notes for the weekend: the odyssey

I am extremely #blessed to live right near one of 45 TRUE IMAX theaters in the world (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: AMC or other brand’s “IMAX” is just a LIEmax). Even so, it’s been TOUGH to scoop up tickets to see The Odyssey, as folks from out of state are traveling to Indy and pouncing on tickets as soon as they’re available. I’d wanted to save myself for the true IMAX experience, and Nolan intended, so my late take on the film is redundant, I know.

But here are some initial thoughts/questions.

• First, how self-consciously was Nolan in changing the moral code of the Greco-Roman world to the point where “Zeus’s Code” are actually just quotations of Jesus? Surely, somewhat. But does he know the “Zeus’s Code” of this film is actually pretty directly in contrast to stoic Greco/Roman values, and way more aligned with early church values, a point made wittily by asher?

  

• The Hero’s Journey has always been part of Nolan’s film scripts, but the really explicit baptism/grace themes are definitely self-consciously Christian. But why? To be palatable?

• (My hunch: Nolan is writing another anti-war film with the Odyssey, and he finds Christian rhetoric the most useful tool toward that end. He can’t find anything in the stoic Greco/Roman world that would support an anti-nukes/war message, so he had to dub the Greek/Roman storyline of pursuing glory in the afterlife with Jesus’ sermon on the Mount.)

• One of the remarkable things this film did was straddle the line between the truly horrifying bits of the Odyssey and explicit gore. Happily, it never succame to any gore/video game blood. Bold move, Nolan. Love you for it. You showed that things can be far more horrifying when we’re far more restrained than the CGI world allows us to be. Even my horror-loving friend felt creeped out by some scenes…and that without any CGI blood.

• Hats off to Nolan for seeing IMAX technology as a tool to bring back “going to the movies” as a community experience. It’s brilliant, and it’s working. The whole experience is clearly orchestrated to make you fall in love with going to the movies. From the moment you step into the theater, you are introduced personally by the staff, who tell you which film reel you’re about to see (#5), how long it is (11 miles), and what an incredible experience you’re about to have. This is going to tip the scales toward movie-going, and change our culture for good.

• The side characters of the Odyssey steal the show, which is really fun. Circe the witch was my favorite, and I loved her Dickensian twist on the character (or maybe Dickens stole it from Homer. I can’t remember). Bill Irwin as the Cyclops is incredible. Zendaya is perfect as Athena. Matt Damon is almost a foil to everyone else. Not in a bad way.

• I don’t think the ending was supposed to be ambiguous, but I didn’t feel as clear as I wanted to feel when the movie was over about what had actually happened. I don’t know if Nolan is encouraging this or not. Everything else he does seems to encourage speculative endings, so I’d be a little surprised if no part of him wanted the ending to be more of a question mark than a period for at least some of us. The slow ones.

I’m going to see it again in a few weeks, because it was the best movie-going experience I’ve ever had, and will likely ever have again. It was like being on a 3-hour rollercoaster. I forgot what reality was.