The Odyssey: is Nolan adaptation worth the hype? - The Latest
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is The Guardian.
Film critics like to applaud movies that are cinema with a capital C. We won the war.
Help me go home.
It's sort of seen as a legitimate superhero movie, but this is a kind of super classy version.
Yeah, this is a big old poem. What did you think of it? I didn't like it. From the Guardians today on Focus, this is The Latest with me, Annie Kelly. Arguably the most hotly anticipated film of the year, Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, officially released today. Catherine Short, you are The Guardian's film editor. It's a bit of an understatement to say that this story has been around for a while, right? It's like a 3,000-year Greek poem. Why all of the hype around this adaptation of it?
I think it's a combination of things. I think Christopher Nolan, it's his first film since Oppenheimer, which made a billion dollars almost. Which is wild. It's crazy. But it's just been overtaken by the Michael Jackson biopic as the most successful biopic ever. But anyway, pretty good until that came along. It won seven Oscars, which the Michael Jackson biopic won't do. So, yeah, huge film. People love Christopher Nolan. The fans are very, very impassioned. It's massive. It's been filmed in IMAX in a sort of revolutionary way. Nolan built all the sets. It's no CGI. So there's really a Trojan horse. There's really lots of battles. I mean, there's not all the death. But apart from that, it's pretty realistic.
And also it's just a very sort of resurgent box office. This year is huge, unexpectedly huge. Things like Backrooms, Obsession have made loads of money. So everybody is now going to the cinema and the marketing has very strongly positioned this as the film. If you're going to go to the cinema this year, when everyone's going to the cinema, go and see this film. And everybody's sort of got that message and is going to do that.
No one could stand between me and home. Money led the guards.
And it's that kind of epic scale of it as well, isn't it? I think it was filmed in six countries. You know, it's kind of the cast, they're all saying, you know, this is the toughest shoot they've ever had to do. So the hype around it is that, like, almost as epic as the poem itself, right?
Yeah, exactly, exactly. They're very much pushing that line.
Why is Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey such a hyped release?
And those themes, you know, that the poet, that the Odyssey brings back to us all are like such kind of central themes that we know in all of these different stories and all of our favourite films, you know, this idea of the hero and the homecoming. Do you think it has those themes that are relevant to what's going on in the world today? And that's also kind of, you know, grabbing people?
Yeah. I mean, it tries very hard to push that idea that it's newly relevant. So it kind of goes on a lot about PTSD. It doesn't say PTSD. Homer didn't mention that. But that's what it puts in there. And there's sort of lots of lines about is civilization falling and where's the line between heroism and barbarity? So lots of sort of hot button topics. Whether or not those were exactly what they were in Homer, I'm not sure. But that's OK. You're allowed to interpret for modern audiences. That's fine.
And I mean, it's received rave reviews, hasn't it? Across the board, our own colleagues giving it five stars. You know, everybody just, all the critics just seem to absolutely love it. What is it that they are, you know, raving about?
I think they are. Well, the word that sort of comes up time and time again in these in these five star reviews is muscular, muscular storytelling.
And I'm not just talking about Matt Damon, right?
He was beefed up. He's way beefed up and then he sort of beefed down. He lost 15 pounds or 15 kilos or something. Not that amazing. But anyway, there are quite a lot of shots of him. topless and muscular. And there's quite a lot of sort of ass kicking he does where he's quite muscular. But they like the breadth of the storytelling. They like the huge scale. They like the fact it's cinema. I mean, film critics like to applaud movies that are cinema with a capital C and I and all the rest of the letters.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:41
2
Why is Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey such a hyped release?
2:41–5:19
3
How does Nolan’s IMAX production and practical effects shape the film’s scale?
5:19–10:29
4
What modern themes does Nolan insert into the Odyssey adaptation (PTSD, civilisation, heroism)?
10:29–13:18
5
What are critics praising about the film’s storytelling and cinematic craft?
13:18–14:20