u/AdDiligent7657

Just saw this and it looks gorgeous. It’s available for preorder on Mutant Records website.

Throughout the movie Odysseus is repeatedly being pitted against his men, most notably Eurylochus. He goes against their advice with the Cyclops, and then again when he orders to follow the coast after Laestrygonians. He has a near mutiny and is separated from the crew on Circe’s island. He conceals the prophecies from his men and the men conceal eating Helios’s cattle from him.

On a first watch you may logically assume it’s because the men protest his questionable judgement that got a lot of people killed along the way. On a repeat watch you realize that the real reason for Odysseus being so distant was the deeply routed guilt about his role in the sacking of Troy. He came out of the battle a completely different man than the one he had been before the war. That’s why he couldn’t participate in the celebrations, why he didn’t sail with Agamemnon, why he appeared borderline suicidal during the Charybdis encounter.

I think the strongest indication of it came early on at the beginning of the journey when Odysseus says: “No one could stand between my men and home. Not even me.” Not only is he framing himself apart from his crew, but in a direct opposition to them. Yes, he is trying to save as many of his men as he can, but he also doesn’t see himself as truly part of the crew, instead going on his own psychological journey throughout the movie.

I really appreciated that the movie gave us a look inside the Trojan Horse and it looked truly miserable.

Imagine being trapped in a wooden coffin for days with a couple dozen other men. There is no room to move or stretch your legs. The horse is black and it’s sitting out in the Mediterranean sun, so the air inside is scorching hot. The men at the bottom were submerged underwater during the high tide and some of them died. Now you and the remaining men have decaying corpses of your comrades trapped inside with you as well. All the while you have no idea when the Trojans might take notice of the Horse, or what they end up deciding to do with it, for all you know they might burn it or let it rot on the beach. And you keep waiting inside for days on end on the off-chance that the Trojans decide to take it into their city and your ruse might work.

The man never stopped believing in his king’s return, even when Penelope and Telemachus were doubting it. He taught Telemachus valuable lessons and told him stories of his father, keeping his memory alive. He was the reason that Odysseus was able to save Telemachus from the murderers, and assisted in the final trial of the suitors. On top of it all, he was the most morally unambiguous character in the whole movie. Low-key an MVP of Ithaca.

Best couple in the show

You could tell the movie was set in a very different world from the one we live in now, more ancient and less populated.

Did anyone else realize that the Horse in this poster is in exactly the same position as in the final shot of the movie? Leaning again the Trojan temple and caught on fire. We just see it from a different angle.

Before seeing the movie you might assume that the poster represents an epic moment of victory with Odysseus leading a charge against the Trojans. After the movie you realize that the Horse on fire really represents Odysseus’s deepest regret, his role in the brutal sacking of Troy. Moreover, it symbolizes the downfall of the entire civilization:

“One man's idea, one man's trick... to break Zeus's Law forever. We live in a world of palaces, trades, language, blinded with beauty... until we broke it.”

I think it’s incredible how even promotional material is imbued with hidden meaning that you can only appreciate after experiencing the movie.

The Odyssey ends with this incredible monologue recontextualizing the role Odysseus and the sacking of Troy played in the downfall of the civilization:

>"A new dawn will break over the darkened world, when our mistakes will once again be forgotten..."

You can read it in a way that the future generations will forget about all the deception and the savagery of war and the tale of Odysseus will be passed on in a different light. You can also read it in a way that once the mistakes of the past have been forgotten and the civilization rises again, humanity will be free to make these mistakes all over again, and so the cycle of collapse and rebuilding will continue.

Compare this to the closing dialogue of Oppenheimer:

>”Albert? When I came to you with those calculations, we thought we might start a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world...”
“I remember it well. What of it?”
“I believe we did.”

In both movies the protagonist ultimately realizes that their actions might have brought on the downfall of the entire civilization. Nolan is consistently interested in deconstructing the role of a heroic figure in his movies (even earlier in The Dark Knight, Memento, etc). That’s what makes the final message of the movie so powerful.

Apparently, that has been a thing since Season 2. How have I not noticed this before?

As much as I’m enjoying Season 3 so far and hope for many more great moments in Seasons 3 and 4, I doubt the series will ever reach the highs of Season 1.

The scene of King Viserys taking the Iron Throne in particular is near perfect in my opinion. The gravitas of the moment, the unspoken motivations of each character conveyed just by their glances, Ramin Djawadi’s score - it all works so well together to deliver one of the most narratively impactful, thematically complex, and plainly emotional scenes of the series. I would go further and say that for me personally, this is the best scene of any ASOIAF show period. It’s up there with the Red Wedding, Tyrion’s trial, or Baelor entering the Trial of Seven. Season 1 was truly special.