Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Main Cast: Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway
Director: Christopher Nolan
What a journey! I left Puerto Vallarta in a hired car with my lovely driver, Juan Valdez, for what I assumed would be a pleasant spin through the Mexican countryside of a few hours to Tijuana so I could end all this nonsense regarding my entering the USA without my passport, lost when the yacht had its unfortunate demise. Geography was never my strongest subject in school and Mexico seems to be a teensy bit bigger than I thought. Our trip ended up taking several weeks, what with being stopped several times by the federales, an encounter with bandits who seemed to think I might be some sort of worthwhile hostage, becoming an inadvertent drug mule, a most unfortunate encounter with a scorpion in a public toilet, and an 85 mile detour due to a bridge wash out somewhere near the Copper Canyon. But that’s all a story for another time.
Some 10 days after my projected arrival, we finally reached Tijuana. I need to get some beauty rest tonight so that my famous face will more closely resemble my press clippings and headshots that I am going to use for identification at the border crossing tomorrow. (Who knew scorpion stings would cause so much swelling?) Tonight, I am ensconced at a charming little hostel on one of the quainter streets of town. The bistro next door seems a bit rowdy and I’m pretty sure that the theatre where Magdalena Montezuma and I once appeared with a somewhat impolite burro, is now the Pic-n-Sav in the next block. The rather raucous calls from the bistro finally enticed me to leave my room, join some of the locals for a margarita or two and a few autographs on the back of napkins (I always carry a fine point Sharpie). I was just starting to stagger away when I noticed the cinema on the next block showing Christopher Nolan’s new film version of The Odyssey. Having just completed an epic journey of my own, I felt that it was a sign from the Olympian gods that I should take in the evening showing.
I have heard that The Odyssey was meant to be experienced in IMAX. Here in Tijuana its showing in something called OMAX which seemed rather like ordinary projection to me, although my seat did shake a bit during some of the fight scenes when swords and armor were clashing and various brass instruments were blaring on the soundtrack. Perhaps I shall catch it again in a larger format on my return home to LA, but I’m not making major plans as of yet. Anyway, the movie is an epic that’s allowed to be an epic at nearly three hours long, yet expertly paced so there’s no drag or slow bits (I didn’t check my watch once during the feature and that’s a very good sign). It invites comparison to The Lord of the Rings, Dune, and Lawrence of Arabia – each a monumental achievement in creating a fully realized world and using landscape as a major character in the story.
For those unfamiliar with one of the foundational texts of the Western Canon, The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus (Matt Damon), King of Ithaca, who sails with Agammemnon to Troy for the Trojan War and who, with his trickster’s brain, creates the ruse of the Trojan Horse which finally brings the war to an end. Odysseus and his crew, having angered Athena (personified by Zendaya) during the sack of Troy, and Poseidon for various issues, are thrown off course on their return journey and thus begin a ten-year quest to return home. They experience various adventures and delays including meeting the cyclops, the witch Circe (Samantha Morton), the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron), the twin terrors of Scylla and Charybdis, the fatal sirens, and the gates of the underworld. Meanwhile, back in Ithica, his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland) try to maintain power in a society where women are chattel to be possessed by men. Penelope is busy holding off a raft of boorish suitors led by Antinous (Robert Pattinson), all longing to be the next king. The tale is told non-linearly, cutting back and forth between the sea voyage and the home front, and relating the catastrophic end of the Trojan War in various stages of flashback.
The Odyssey is not a faithful adaptation of Homer’s epic. It reorders the events somewhat, bolsters some characters, lessens others. This has led to a whole lot of classicists, finding themselves culturally relevant, sniping about everything from the turns of phrase Nolan has chosen for his characters’ communication to the historical accuracy of bits of armor. The needs of an epic poem composed nearly 3,000 years ago for the ancient Greeks to carry on mythic stories of the Mycenaean civilization and the needs of an epic film designed for 21st century audiences are not the same. It’s an adaptation, an impression of the source material. The question is whether it succeeds as a film and, in my opinion, it very much does.
The characters speak in relatively modern cadence and vocabulary and with standard American accents. This makes them understood easily by a modern audience so we can immediately understand their conflicts and interior lives that a more formal language might cover up. I suppose they could have taught the cast Mycenaean Greek and filmed it in the language original to the period but that might have been a bit difficult for most of us to make out, and modern movie audiences are not fond of subtitles. This allows the actors to connect for us and deliver some excellent performances. Nolan has cast familiar actors who have aged into their fifties in the key roles and they now have weathered, lived-in faces. These are people who have known joy and fear and sorrow and who are unafraid to show us the marks these have left on faces and bodies. Anne Hathaway, in particular, is excellent as Penelope, patiently waiting, fuming that her status as a woman prevents her from doing what needs to be done, and using her wits, which match those of her husband, to hold everything together. The best performance, however, is Samantha Morton’s interpretation of the witch Circe. Her turning of Odysseus’ men into swine is a small masterpiece of psychosexual horror, both seductive and terrifying. Give that woman an Oscar nomination now.
For the most part, Nolan has chosen not to anthropomorphize the Greek gods which are such an important part of the story. Instead, he uses Hoyte van Hoytema’s impressive cinematography of wave, wind, water, and land to create a feeling of supernatural force, just beyond what we can physically sense and which is more powerful than any human we could see. The one exception is Athena who does show up in the person of Zendaya. As the film progresses, we learn why. Actually seeing her in human form lessens her somewhat as compared to Zeus and Poseidon and Hades. The choices of locations and the production design of Ruth De Jong create an incredibly tactile world, full of texture and color and fully realized as being very different from the world which we inhabit. Water, in particular the wine dark sea, rarely seen as blue and calm, is always a force far greater than the strength and skills of Odysseus and his men. Ludwig Goransson’s score, full of archaic instrumentation, also helps with the world building.
The Odyssey also feels incredibly political. Although the script was completed prior to the second Trump election and filming began just a few weeks after the new administration took power, the film feels in some ways like an allegory of life in our current society. The most fundamental law of Mycenaean society is presented as xenia – the law of Zeus. The requirement of hospitality to the stranger. In a world where travel was difficult and dangerous, successful journeys required the kindness of strangers. When this law is forgotten or controverted, their society begins to break down. It would take a fairly thick skull not to draw parallels between this and what is happening to us as the administration has become more and more intolerant of immigrant communities.
The Odyssey is good. The craftsmanship impeccable. The cast is committed and pretty much at the top of their game (although I do wish Matt Damon were a little more exterior and a little less interior in some sequences. I would have liked to know more about what he was thinking). By all means go see it. In IMAX if you can, but I suppose OMAX will do.
Claustrophobic horse belly. Caged crow. Gratuitous Eliot Page. Armored giants. Sheep trick. Burning temples. Dying dog. Supercilious suitors. Ear wax. Plucked bow. Plucked eyebrows.
Originally from Seattle Washington, land of mist, coffee and flying salmon, Mrs. Norman Maine sprang to life, full grown like Athena, from Andy’s head during a difficult period of life shortly after his relocation to Alabama.
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