SPOILER: This column contains potential spoilers for “The Odyssey.”
Since its announcement in 2024, not a single week has gone by without me thinking about how Nolan would pull off a film adaptation of “The Odyssey,” Homer’s epic story about Odysseus’ journey home after the Trojan War.
Several directors have offered their own interpretations in the past, but Nolan’s insistence on avoiding CGI and filming on location made me skeptical that he could capture such intricate set pieces without falling back on modern technology.
Within the first 10 seconds of the film, I was met with the iconic Trojan horse on a massive scale washed ashore, and it was immediately clear that these technological challenges posed zero threat to Nolan.
“The Odyssey” closely follows the plot of the epic, with Odysseus (Matt Damon), the king of Ithaca, struggling to make his way home to his wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and his son, Telemachus (Tom Holland). He’d been gone for nearly 20 years, and though his wife remained loyal, their palace was filled with suitors desperately seeking the throne.
The film is structured in a split timeline, with Odysseus struggling to recall his last eight years since the war ended while on a remote island with Calypso (Charlize Theron), a nymph who feeds him memory-clearing lotus flowers and delays his return home. Back in Ithaca, Penelope fends off suitors, and Telemachus grows tired of waiting for news of his father.
Both locations were filled with so much beauty. Shooting in a real castle for Odysseus’ home allowed for such intricate attention to detail, with the production design immediately transporting me to ancient Greece.
These gorgeous landscapes were shot by Nolan’s longtime cinematographer, Hoyte van Hoytema, all in the massive IMAX 70-millimeter film. Because the cameras were so loud when rolling, Nolan worked with IMAX to develop new technology that allowed them to dampen the camera noise when filming close-up dialogue scenes.
These advancements made this the first film to be fully shot in IMAX 70-millimeter film, and it was remarkable to feel its presence in the quiet moments just as much as the action-packed ones.
While the cinematography was enthralling, it was Nolan’s usage of practical elements that made every scene feel like a true work of art. Most notably, the production crew created a full-scale Trojan horse for the Greek soldiers to hide in, which turned the unimaginable feat into a heavily grounded set piece.
Surprisingly, Nolan fit the camera inside the horse alongside the soldiers for the first portion of the segment, and I felt like I was in the contraption with them. The dim lighting combined with Ludwig Göransson’s anxiety-inducing score made the moment so tense that my heart was racing.
When the men sneak out of the horse at night, they race against time to open the gates, as the Trojans on guard become aware of their presence and alert their comrades. While the Trojans begin taking out Odysseus’ men, Göransson increases the tempo of the aggressive background percussion, making every passing second a nail-biter. When the gates are finally opened, I felt goosebumps as hundreds of Greek soldiers charged into the fortress, with their leader Agamemnon (Benny Safdie) stopping in his tracks to soak in their victory.
The island of the cyclops was one of the standout moments of the film for me. Seeing glimpses of Nolan’s cyclops in the trailers was one thing, but watching the gargantuan monster pick up soldiers like twigs was petrifying.
Like the Trojan Horse sequence, Nolan used minimal lighting when the soldiers were trapped in a cave with the cyclops, which let the sound design take the wheel in a moment of pure terror. The monster rarely made noises, so I was just hearing the thunderous footsteps of the creature followed by the screams of impending doom from the soldiers. The production crew used a 60-foot puppet instead of traditional CGI to depict the monster, which made for one of the most realistic-looking mythical creatures I’ve seen on screen.
Odysseus’ eventual return is packed with the most heartfelt scenes in the film, including the long-awaited reunion with his family. This final act also includes an incredibly poignant moment in which Odysseus retells the Trojan horse story to Penelope, only this time we see how the Greeks decimated everyone living in Troy, not just the soldiers.
This admission of guilt flips the story on its head entirely, as it becomes clear that Odysseus was so haunted by his actions that he couldn’t bear to remember them, hence why he ate the memory-clearing flowers instead of returning home. I thought this was a great way of adding a level of nuance to Odysseus, and Damon executed the emotional turmoil so well that I expect an Oscar to be in his hand next year.
It’s incredibly difficult to pack twenty years of a man’s physical and psychological journey into three hours, but Damon made the progression of Odysseus’ character feel very natural, and every emotional beat felt earned.
Alongside Damon’s performance, Hathaway does a great job capturing years of sorrow paired with the slowly fading optimism of her husband’s survival. Holland does a decent job as well, but his scenes are paired with such strong actors that it’s easy to overlook his presence.
Aside from the leads, one of this film’s strongest factors was its immensely talented ensemble cast. Notably, Robert Pattinson was absolutely wicked as Antinous, one of Penelope’s suitors who stopped at nothing to win her hand in marriage. Similar to “Oppenheimer,” Nolan made great use of the massive ensemble by giving each actor their own time to shine, which kept the film fresh throughout its expansive runtime.
Ultimately, Nolan didn’t just adapt “The Odyssey” — he reshaped it into an emotional rollercoaster filled with breathtaking visuals and a score that will dominate my Spotify account for the next few weeks.
