Pick Three: Richard Brody on “The Odyssey” and Other Summer Films
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker.
This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. So far, this year in film has been largely defined by two low-budget horror movies, Obsession and Backrooms, both big successes directed by very young upstarts still in their 20s. That's all about to change because this weekend, a highly anticipated blockbuster enters the fray. Christopher Nolan's epic version of Homer's The Odyssey.
After years of war, no one could stand between my bed and home.
I sat down with the New Yorker's film critic Richard Brody to talk about Nolan's Odyssey and what other movies are worth getting off the couch for this summer. Richard, I tried to get a ticket to The Odyssey. I went online, and it is sold out all over the place. You got in, of course, because you're the film critic, and you went to a screening. Mm-hmm. What did you think?
Well, it's good on its terms. The terms aren't so good, but the movie's pretty good.
What is Richard Brody’s initial take on Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and its box-office buzz?
It's very hard to spoil that story. It's such an exciting story, and Christopher Nolan keeps it moving really nicely.
Mm-hmm.
But it's a very unusual interpretation or reinterpretation of the Odyssey, which I kind of enjoyed for its intellectual coherence and didn't quite enjoy for its lack of substance.
So I took a sneak peek at your review, and one of the things that you said was that the gods are missing. This is all about human beings. And in an epic poem in which the gods play a pivotal role, that's an interesting interpretation.
Yeah, exactly. Athena is played by Zendaya, but her role is cut down to a few more or less cameo-like appearances. Essentially, he turns the Odyssey into an American-style, a Hollywood-style action film. And Odysseus, far from being the glib, sly schemer that he is in Homer, is played, you know, very tight-lipped and terse, like a current-day military hero in movies. So Matt Damon is more Jason Bourne than he is Odysseus? Exactly. There's none of the glint in his eye that he had in Good Will Hunting.
Now, you've been brutal on Christopher Nolan. If I remember correctly, you said that Oppenheimer was kind of close to being a Wikipedia page, which was pretty cutting for a film that won at least half the awards that year.
There's something strange about Christopher Nolan. You know, I, for instance, rather liked Inception and Interstellar and Tenet. I think that Christopher Nolan excels at science fiction precisely because it allows him a certain, let's say, emotional and even political freedom. With a film like Oppenheimer, where he is so devoted to the subject, to transmitting a particular message, and that's exactly the case with The Odyssey also. It's as if he's filming with his hands behind his back. Well, It means he's not doing everything he's capable of doing. He's restraining himself. So, for instance, there are wondrous images in Inception. I don't think it's a great movie, but I think it's a movie that is, at moments, really audiovisually startling.
The Odyssey is not audiovisually startling at any moment. Really? The Odyssey is filmed in some oddly transparent, style-free way. It's pictures of actors acting. There's a lot of battlefield churn done in very quick cuts. But essentially, he's transmitting. He's not creating. What do you mean by that? Tease that out. I get the feeling that he puts a lot more thought into the decor, a lot more thought into the landscapes, a lot more thought into the dialogue, a lot more thought into the messaging than he's putting into the way it looks and feels. And it's almost as if style, some sort of audiovisual artifice, would seem like a betrayal of a fundamental idea that he wants to get across.
Now, Richard, a lot was made about the casting in this film, in particular Lupita Nyong'o and Elliot Page's presence in the movie. annoyed a lot of people, including, unbelievably, Elon Musk, who posted about it on and on. What do you make of the casting controversies, if that's what they were in this film?
I don't want to attribute evil motives to the people who were upset, but I do.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–1:20
2
What is Richard Brody’s initial take on Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and its box-office buzz?
1:20–5:41
3
How does Nolan’s Odyssey reinterpret the role of the gods and Athena in the story?
5:41–9:50
4
Why does Brody argue Matt Damon’s Odysseus reads more like a modern military hero than Homer’s trickster?
9:50–13:28
5
How does Brody critique Christopher Nolan’s filmmaking style and visual choices in The Odyssey?
13:28–14:44