r/TheOdyssey

Just watched The Odyssey and I found myself being a little torn about the Trojan Horse scenes.

On the one hand, exploring the brutal reality and logistics of the horse and the horrors that Odysseus and crew had to endure worked really well in the story. And it was a unique perspective that no other movie/show provided I think.

On the other hand, this hyper realism didn't mesh well with the mythological nature of the story.

Like, do you honestly think Homer wrote about the horse intending to imply this literally happened? Like actual guys inside a giant wooden horse? And thought about the logistics of how that would go in practice?

Hey! We're Sonder Media, a student-run independent publication. We just published our review, but one thing we couldn't agree on afterward was whether Nolan's biggest strength here was the adaptation itself or the sheer scale of the filmmaking.

Interested to hear some deeper thoughts. This feels like one of those that's only going to get more interesting after multiple viewings.

Saw it just now.

It did not live up to the hype, at all.

Actors

Mat Damon was 9/10, very good. Would probably be even better if the script was better.

Robert Pattinson, probably 7.5/10, still quite good.

Anna Hathaway a decent 6.5/10.

The rest of the cast was incredibly mediocre and forgettable.

Costumes were downright terrible. The script was boring and forgettable. The visuals were mostly great, and the movie did have some beautiful scenes.

It was a decent movie, but not close to being in my top 50. I'm certainty surprised by its reception and score. If anything, the movie kind of just makes me want to go watch Troy.

Hello The Odyssey enthusiasts,

I was wondering if anyone could help me out with a question regarding Robert Fagles’ translation of The Odyssey. In book 1, page 3 of the online pdf, I wanted to know if “Atrides” was a term used to refer to Agamemnon. I was also wondering who the term “war lord” was referencing. I’d really appreciate any and all help!

The quote reads thus: “Look at Aegisthus now… above and beyond his share he stole Atrides’ wife, he murdered the warlord coming home from Troy though he knew it meant his total ruin.”

How many jokes (or even references) were in the film that only a modern (post-Renaissance) audience would get?

One was about the now 20 years older Helen's face only being able to launch "maybe 500 ships." It was Christopher Marlowe (2,000 years later) who first wrote the phrase "...face that launched 1,000 ships."

I’d argue Menelaus

that horse smelled like shit and piss didnt they think to wash it down first before offering it to their Goddess. Who offers their god a piss and shit smelling statue.?

The Phaeacians didn't made it to the film, but maybe the advanced version of the Laestrygonians are a nod to them? Wasn't the Phaeacians a very advanced civilization?

I just watched the 97 film and I haven't seen a topic posted on it yet; on comparing the two films.
So let's go: A made for 90's TV miniseries compared to the most highly anticipated film of 2026.

Konchalovky's felt more like a cheesy 80's film than a mid 90's one. I guess that's more of a testament to how long he had been making movies for at that point.

The thing that really stood out though was just how much more the emotional parts hit in Konchalovsky's version. Odysseus seeing his mother in the underworld, Calypso having to release Odysseus. Odysseus first meetings with Telemachis and Penelope. It was all much warmer and felt so much realer.

Nuff said!

I’m just kidding, lol I understand Epic the musical is just an adaptation of the original (if you can call it that since it’s been told so many times). I loved the movie and think it was visually stunning. I’m curious to hear everyone else’s thoughts, did it live up to your expectations?

It’s a truly impressive film. The scale was delivered exactly as I expected; it's a very strong visual trip, and maybe it even exceeded some expectations while falling short in others. When the 4K version comes out, I'll definitely rewatch it in top-tier quality.

First of all, the actors play their roles well. Robert Pattinson is one of the most memorable characters, while Matt Damon is convincing and perfectly conveys Odysseus's resilience. I honestly didn't expect the performance Tom Holland delivered.

I wasn't crazy about Penelope... Anne Hathaway has started using too much botox and plastic surgery, so I couldn't really be mesmerized by her beauty. Though, she and Tom Holland actually do look like mother and son... as for Matt Damon and Holland looking like father and son, I don't know what to tell you.

As for the other characters, nobody had significant screen time, and no one really stole the scene either. The actors playing Circe and Eumaeus are both good and their performances were solid. From Odysseus's crew itself, I can't really single anyone out. Also, Charlize Theron is Charlize Theron... Jon Bernthal was good, but to me, he's just the Punisher here too.

Agamemnon's costume is a serious aura farm. Even though Agamemnon really only has a one-minute dialogue with Odysseus, in this scene, behind the magnificent armor, you can see a broken guy, destroyed by his wife's betrayal. I like that Agamemnon advises him to return to Ithaca in disguise and assess the situation first.

In short, a lot of small details have been changed in the film in a way that, in my opinion, suited the story and the movie much better. For instance, the plot twist at the end that the form Athena appeared in was actually the face of the girl whose throat was slit in front of the shrine during the sack of Troy, which was his heaviest memory. So, it might just be his own conscience talking to him in the form of Athena, and the gods have nothing to do with it.

Generally, I like how they executed the idea of the film deliberately walking the line where it's unclear whether the gods are just personifications of natural events or actual real beings. Another detail I liked is that the story is narrated by Odysseus during his dialogues with Calypso; meaning, the audience's journey into Odysseus's story starts from this point, and this Calypso is feeding him lotus flowers like beans. This alone raises suspicions that the monsters and gods don't really exist, and all of this is just the traumatized imagination, or maybe even hallucinations, of a war veteran. On the other hand, you can bring up many counterarguments against this theory and point out, for example, that in the Hades scene, Odysseus learns information he physically couldn't have found out otherwise, which confirms that he really was in those places.

I also have to mention the Laestrygonians scene. Because it was done without heavy CGI effects, it looks extremely real and merciless. I don't know what other movie has such a massacre and slaughter; I seriously felt bad for them :D.

The music gives the film a special atmosphere and is definitely one of its strongest aspects. It's not Hans Zimmer, but it's something else and very original. They could have just used epic ancient Greek-style tunes throughout the whole film, but the music doesn't just fill the background; it tells the story itself and literally explodes in certain moments, fitting the scenes perfectly.

Each location has its own musical score. This is nothing new, but the Cyclops scenes sound heavy and oppressive. The scene was done very well, and there was this insanely loud screaming sound when he gets stabbed in the eye. But then, when he speaks, you can hear him cursing them, telling Poseidon, "They blinded me, take revenge, Father." Although, there were 6 of us guys there, and that was just the gist we got; none of us could normally understand the full sentence. When he speaks, you hear different voices in different tonalities, and I liked that detail—this Cyclops's name, Polyphemus, means "many-voiced," so these scenes definitely had their horror moments. The only thing I didn't like here is that Odysseus's cunning wasn't really shown when he tricks him, gets him drunk, and so on. It only shows in the part where he says, "Let's not slit his throat or we won't be able to get out," and honestly, you don't need to be a genius to figure that out.

Throughout the film, the melodies connected to Odysseus, Penelope, and Ithaca repeat and slowly merge into one another, which makes the emotion of their final reunion even stronger. The sack of Troy scene was well done, and I liked that everything was shown from Odysseus's perspective. Here too, the music is well-chosen for the intense scenes; for instance, the accelerated rhythm during the opening of the gates of Troy seriously tensed me up.

I could write a thousand more things, but I absolutely have to touch on the finale as well. If we compare it to the 2024 film The Return, the slaughter of the suitors scene is probably done better there, although here the episode felt more intense. Telemachus is portrayed as a pretty useless kid throughout the whole movie; while Odysseus is killing 100 men, this guy can't even handle one during that whole time. True, there is a moment in the film where he supposedly saves the situation with his actions, but still. By the way, it's also well-shown that initially, he wants to find out what happened to his father and look for him for more selfish reasons - because he actually just wants to be king himself. Its nolan's top 5 movies in my opinion.

The debate over The Odyssey’s casting goes far beyond a simple quarrel about historical accuracy. At its core, it asks us to consider who we think should stand as the living faces of beauty, wisdom, courage, and heroism.

No one is really suggesting that Homer pictured his characters through the lens of our modern ideas about race, or that every choice to diversify a cast is inherently profound. What’s really at stake is the way mythology is always filtered through the eyes and values of those who come after. Our image of ancient Greece as a world of marble-skinned heroes owes as much to later European art and the ideals of neoclassicism as it does to anything from the ancient world itself.

So the real question isn’t just whether this casting keeps alive a particular vision of the ancient world. It’s whether these actors can truly capture the ideals and inner struggles that figures like Helen, Athena, and Sinon have come to symbolize.

It’s worth asking ourselves: do mythological adaptations owe more to the look of tradition, or to the spirit and meaning behind the myths themselves?

Can someone explain how the Cyclops puppet was used? I’ve seen the image of it clearing showing it as a rigged up massive puppet, but in the movie I’m looking at a perfectly fluid computer generated monster. I get that the wire can be edited out but the joints are clearly clunky in real life

...John Leguizamo's carrer going full circle from punching a guy for killing John Wick's puppy to dropping puppies off a cliff.

Now, I'm not a Nolan fan boy, infact I find most of his movies quite boring (they just aren't for me, not that they aren't good movies), I fell asleep in Dunkirk and with Oppenhiemer I just couldn't keep my attention. One thing I do enjoy though, is Greek Mythology. I own eight different versions of the The Odyssey. So, I was already excited walking into this movie.

I thought the retelling was beautiful, and most of it worked for what it was. The locations felt grand, the actors all did a good job, and all of the key moments from the text came across well. One of my favourite moments was when Circe was turning the soilders into pigs, it was horrifically stunning seeing this brought to life.

A key change that was made, Penelope's rage and attitude, was a great addition. While in the original text it is her son that was more abrasive, it being flipped made total sense for this day and age, it was totally believable that a woman who has sat as an invisible ruler for twenty years would be so rageful. Even if this was purely changed for a modern audience, it felt so natural; I always forget how brilliant Anne is.

Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Jon Berthnal, Hamish Patel, Lupita Nyong'o, and Sam Morton were all brilliant in their roles. And even those I thought were a tad more off kilter, like Tom Holland with his wide-eyed innocence approach, and Matt Damon, his slightly hampered range, gave passable enough performances.

There were a few choices that seemed odd to me though. First of all, the accents, with everyone being all over the place. Even if you want to use American accents, get everyone using the same one, especially those who have always meant to live together on the same island. And the decision to make Clytemnestra and Helen twins was real odd, given that one is meant to be mortal while the other is born from a God. How can you call Helen the most beautiful when there's someone just as beautiful a few islands over? Lupita is very beautiful enough for the role, even if many others disagree, but she didn't need to play two roles.

Also, the score was a tad disappointing, so many times I expected it to be so much bigger that it was.

And that Cyclops.... I'm not sure if I loved it or hated it.

Obviously, this story was condensed, giving it a slightly rushed feeling, but I expected nothing less given that 20 years has to be told.

It was such a delight seeing one of my favourite stories brought to life on such a grand scale. Maybe that makes me bias, but it was money I won't ever regret spending. I probably will watch it again.

Those who also loved this story before, what did you think? Does anyone disagree?