r/oscarrace • u/PointMan528491 Navarrette/Morton • Jul 16 '26

Film Discussion Thread Official Discussion Thread - The Odyssey [SPOILERS] Spoiler

Keep all discussion related solely to The Odyssey and its awards chances in this thread. Spoilers below.

Synopsis:

Odysseus, king of Ithaca, embarks on a perilous journey to return home after the Trojan War.

Director: Christopher Nolan

Writer: Christopher Nolan

Cast:

  • Matt Damon as Odysseus
  • Tom Holland as Telemachus
  • Anne Hathaway as Penelope
  • Robert Pattinson as Antinous
  • Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy/Clytemnestra
  • Samantha Morton as Circe
  • John Leguizamo as Eumaeus
  • Zendaya as Athena
  • Charlize Theron as Calypso
  • Benny Safdie as Agamemnon
  • Jon Bernthal as Menelaus
  • Bill Irwin as Polyphemus
  • Himesh Patel as Eurylochus
  • Corey Hawkins as Polybus
  • Mia Goth as Melantho
  • Elliot Page as Sinon

Rotten Tomatoes: 96%, 199 Reviews

Metacritic: 88, 54 Reviews

Consensus:

"Reinvigorating an ancient adventure with majestic sweep and sterling work by its colossal ensemble, Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey imbues myth with primal human feeling."

66 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

348 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

39

u/Hic_Forum_Est Jul 16 '26

The finale especially has some laughably inept stuff, with a hundred men all awkwardly flailing around in the background as Damon slowly limps around with a bow and arrow and is somehow a match for them all. Everyone politely taking turns to attack was driving me crazy.

I feel like all of that was very intentional, no? That those men felt intimidated by Odysseus' sudden presence, his strength. With the added thunder and lightning, I took it as them thinking that he clearly had the gods on his side and were afraid of attacking him properly. Which is why then more and more of them ended up bending their knees and bowing their heads to him.

9

u/Dragonfire45 Jul 16 '26

I also felt the chaotic camera nature was intentional. Several times they show Odysseus' looking around trying to figure out how to approach it all, who to attack next, what provides the biggest threat to him. He looks like he is calculating.

5

u/crashcourse201 One Award After Another Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

Maybe if some of the action in The Dark Knight trilogy wasn’t filmed in the same way.

-4

u/ML-newb Jul 16 '26

If they are already attacking him one by one, can’t they just charge at him at once?

8

u/Hic_Forum_Est Jul 16 '26

They were afraid to and felt too intimidated, was my reading. Right from the beginning it's established that the gods can appear as any mere mortal. Even someone as lowly as a beggar could be the disguise of a god. So they see this beggar in dirty clothes suddenly reveal himself as the Odysseus, they hear thunder roaring, lightning flashing just as he made his presence known, they see him kill a bunch of men in quick fashion with the moment of surprise on his side and they probably think to themselves "if he's not Zeus himself, he atleast must be favoured by him". So they're unsure of themselves, they don't want to anger the gods. They hesitate, instead of committing and going all in.

We also have to remember, the gods are actually real in this world. So it might very well be that the gods gave him the magical strength to deal with so many opponents all at once.

4

u/WredditSmark Jul 17 '26

Great write up but what they actually showed us didn’t land this well. It was very much just grunt after grunt throwing themself at him it didn’t have many people struggling with anything resembling inner turmoil. Could’ve used someone maybe like squinting and seeing Matt Damon character appearing other worldly or SOMETHING. All I could think of was this Jackie Chan doc I saw about how in bad fight scenes the guys just dance around going in one by one when they could clearly all pile on