Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” arrived in theaters this week carrying two million feet of shot film, an all-star cast, and the built-in name recognition of the oldest adventure story in Western literature.
As usual, the movie is false advertising. It's the destruction of a classical historic poem at the hands of a modern hack. For some reason, modern storytellers would rather us be angry and bitter than hopeful and happy.
Thanks for the review, for I will never watch this film. How appropriate, though, that they cast Matt Damon in the role of Odysseus. He spent three Bourne movies apologizing for being an assassin. Now here he spends three hours apologizing for being a warrior. Now if only Damon would apologize for being an actor.
Brilliant! When I saw the trailer and realized Damon was Odysseus, I nearly choked on my drink. Never in my wildest dreams could I see him as Odysseus.
"Nolan’s Odysseus instead abdicates the throne to Telemachus and sails into the “unknown west” with Penelope, framed as punishment and self-imposed exile for killing the suitors under his own roof.*"
It's a downright inversion of the moral of Our Lord's parable of the wicked tenants. Add the "iconic reconditioning" in the casting, and looks like, according to your review, a slick, well-made piece of satanic propaganda.
If it wasn't, hollywood would have had nolan assassinated instead of enshrined.
That’s one thing about evil that amusing me: it’s slaves HAVE to do satanic and humiliating things or else they are “suicided out.”
Behind all the bluster of devilry are people who know they screwed up and wished they were never born. high-ranking satanists know the devil hates them and they hate the devil too, but they keep up appearances so they aren’t assassinated for the slightest insubordination.
anton lavey spent his last moments in a fetal position weeping because every single Catholic Priest in Los Angeles refused to let him have a “deathbed” Conversion. he offered Priests millions, his mansion, entire worldly “fortunes” if they fly out and Baptize him; each laughed him off. lavey died in extreme pain, gripping his sickened stomach, snot and thick spit leaking from his heaving mouth and nose, tears pouring from his bloodshot eyes, yelling “God Forgive me” so loud it could burst the ears of the idiots he spent his “life” leading astray.
john lennon was a lifelong devil worshiper, but after the record label released his joke song “imagine” to promote communism to boomers, he became dissilusioned with the system. while the simulacarum of “hippie lennon” stayed static as a bludgeon for liberals to beat Humanity with, the actual, “historical lennon” (the real man himself) became a relatively right-wing libertarian and began a back-and-forth for about 8 years mulling over Converting to Catholicism officially. lennon was actually on his way to Convert in secret early in the morning on the day he was shot right on the steps to his house, his last words famously being “Please God Help me, I’ve been shot.” In the correspondence with the Priest for years, lennon said he could not easily Convert as it would carry “consequences” if it was ever found out.
The real humiliation ritual is the insiders being forced to smile through the “suck” and be backstabbed by ambitious orbiters “jealous” of what they believe the insiders have.
The insider cannot slap the orbiter and tell them evil is wrong, or cry out to God for Help, as a bullet will shut them up before they can finish the first sentence.
I don’t hate these insiders, I pity them, as they have no mouth but must scream. It’s the orbiters and low-ranking satanists who still believe the bullshit that I don’t like, as they are FAR more dangerous.
Excellent review – I was going to ask: does Athena show up in the end? Her presence in the revenge action remains vivid in my imagination ever since first reading the Odyssey back in high school. But as you explained, it's an odd inconsistency to have Nephilim on screen but no Olympians. I mean, pastiche liability aside (as it would be very Kill Bill'esque), to show Athena accompanying Odysseus in the slaying of suitors would've been a no-brainer cinematic bloodbath catharsis. Alas, I don't plan on seeing this movie, I like my Robert Fagles version just fine.
The Odyssey opened Thursday at $17.6 million. That seems light vs its expectations.
Supergirl opened at $7.8 million. Now has only $70m domestic ($51m foreign). Extrapolating from Thursday would give The Odyssey only $158 million domestic - a megabomb vs its $350m+ total cost.
I expected it to be a hit, believing that Americans like what they’re told to like. Soon we will see if I am right, or the times are changing.
"Twenty years of suffering, a home overrun by parasitic invaders, and a king reclaiming what is his becomes a crime requiring penance instead of a homecoming worth celebrating. Homer wrote a triumph. Nolan wrote a man who cannot live with what winning required, and calls that the truer ending."
Well, it is based on a feminist version of the original. So, yeah.
Problem is there are a lot of so-called fans who don't care about the meaning; they just care about the recognition and want to take a property and project their preferences onto it. (Sometimes this could go well, but generally the self-described fans are postmodernists and it doesn't go well.)
Edit: Some do like the property itself, but still care more about their own theories and takes than the actual meaning.
That was a depressing read. The Odyssey needed zero changes. The ending sounds egregious. I’m sad, as many people will see this movie and never know the true Odyssean tale. 😕
As if I needed more reasons not to see this-- if it's necessary to alter the ending, it's no longer the ODYSSEY, and PTSD? Homer's Odysseus was a king and a soldier that knew he had a job to do; he wasted no time feeling guilty...the film just sounds like a complete sh*tshow...
With all the controversy surrounding the translation Nolan chose, I feel quite incidental for not being able to see Matt Damon in the role. Russel Crow possibly. But better an unknown with a Greek profile who looks correct in the helmet and the hair.
what’s considered a Greek profile nowadays? A bird-like (aquiline?) nose with curly blond hair? I mean, we aren’t expecting of Homer, that he’ll be like the swarthy guy saying, “Coke, no Pepsi” at the local kebab hang-out….
I forget who originally said it, but it fits perfectly.
They had to destroy the Odyssey because they didn’t want European men identifying with a man who gets lost then overcomes adversity and slaughters the raping tricksters and parasites who took over his home.
Can’t wait to never see this. 😄
I'll be the 1st in line for something else.
They're marketing it as a freakshow (which is what it is.)
As usual, the movie is false advertising. It's the destruction of a classical historic poem at the hands of a modern hack. For some reason, modern storytellers would rather us be angry and bitter than hopeful and happy.
Thanks for the review, for I will never watch this film. How appropriate, though, that they cast Matt Damon in the role of Odysseus. He spent three Bourne movies apologizing for being an assassin. Now here he spends three hours apologizing for being a warrior. Now if only Damon would apologize for being an actor.
Brilliant! When I saw the trailer and realized Damon was Odysseus, I nearly choked on my drink. Never in my wildest dreams could I see him as Odysseus.
"Nolan’s Odysseus instead abdicates the throne to Telemachus and sails into the “unknown west” with Penelope, framed as punishment and self-imposed exile for killing the suitors under his own roof.*"
It's a downright inversion of the moral of Our Lord's parable of the wicked tenants. Add the "iconic reconditioning" in the casting, and looks like, according to your review, a slick, well-made piece of satanic propaganda.
If it wasn't, hollywood would have had nolan assassinated instead of enshrined.
That’s one thing about evil that amusing me: it’s slaves HAVE to do satanic and humiliating things or else they are “suicided out.”
Behind all the bluster of devilry are people who know they screwed up and wished they were never born. high-ranking satanists know the devil hates them and they hate the devil too, but they keep up appearances so they aren’t assassinated for the slightest insubordination.
anton lavey spent his last moments in a fetal position weeping because every single Catholic Priest in Los Angeles refused to let him have a “deathbed” Conversion. he offered Priests millions, his mansion, entire worldly “fortunes” if they fly out and Baptize him; each laughed him off. lavey died in extreme pain, gripping his sickened stomach, snot and thick spit leaking from his heaving mouth and nose, tears pouring from his bloodshot eyes, yelling “God Forgive me” so loud it could burst the ears of the idiots he spent his “life” leading astray.
john lennon was a lifelong devil worshiper, but after the record label released his joke song “imagine” to promote communism to boomers, he became dissilusioned with the system. while the simulacarum of “hippie lennon” stayed static as a bludgeon for liberals to beat Humanity with, the actual, “historical lennon” (the real man himself) became a relatively right-wing libertarian and began a back-and-forth for about 8 years mulling over Converting to Catholicism officially. lennon was actually on his way to Convert in secret early in the morning on the day he was shot right on the steps to his house, his last words famously being “Please God Help me, I’ve been shot.” In the correspondence with the Priest for years, lennon said he could not easily Convert as it would carry “consequences” if it was ever found out.
The real humiliation ritual is the insiders being forced to smile through the “suck” and be backstabbed by ambitious orbiters “jealous” of what they believe the insiders have.
The insider cannot slap the orbiter and tell them evil is wrong, or cry out to God for Help, as a bullet will shut them up before they can finish the first sentence.
I don’t hate these insiders, I pity them, as they have no mouth but must scream. It’s the orbiters and low-ranking satanists who still believe the bullshit that I don’t like, as they are FAR more dangerous.
Excellent review – I was going to ask: does Athena show up in the end? Her presence in the revenge action remains vivid in my imagination ever since first reading the Odyssey back in high school. But as you explained, it's an odd inconsistency to have Nephilim on screen but no Olympians. I mean, pastiche liability aside (as it would be very Kill Bill'esque), to show Athena accompanying Odysseus in the slaying of suitors would've been a no-brainer cinematic bloodbath catharsis. Alas, I don't plan on seeing this movie, I like my Robert Fagles version just fine.
They went a completely different way, with the treatment of Athena, in this rendition. You will feel it is missing something if you do watch the movie
They essentially cast Odysseus as a White Dude for Harris.
The Odyssey opened Thursday at $17.6 million. That seems light vs its expectations.
Supergirl opened at $7.8 million. Now has only $70m domestic ($51m foreign). Extrapolating from Thursday would give The Odyssey only $158 million domestic - a megabomb vs its $350m+ total cost.
I expected it to be a hit, believing that Americans like what they’re told to like. Soon we will see if I am right, or the times are changing.
I was right. It will be a hit. Opening weekend of The Odyssey grossed $125m domestic and $140m foreign. Big money.
The Left owns the entertainment industry. Americans eat what they are served.
"Twenty years of suffering, a home overrun by parasitic invaders, and a king reclaiming what is his becomes a crime requiring penance instead of a homecoming worth celebrating. Homer wrote a triumph. Nolan wrote a man who cannot live with what winning required, and calls that the truer ending."
Well, it is based on a feminist version of the original. So, yeah.
So...it's fan fiction.
No; a fan would never have made a film this disrespectful to the source.
Problem is there are a lot of so-called fans who don't care about the meaning; they just care about the recognition and want to take a property and project their preferences onto it. (Sometimes this could go well, but generally the self-described fans are postmodernists and it doesn't go well.)
Edit: Some do like the property itself, but still care more about their own theories and takes than the actual meaning.
That was a depressing read. The Odyssey needed zero changes. The ending sounds egregious. I’m sad, as many people will see this movie and never know the true Odyssean tale. 😕
As if I needed more reasons not to see this-- if it's necessary to alter the ending, it's no longer the ODYSSEY, and PTSD? Homer's Odysseus was a king and a soldier that knew he had a job to do; he wasted no time feeling guilty...the film just sounds like a complete sh*tshow...
With all the controversy surrounding the translation Nolan chose, I feel quite incidental for not being able to see Matt Damon in the role. Russel Crow possibly. But better an unknown with a Greek profile who looks correct in the helmet and the hair.
what’s considered a Greek profile nowadays? A bird-like (aquiline?) nose with curly blond hair? I mean, we aren’t expecting of Homer, that he’ll be like the swarthy guy saying, “Coke, no Pepsi” at the local kebab hang-out….
Russ is slightly overweight. See his fat Zeus in Thor luv and thunder.
Zendaya: the answer to a question no one asked.
I forget who originally said it, but it fits perfectly.
They had to destroy the Odyssey because they didn’t want European men identifying with a man who gets lost then overcomes adversity and slaughters the raping tricksters and parasites who took over his home.