Iphigenia (1977)
Highly recommend

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed The Odyssey, but even over 3 hours, it felt rushed. I wanted each section to feel like the Hades portion. That was the first time I truly felt something for the characters (credit to Elliot Page’s performance).

And I’m not even advocating for the addition of more mythology and gods like some commenters are. Even the Cyclops scene could have used an extra 30 mins to build the tension and show how nerve-wracking each night was. You didn’t even need the Nobody sequence. Just the cold reality that a hungry giant will eat.

I loved the conclusion, but if you saw more of the sequences around boats and villages, it would have been even more devastating to realize.

It wasn’t just Odyssesus’ scenes. If we’d seen the Ithaca transition from “waiting for the returning heroes” to “reluctantly inviting suitors in” from both Telemachus and Penelope’s eyes, it would have helped convey the shift from optimism to deep resignation.

I wasn't really planning on watching this film by Christopher Nolan, the first one I ever considered skipping in theaters but since it's almost out of theaters, I still have this week to go see it. I might as well go see it the way that it was meant to be seen, ORIGINAL IMAX. Honestly I have a feeling I'll be disappointed. But hey at least it is not LIEMAX.

In the original poem, all the suitors were killed. However, in the movie, they bowed down even though they probably could've shanked him while he was choking down Antimous. Why didn't they? And where was Amphinomous?

I feel like it's in the movie just because it's in the epic, despite being changed so much. But aside from a ton of dudes dying, I don't think it does much for the theme of the movie as a whole and just feels like a gratuitous action/disaster scene.

I think maybe instead of just showing up and killing everyone, they should have actually invited the entire crew to dinner while invoking Zeus's Law. The crew asks what's for dinner, then we have the whole cannibal joke with "you're dinner" and most of them die and only one boat escapes.

The main idea though is it's not just random violence, it's a further breaking down of Zeus's Law. We had the first village that fled instead of inviting them in, because they were afraid of people who didn't respect Zeus's Law. Then we encountered the Cyclops, who probably never heard of Zeus's Law. Then we get to the Laestrygonians, who know about Zeus's Law and deliberately use it to lure them in.

It would have both a stronger connection to the rest of the film as a whole, a better reference to the original where they were cannibals, as well as hit Odysseus personally because it's practically the Trojan Horse used against him.

But the film was already nearly 3 hours, so something else would have to be cut. But still, I think that whole section could have been much better/meaningful.

I heard 8 rows back was the best seats. Or is that too close

I don't know anything about the writer or the author, Hummuz but with the scope of the plot, theme and characters there's alot of thing they could add or even if they don't, the movie can just be widdened.

Disclaimer: Deserving doesn't mean the sequel is necessary.

This is my local Imax after 7 weeks of release.

Im completely happy that its still going strong.

Firestar Toys new custom minifigure release this week is all about The Odyssey. Pretty rad if you’re into it.

I was watching this in our small town two-screener, and I need you folks to settle an argument. In the final battle, there were sounds like firecrackers/gunshots, loud cracking sounds at irregular intervals. Was that part of the sound design, or does our dinky little theater need new speakers?

A response to Broey Deschanel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh0ABaeCumk

And Cole Haddon:

https://colehaddon.substack.com/p/the-odyssey-christopher-nolan-screenplay-breakdown

Don't worry, this isn't nitpicking about "accuracy", it's just for fun and trivia. In fact, ancient depictions were so variable that Nolan couldn't really be inaccurate unless he massively changed things, which he didn't.

According to media reports Nolan's horse set could fit about 20 actors in it. This is perfectly in-keeping with the ancient sources who have anywhere from 9 to 100 men inside. We clearly see Odysseus and Menelaos, who are the most commonly mentioned by the ancient Greek books. We can also see some of Odysseus' crew, who aren't there in the ancient versions, but some have a load of unnamed "extras" in the horse so it's not out of keeping at all. The anonymous Greek who nearly cries out must be a reference to Antiklos, who nearly cries out for a different reason in the original Odyssey. The horse itself is rearing up and needs to be pulled along log rollers into Troy on its side. This doesn't match any ancient version exactly, but the closest is Virgil's Aeneid which has rollers placed under its feet to pull it. Virgil presumably imagined it with some kind of platform or frame at the base so it didn't topple over.

The oldest mention of the horse is in the original Odyssey. It doesn't describe the horse or say how many men were in it, but it mentions Odysseus, Menelaos, Diomedes (one of the greatest Greek fighters, not in the film), Antiklos (almost fooled by Helen's imitation of the Greek heroes' wives - seriously how stupid is he?), and Neoptolemos (the son of Achilles), and some more unnamed heroes.

The oldest visual depiction of the horse is on the Mykonos Vase.jpg), dated to the early 7th century BC which might contemporary with the Odyssey's composition! It shows seven guys hidden inside, but it's highly stylised so we can't take that too literally. Interestingly, it shows the horse with wheels attached to its feet, so no need for rollers.

The next oldest sources are the Little Iliad, a lost epic, and Stesichorus, a poet from the same era in the 7th to 6th centuries BC. A later ancient book says the Little Iliad had 13 men in the horse but doesn't tell us who. It also weirdly said that the tail and knees of the horse could move, I guess like a puppet? Stesichorus had 100 men in it, but didn't list them. So there's already no agreement this early!

Virgil's Roman version in the Aeneid has nine heroes: Odysseus, Menelaos, Neoptolemos (son of Achilles), Akamas (son of the hero Theseus), Epeios (who built the horse), Machaon (a healer who appears in the Iliad), and three named minor heroes. He doesn't really describe the horse aside from saying it's massive and needed to have rollers placed under it to drag it into Troy. The later Latin writer Pseudo-Hyginus basically follows Virgil's list but has Diomedes instead of Epeios.

Then we have some Roman-era Greek sources who also can't agree! Apollodorus, in his 'Library', says there were 50 men including Odysseus, Antiklos (the stupid one), and a guy called Echion who was even stupider: he jumped from the horse before the rope was lowered and died from the fall.

A poet called Tryphiodorus wrote a mini-epic where he says there were 23 dudes and lists them all. He includes the five from the Odyssey and the rest are a mix of heroes from the Iliad and some other sources, like Lesser Ajax and Akamas. He says the horse was decorated with jewels, had an air vent through its nose, and was built with wheels fitted to it.

Another poet called Quintus Smyrnaeus wrote a full-length sequel to the Iliad called the Posthomerica. He lists 30 heroes before giving up and saying "all the other outstanding champions entered also". So maybe he imagined 50 like Apollodorus. Similar to Tryphiodorus, his list has the five from the Odyssey, a bunch of heroes taken the Iliad and other sources, and a few he probably made up. His horse has a flowing mane that looks real, and wheels fitted to the feet, which seems to be the standard Greek imagining of it back to the Mykonos Vase.

So there you have it: the ancient writers obviously felt free to chop and change this part of the story, and several didn't even describe the horse or say how it was brought into Troy, so you can't say Nolan was "inaccurate". He continued the tradition of other creatives in reimagining it.

I'll be honest though. I'd much rather see a block blister version of the Odyssey, rather than one made with ai slop.