It’s hard to overstate the grandiose scale of Christopher Nolan’s new epic adaptation of The Odyssey. I casually checked my watch after I realized that I had seen nearly every action scene shown in the trailers, and to my surprise, the film had barely been on for an hour. And trust me, the remaining two hours have no shortage of absolutely jaw-dropping surprises. Let’s talk about why the scale of the film feels so well-managed despite being so larger than life.
70MM IMAX Film
There have been films released on 70MM IMAX film before. Sinners director Ryan Coogler went viral before that film’s release, breaking down the format, along with many others in the lead-up to the film’s premiere. The concept itself, while only accessible in major hub markets, is not that new. The reason why it’s such a big deal with The Odyssey is that it is the first film in history to be shot entirely in this format. Up until this point, thanks to costs and equipment capabilities, there has always been some form of hybrid formatting when it comes to using 70MM IMAX film.
This is extra special because for every grandiose action scene in the film (and there are plenty to choose from), there is also a really intimate, emotional, character-driven interaction in a smaller environment. And thanks to the new technology that Nolan and co. created for production, the aspect ratio and film quality itself never differ. The smaller character moments are given the same attention to scale as the fantastical sequences with hungry cyclopses and murderous giants.
Location, Location, Location
‘The Odyssey’Credit: Universal Pictures
If there’s one thing about The Odyssey is that it covers an insane amount of geographical ground. Sometimes entire countries are scoured in an elaborate, yet short-lived, on-time sequence. It’s these moments that are a producing and scheduling nightmare. Having to work around everyone’s schedules, time of year, local and international governments, permits, the list goes on. The task itself can often feel far too daunting for even the most seasoned of filmmakers, resulting in a lot of green-screen or blue-screen shoots.
The Odyssey isn’t entirely devoid of these moments. No movie is. Footage of the crew shooting some of the rougher at-sea scenes in Universal Studios’ famous water tank went viral in the months leading up to release. But, as is the rule with all of Nolan’s films, if they can do it on location, they absolutely do it.
What’s extraordinary about the way the film is shot in these elaborate locations is just how much heavy lifting the establishing master shots do in each scene. We’re used to having one, maybe two drone or crane shots to show off the grandiosity of a blockbuster location, before cutting really tight on the actors for the remainder of the scene. Not here, though. Ultra-wide masters are cut back to quite often with extreme attention to detail to actor movements and blocking to maintain continuity. It’s the seemingly small decisions like this that push the scale of The Odyssey over the line from what we’re used to to what we’re blown away by.
The Size of the Cast
‘The Odyssey’Credit: Universal Pictures
For weeks on end in the casting stage, it seemed like every other day there was a new A-list star cast in a major role in the film. The Odyssey employs a very similar technique that Nolan’s previous film, Oppenheimer, did. Its cast is absolutely stacked; however, it isn’t afraid to only use some of the names for incredibly brief periods of time, or stick them in the background of entire sequences that they aren’t the direct focus of.
Big names for the film like Travis Scott, Mia Goth, and Zendaya, who in this day and age are massive audience draws, barely have screen time that exceeds one minute in the entire three-hour total.
Oppenheimer famously has Emily Blunt’s Kitty sit in on Oppenheimer’s deposition in the opening sequence, completely blurred and unreferenced until her character is properly introduced nearly an hour into the film. The same technique is used here with A-list leaders like Robert Pattinson and Anne Hathaway being present throughout the film, but often in more background fields of view.
Pretty Much Everything Else
Don’t let my emphasis on intricate specifics give the impression that some other elements of the film I’m not mentioning aren't firing on all cylinders. Ludwig Göransson continues to outdo himself in his ability to craft such style-fusing oriented work. The score is booming, weird, constant, and thrilling. There is one moment in particular that hinges on full-blown old-school EDM that, given the Ancient Greece setting, somehow manages to fit right in.
A real cherry-on-top of the whole experience that I hope the filmmakers continue to maintain is that, to the best of my recollection, nearly the entire final hour of the film is completely hidden from the promotional material. As of now, everyone still has the opportunity to have as blind a reaction as possible. I cannot wait to hear everyone else’s.
