossed nearly a billion dollars and won almost every Oscar it was nominated for, Nolan has again knocked the ball way out of the park. “The Odyssey” would be a jaw-dropping accomplishment from any filmmaker, but it is made doubly so in the context of Nolan’s career.
Granted, the film has only been out for a weekend and change, so it is probably too soon to proclaim such mighty cinematic stature. Perhaps the reason it gives off the aura of promised longevity – I think we will be talking about this movie for years to come – comes from the source material it adapts: Homer’s “The Odyssey,” a nearly-3,000-year-old epic poem that forged the foundation of Western storytelling. The story follows Odysseus, a veteran general of the Trojan War, who faces many great obstacles and challenges on his oceanic voyage home to Ithaca, where his wife, son and kingdom wait for him. Out of every feat Nolan and company accomplished with this film, the mightiest is the adaptation.
Matt Damon excels as Odysseus
Even though “The Odyssey” has clung to the craw of culture for centuries, the text has not necessarily adapted with the times. The original story is immensely masculine, positing military brawn and fraternal bond as thematic paramount. However, beneath the surface of its stubbled über-story, modern analysis and reinterpretation of the epic have revealed a treasure trove of less “manly” material to mine. One of the more popular versions of “The Odyssey” in recent years is Madeline Miller’s novel “Circe,” a feminist retelling of Greek myth from the perspective of the Homeric witch. Nolan, similarly, finds the feminine ferocity in “The Odyssey” in her and several other characters – more on that momentarily. At the same time, his Odysseus is less of an unflappable, inscrutable war chief than a conflicted, confused and recognizable human being. Matt Damon’s terrific performance is a big reason for that…