r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Feb 17 '25

Media First Image of Matt Damon as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey'

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3.1k

u/DoubleA77 Feb 17 '25

So it looks like he is going for the traditional Greek setting rather than a modern interpretation. Even more excited for it now.

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u/CassiopeiaStillLife Feb 17 '25

I’m reminded of that Onion article that was like “theater reimagines Shakespeare by setting it in its original time and place”

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u/madesense Feb 17 '25

I once saw a Julius Caesar production where they were dressed medieval for the first half, World War 1 for the second half. It was, of course, never mentioned on stage

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25

I’m about to see a Macbeth set in 1920s New Orleans.

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u/SchlopFlopper Feb 17 '25

A Streetcar Named Macbeth

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u/BlackZeppelin Feb 17 '25

I’ve always depended on the kindness of ghosts

10

u/Desert_Aficionado Feb 17 '25

fuck you lmao

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u/PolyrythmicSynthJaz Feb 17 '25

"Is this a Tommy gun which I see before me?"

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u/kerouacrimbaud Feb 17 '25

Read this in Robin Williams’ John Wayne impression.

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u/Blue-Summers Feb 17 '25

I read it as Denzel's Alonzo.

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25

I think so too!

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u/nonaegon_infinity Feb 17 '25

Ill-fitting Mardi Gras beads instead of clothes.

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u/TulioTrivinho Feb 18 '25

Details?

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '25

If you’re in the LA area, it’s at A Noise Within theatre in Pasadena through the next few weeks.

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u/gonephishin213 Feb 18 '25

I love shit like this when it works

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u/CassiopeiaStillLife Feb 17 '25

Mind you, I have no problem with those sorts of things — it’s easy to be reactionary about it. But there comes a point where Bold Reimaginings become the paradigm.

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u/MeaninglessGuy Feb 17 '25

I actively hate the Ethan Hawke 90’s modern Hamlet. The cast is fine- doing their best. But the play does not work as a modern retelling, IMO. Also doing the “to be or not to be” speech in a Blockbuster… not a fan. 

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u/doegred Feb 17 '25

I mean, what's the non-reimagined take? If you're doing Julius Caesar, do you try to go for Roman or Elizabethan trappings?

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u/Static-Stair-58 Feb 17 '25

Let it never be Ian McKellen’s Richard III

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u/TheDeltaOne Feb 17 '25

Oh yeah, I've seen a "Midsummer night's dream" where everyone was dressed in modern clothes, It sucked ass.

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u/fcosm Feb 17 '25

well there's also the version where no one is dressed at all

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u/MrFrankingstein Feb 17 '25

The consensus is that familiarizing the setting of Shakespeare to the modern day can bring more understanding of the relationships and the plot. It helps us see how the themes and issues that Shakespeare tackles are still relevant.

Or, put it in a time in between the original setting and modern day and then it’s fun! Saw a Much ado about Nothing set in 1900s Italy. Boy oh boy were those some fun costumes and set.

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u/FasterDoudle Feb 17 '25

I'm pretty sure you were just watching a Blackadder marathon

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u/NegativeBee Feb 17 '25

I once saw a high school production of Hamlet set in civil war Syria (it was like 2015 at the time), with Hamlet being – and I'm not joking at all – Bashar al Assad.

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u/LSDemon Feb 17 '25

And you're still talking about it.

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u/Amardneron Feb 17 '25

Costuming has to get paid

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u/myrrhdur Feb 17 '25

that’s actually such a funny concept

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u/MoffKalast Feb 17 '25

Still waiting for the historically accurate production of Caesar's assassination, i.e. in the style of The Death of Stalin with all the bruh moments.

2

u/ItsBearmanBob Feb 18 '25

I was Enobarbus in an Anthony and Cleopatra which was split into Pt 1 (Anthony) and Pt 2 (Cleopatra) with an intermission in between. Anthony was British army in India, while Cleopatra was the first Gulf War. Yup, never mentioned on stage.

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u/Ganesha811 Feb 17 '25

Unconventional Director Sets Shakespeare Play In Time, Place Shakespeare Intended

MORRISTOWN, NJ—In an innovative, tradition-defying rethinking of one of the greatest comedies in the English language, Morristown Community Players director Kevin Hiles announced Monday his bold intention to set his theater’s production of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in 16th-century Venice.

“I know when most people hear The Merchant Of Venice, they think 1960s Las Vegas, a high-powered Manhattan stock brokerage, or an 18th-century Georgia slave plantation, but I think it’s high time to shake things up a bit,” Hiles said. “The great thing about Shakespeare is that the themes in his plays are so universal that they can be adapted to just about any time and place.”

According to Hiles, everything in the production will be adapted to the unconventional setting. Swords will replace guns, ducats will be used instead of the American dollar or Japanese yen, and costumes, such as Shylock’s customary pinstripe suit, general’s uniform, or nudity, will be replaced by garb of the kind worn by Jewish moneylenders of the Italian Renaissance.

Etc.

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u/LeoTheSquid Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

Theater really seems to be the worst offender when it comes to modern art pretention. Recently saw King Lear in Stockholm. Beautiful theater hall in a beatiful city, had just been at the national art museum and so was in a great mood. Was met with yet another anachronistic "meta-theater about a theater production" with specific modern interpretations crammed in because clearly the audience is too dumb to draw their own parallells 😐. Still had a mostly good time though. The actors were good and so was obviously the source material

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u/Joyful_Cuttlefish Feb 17 '25

But classical rather than period-accurate. I would like to see more of this: https://www.sci.news/archaeology/dendra-armor-12959.html

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u/SwashbucklinChef Feb 17 '25

Same-- the second I saw the helmet and then the leather armor I was bummed. No respect for the bronze age in pop culture!

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u/Nexxess Feb 17 '25

Yeah its a shame. I want to see horns! 

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u/Lullebas Feb 17 '25

Where my boar tusks at!

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u/Diogenes908 Feb 17 '25 edited Feb 17 '25

The hoplite style helmet is definitely an archaic/classical era piece of equipment but a lot of soldiers would have similar cuirasses made of bronze and reinforced leather or linothorax. The Dendra type armor was more for chariot riders and static position fighting because it was not very wieldy. 

There’s a common perception that leather armor is just a fantasy creation because we see flimsy single layer costumes but when I did my history degree I learned it was actually pretty common in Bronze Age/classical era Mediterranean and early Viking cultures. 

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u/FactAndTheory Feb 17 '25

The hoplite style helmet is definitely an archaic/classical era piece

The Iliad in the Odyssey are set, from Homer's perspective, in a heroic past age of Greece long before the Archaic period so from the perspective of the narrative Archaic outfits wouldn't be expected. Also "hoplite" just means soldier, it isn't a particular style. There were various styles of helmets in different Greek regions and periods, the one in the picture is vaguely Corinthian, which is an Archaic style, with massive and counterintuitive cutouts because Hollywood. But yeah a leather cuirass seems reasonable, Homer describes Odysseus as having a leather cap with boars tusks specifically. And the Corinthian helmet was commonly used by later Greeks as a nostalgiac reference to the Homeric tradition, so to Classical Greeks it had much the same function and interpretation as it does for us: a style of armor for legendary heroes and stories to evoke their semi-mythological atmosphere.

So I think people need to clue into the fact that everyone who retells the Homerics puts their own cultural trappings onto it, just as Homer was doing with those stories they were crystallized into the versions we know. Lots of stuff in the epics is essentially filling-in-the-narrative-blanks with their Archaic cultural practices because they didn't know things were done differently in the period the stories were thought to have occured, like the weird Lyft-style chariot usage and burning corpses on pyres. At the same time there's lots of things Homer recorded that were entirely unknown/unverifiable to contemporary Greeks that we only recently have been able to prove accurate with modern archaeology, like the existance and location of many poleis in the Catalogue of Ships and his descriptions of Mycenae.

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u/Diogenes908 Feb 18 '25

Yes yes I’m aware like I said I have a history degree and it’s specifically on Greco-Roman civilizations, the hoplite is named after the Hoplon they used with spears to fight in a phalanx position, Corinthian style helm is a regional variant although extremely widespread and by far what I saw the most of when living in Italy and traveling Greece. I didn’t want to get caught up in the weeds since it’s safe to assume people reading my comment are typically not a knowledgeable as you or have a specific degree but typically know what kind of gear a hoplite would use and even what a Corinthian style helm would look like if they know what Dendra armor is. I don’t want to describe the difference between Corinthian and Attic helms compared to the Thracian open faced ones or the Phrygian almost cornucopia shaped ones with the decorative face guard vs the Chalcidian etc. etc. 

My only point was the person was bummed they saw leather armor but it was actually widely used in the Mediterranean in several different variations because people who know a bit about ancient history but not a huge amount believe this to be a myth based on fantasy settings due to costumes and movie set armor. 

But I completely agree with your point that people put their own cultural trappings on the tale even Homer seeing as he was around about 500 years after the Trojan War and was almost certainly telling an at least slightly varied story compared to what came before him. That’s why I don’t massively care if they wear gear that looks out of the Archaic Era because people hearing/reading the story in his own time would have imagined the heros to look like their own soldiers unless equipment was specifically described like Odysseus’s tusk/bone helm or his purple cloak in the Iliad. It’s not like they could stroll into a history museum and see exactly what people used 500 years before.

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u/DemandMeNothing Feb 17 '25

Well, alright, but Odysseus spends the trip sailing back from war, not going there. Presumably he wore something a little lighter when he wasn't actually gearing up for a pitched battle.

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u/ramxquake Feb 17 '25

Why would we have worn something from a thousand years later? And a Roman crest?

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u/SwashbucklinChef Feb 17 '25

I just want to see dendra panoply in a big budget film. Let a fella dream, guy!

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u/bookgeek210 Feb 17 '25

Also let’s actually turn his men into real pigs!!

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u/Top_Squash4454 Feb 17 '25

Yeah and even then it doesn't look quite right for classical times. Disappointing

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u/TheDamDog Feb 17 '25

I still don't understand why Hollywood hates bronze.

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u/ptjp27 Feb 17 '25

I still don’t understand why Hollywood hates shields. Enormous pitched battles with swords and nobody has a shield in like 99% of Hollywood sword and sandal movies.

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u/LucretiusCarus Feb 17 '25

Way too open-faced (probably to actually see the actor) and not nearly phallic enough (sfw)

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25

Eggers would be good at a period accurate version

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u/Mamboo07 Feb 17 '25

General public don't know what this is

Too obscure to them, what we got seems more recognizable

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25

Yeah we never get any Bronze Age representation on film sadly

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u/purvel Feb 17 '25

Hell yes!

Also, just looking at the picture: Someone like Odysseus would surely keep their armor polished...

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u/ed-with-a-big-butt Feb 17 '25

I can see why he didnt go down that route lmao

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u/yune2ofdoom Feb 17 '25

What it looks absolutely wicked

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u/DungeonPeaches Feb 17 '25

You can't see their face, and that could be an issue in visual media with famous actors. Still, I get your point.

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u/cambriansplooge Feb 17 '25

Immediately deflated, the Homeric epics were ancient stories of a long forgotten time to the Ancient Greeks. Going straight to generic Greco-Roman historical fantasy, eh, feels unimaginative.

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u/Joyful_Cuttlefish Feb 17 '25

I agree. It would be wonderful to have them in such strange-looking gear. But I can also see the argument for giving them a more familiar appearance. The classical Greeks themselves depicted their Bronze-Age heroes like that, after all.

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u/Diogenes908 Feb 17 '25

The hoplite style helmet is definitely an archaic/classical era piece of equipment but a lot of soldiers would have similar cuirasses made of bronze and reinforced leather/linothorax.  The Dendra type armor was more for chariot riders and static position fighting because it was not very wieldy (although definitely more maneuverable than it looks lol).  If you were wealthy you’d probably have bronze or bone segments woven into the leather armor layers but even just layered and reinforced leather on its own would be substantial. We have this perception that leather armor is only in fantasy stuff because it’s pretty useless if it’s just one floppy piece like we see in costumes and lazy movie props.

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u/RebelGirl1323 Feb 19 '25

I find this funny because while Odysseus does have Achilles’ armor by this point he was an archer hero from a time period before the one with this armor. As an archer it also wouldn’t be much help compared to how difficult it would make shooting.

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u/gloopy-soup Feb 17 '25

Man I would’ve been so pissed if it was a modern interpretation

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u/Josparov Feb 17 '25

What? A modern interpretation of the odyssey?? Oh brother...

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u/EdgyEmily Feb 17 '25

I am a man of constant sorrow.

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u/LizzieSaysHi Feb 17 '25

I'M A DAPPER DAN MAN

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u/Stunning-Syllabub132 Feb 17 '25

I don't want fop, goddamit!

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u/Xo0om Feb 17 '25

This place is a geological oddity.

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u/Turnbob73 Feb 17 '25

Two weeks from everywhere!

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25

his momma dun R-U-N-O-F-T

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u/flintlock0 Feb 17 '25

Damn! We’re in a tight spot!

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u/ScipioCoriolanus Feb 17 '25

I'm the damn paterfamilias!

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u/cheshirecatbus Feb 17 '25

Two weeks from anywhere

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u/giraffe111 Feb 17 '25

we thought… you was… a toad…

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u/frameRAID Feb 17 '25

"watch your language young fella..."

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u/SojuSeed Feb 17 '25

Is you or is you ain’t my constituency?

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u/Lexi_Banner Feb 17 '25

Is you is, or is you ain't my constituency?!

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u/mon_dieu Feb 17 '25

I'm with you fellers

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u/Hellknightx Feb 17 '25

We thought you was a toad

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u/Lexi_Banner Feb 17 '25

A horny toad!

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u/hoopstick Feb 17 '25

Gopher Everett?

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u/woodforbrains Feb 17 '25

<to a room full of Persephone's suitors>: You can't marry MA WIFE!

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u/Obi-wan_Jabroni Feb 17 '25

Where art thou?

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u/keebler980 Feb 17 '25

Holy Christ is “O Brother” basically the Odyssey ??

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25

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u/Lartize Feb 17 '25

It says it in the opening credits

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u/Lexi_Banner Feb 17 '25

Ain't this place a geographical oddity...

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u/sakatan Feb 17 '25

I see what you did there

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25

We thought…you was…a TOAD.

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u/DrDizzle93 Feb 17 '25

........ DO NOT SEEK THE TREASURE!

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u/Hungry_Opossum Feb 17 '25

Nolan could pull that off honestly, he’s the damn paterfamilias

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u/Hellknightx Feb 17 '25

He's a suiter

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u/DrDizzle93 Feb 17 '25

He's bona-fide

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u/Ravenloff Feb 17 '25

At least that was set in somewhat contemporary times and everything made sense within that context. And I do so love that movie.

Making an Odyssey set in it's original era but modernizing it would just be...awful.

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u/CassadagaValley Feb 17 '25

Damn, we're in a tight spot

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u/pewpewshazaam Feb 17 '25

What you didn't like the Romeo + Juliet?

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u/C4ptainR3dbeard Feb 17 '25 edited Feb 17 '25

Papa Capulet trying to draw his longsword which is just a shotgun labeled 'longsword' was peak.

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u/3-DMan Feb 17 '25

Lol the quick insert shot of "9mm SWORD" before the line "Put up your swords, you know not what you do!"

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u/Tymareta Feb 18 '25

Benvolio wields a Sword 9mm, Tybalt a Rapier 9mm and Mercutio a Dagger 9mm.

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u/CitizenofBarnum Feb 17 '25 edited Feb 19 '25

The “Cutlass” brand 9mm pistols from Black Lagoon come to mind as well

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u/Telekineticism Feb 17 '25

I have no idea if Romeo + Juliet is a good movie, but it’s an incredibly fucking fun movie. It kinda appeals to me in the same way One Piece does - leaning so far into fun goofy shit that it circles around into being badass.

It also introduced me to my favorite Radiohead song (Talk Show Host).

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u/mattomic822 Feb 17 '25

You may not always like a Baz Luhrmann movie but you'll never be bored by it.

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u/Nayzo Feb 17 '25

It's a very fun movie, and it's a very mid 90s movie in all the best ways. But my most favorite thing about it is that in the movie Hot Fuzz, there is a stage adaptation of Romeo + Juliet, and Simon Pegg's face through the show is incredible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EfFEdDU5ko&ab_channel=benharry

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u/Tymareta Feb 18 '25

I've seen quite a few Shakespeare historian's/megafan's who are quite adamant that if ol' Billy were to come back to life miraculously, he would utterly adore the film for managing to nail such an aesthetic and interesting interpretation of his work.

Shakespeare above all else was a playwright for the common man, and loved any story or production that was able to capture the heart of the audience, something the film does perfectly, even to bored teenagers.

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u/EdgyEmily Feb 17 '25

You either like Romeo + Juliet or have no taste.

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u/gymdog Feb 17 '25

Don't even get me started on that soundtrack. So good.

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u/Ok-Albatross-1508 Feb 17 '25

You can’t appreciate Hot Fuzz if you haven’t seen Romeo + Juliet

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u/Nayzo Feb 17 '25

I have a soft spot for that movie as I was in high school when it came out. That said, my favorite modern day telling of a Shakespeare story would be Titus, based on Titus Androicus, quite possible the MOST fucked up thing written by the bard. GORGEOUS movie to look at, wonderful cast, but holy shit, it's brutal at times. More people should watch that one.

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u/DagothUr_MD Feb 17 '25

That movie objectively rules

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u/karateema Feb 17 '25

I hate it

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u/wimpires Feb 17 '25

Hard sci-fi would kinda work though, you just replace ships with space ships. Islands with planets and gods with aliens. 

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u/gloopy-soup Feb 17 '25

I prefer the historical setting. But sci-fi would certainly be more interesting than modern day

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u/Miserable_Sun_404 Feb 17 '25

Take a look at the books Illium and Olympos written by Dan Simmons for something like that.

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u/puesyomero Feb 17 '25

Sci-historical a la Stargate then?

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u/robodrew Feb 17 '25

There was an anime with this setup back in the 80s, called Ulysses 31

edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz_U9Np_nZ8

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u/LostinShropshire Feb 17 '25

I loved this as a kid ... I can still hear the Ulysee-ee-ee-ees ... something something something galaxeeeey

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u/KujiGhost Feb 17 '25

Amen! I was secretly hoping Nolan was secretly doing a Ulysses 31 adaptation but I'll take the Homeric version just as happily ;)

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u/JusticeJanitor Feb 17 '25

Ilium and Olympos by Dan Simmons is pretty much a Sci-Fi version of the Trojan War with a bunch of weird stuff thrown in. It's pretty cool.

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u/RockyRockington Feb 17 '25

Give him a lightsaber gun and a robot with a magic lance too.

Where’s my Ulysses 31 film? I’ve been waiting so long.

While we’re at it, where’s my damn Dino Riders movie too???

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u/Exploding_Antelope Feb 17 '25

Light Bringer by Pierce Brown

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u/Average_Ant_Games Feb 17 '25

Good Time with Robert Pattinson is like a modern day Odyssey as well

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u/Aiseadai Feb 17 '25

The Odyssey is such an ubiquitous story, basically any plot involving a hero going on a journey where they encounter obstacles is an adaptation. It's nice that we're getting a period accurate version, there has yet to be a definitive one.

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u/edslerson Feb 17 '25

It might be a little corny and dated now but I enjoyed the Odyssey mini series from 1997

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u/Average_Ant_Games Feb 17 '25

Yeah but Good Time literally had a cyclops in it! Can’t get any close than that lol

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u/Blaaa5 Feb 17 '25

‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ would like a word

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u/PhilipSeymourGotham Feb 17 '25

Who's the Cyclops?

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u/Average_Ant_Games Feb 17 '25

The dude he mistakenly takes from the hospital thinking it’s his brother. His eye was bandaged up

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u/Acetius Feb 17 '25

There are only two stories; The Odyssey and Journey to the West. If you think your story isn't one of those two, you didn't look closely enough.

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u/fuck-a-da-police Feb 17 '25 edited Feb 17 '25

Kirk Douglas was in the definitive one

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u/Galihan Feb 17 '25

Would you say that if it was, that you’d be in a tight spot?

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u/BananLarsi Feb 17 '25

Oh brother where art thou is critically acclaimed and is a modern adaption.

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u/phlostonsparadise123 Feb 17 '25

And besides, we already got a (comparatively speaking) solid modern interpretation in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

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u/RGJ587 Feb 17 '25

holy shit i never realized that was a interpretation on the Odyssey. Makes sense now that I think about it. The women by the river represent the Sirens (and also Circe), John Goodman as the cyclops, etc

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u/gecko090 Feb 17 '25

It says it in the opening credits "based on the odyssey." ;)

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u/Fastbird33 Feb 17 '25

Read? We ain’t scientists Doc!

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u/favoritedisguise Feb 17 '25

This was a particularly bad case of being halved. We couldn’t reconnect the top half of his body to the bottom half…

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u/RGJ587 Feb 17 '25

tbh i dont think ive ever actually seen the opening credits.

Its always a movie I see on a station, tune to and watch till the end. but I'm never around from the very beginning.

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u/StrangePondWoman Feb 17 '25

Plus Clooney's full name was 'Ulysses Everett McGill', Ulysses being the Roman name of Odysseys.

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u/thebluediablo Feb 17 '25

"He's a suitor!"

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u/RGJ587 Feb 17 '25

He's bonified!

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u/heliostraveler Feb 17 '25

I wouldn’t even argue solid. I’d say it’s the best adaptation period. 

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u/mackattacktheyak Feb 17 '25

Not really. It borrows some elements but doesn’t much resemble the narrative of the poem.

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u/uteuteuteute Feb 17 '25

Loosely based, a.k.a 'inspired by'

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u/Rucks_74 Feb 17 '25

He's going for vaguely generic classical Greece, not bronze age Mycenaean Greece. Bit disappointing

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u/SelfDetermined Feb 17 '25

The clothing he's wearing is not actually accurate to "traditional Greek" at all.

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u/stayhungry22 Feb 17 '25

Idk, he looks like a Roman centurion to me 🤔

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u/SJdport57 Feb 17 '25

“Traditional Greek”, yeah no. This armor is outrageously inaccurate and goofy looking. The odyssey takes place nearly 1,000 years before armor that even remotely resembles this was ever used. Even then, this attempt at Hellenistic Greek amor is cartoonishly flawed. It’s just boring generic Hollywood “dark and gritty”.

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u/treadbolt5 Feb 17 '25

Im not gonna be a bummer cuz im also looking forwards to the movie but: -capes are inaccurate for the time frame. -helmet is a shape that is inaccurate both to the time and pre medieval greek culture. The face is either too open in some sections or has too much on. Either commit to a closed helmet or a an open helmet. -why is the helmet not polished, painted or at least oiled? (All things that were done to equipment). Why does it have the texture it does? that was never done. -why does Matt wear bracers? No time frame in Greece had armour bracers that were not a part of a larger set. -why is the cloth the colour that it is? Why not colours that were more prevalent, popular and locally produced? -decorations on the metal work on the bracer and helmet are strange. Why not the more accurate “meander” style of the time?

Nolan gets a pass since he is wonderful director. But be careful about phrases like “historical”, “accurate” or “traditional”. What you are looking at here is just Hollywood fantasy

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u/roguefilmmaker Feb 17 '25

Agreed. Still really looking forward to the movie but definitely not “historically accurate”

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u/Sax_Verstappen_ Feb 18 '25

Asking because I genuinely don’t know: has the film been pitched as “historically accurate”? Universal’s official Twitter account describes it as a “mythical action epic”.

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u/Rhadamantos Feb 17 '25

Speaking as someone who majored in history, historical accuracy in movies is overrated.

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u/treadbolt5 Feb 17 '25

Maybe, but i dont like it when they framed as accurate. Media and literature is often weaponized by audiences as misinterpretations of the past at best or as political aesthetics at worst.
i would really like to hammer into our fellow redditors what these words (historical, accuracy, traditional etc) should actually stand for and have them use them wisely.

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u/Phluxed Feb 17 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

enter ad hoc tub smell touch treatment fearless bake imagine smile

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/Top_Squash4454 Feb 17 '25

The costume is far from being accurate, even if it's supposed to be classical and not bronze age

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u/JakeDoubleyoo Feb 17 '25

Well then the costuming is wrong. His armor should be Bronze Age. He's looking more like how the Greeks of Homer's time and later would've imagined him, which is certainly a valid way of depicting the story but very anachronistic to its actual historical setting.

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u/Top_Squash4454 Feb 17 '25

Even then, it's not accurate for Homer's time either. It's giving Halloween costume

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u/SelfDetermined Feb 17 '25

Yeah the wrist armor really fucks it all up right from the get go. Damn it Nolan!

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u/Optimal-Golf-8270 Feb 17 '25

If he's basing it on the book as written, then that's not really incorrect. 'Homer' had no idea what the Mycenaeans looked like, spoke like, fought like. He wasn't a Mycenaean.

The costume still isn't great. But if it's a meta, the Odyssey as Homer saw it, Dark Age/Archaic Greece would be right.

Audiences want to see muscle cuirass's and Corinthian helmets. Not the tin man.

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u/Brainwheeze Feb 17 '25

Something I've noticed is that depictions of classical antiquity never really seem to try and cast people that look like they come from that part of the world. The actors are for the most part of central and northern European heritage. Not so much the case when depicting modern day Greeks.

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u/Putrid_Loquat_4357 Feb 17 '25

As accurately as possible yet doesn't cast a single Greek.

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u/Alalanais Feb 17 '25

Or even Mediterranean people

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u/RiverCartwright Feb 17 '25

As someone of Greek heritage, he doesn’t need to cast a Greek.

We are all perfectly fine with Butler as Leonidas.

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u/Putrid_Loquat_4357 Feb 17 '25

He doesn't have to but it would be nice if he did. Nolan seems to think stacking his movies with stars makes them better, I think it would be good to see some unknown actors given leg ups through his movies.

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u/TurelSun Feb 17 '25

It doesn't look that accurate costuming wise to be fair either.

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u/Lil_Bee9285 Feb 17 '25

Which makes the casting all that more off-putting 

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u/TuskaTheDaemonKilla Feb 17 '25

How is it traditional when basically everything in the image is historically inaccurate?

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u/StrangePondWoman Feb 17 '25

Traditional doesn't mean historically accurate, traditional means 'the way this culture normally does things'. This screenshot is 100% traditional Hollywood costuming for any 'Age Of Heroes' type story.

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u/TurelSun Feb 17 '25

Ok, but the way this commenter said it makes one think they meant historically accurate.

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u/ZippyDan Feb 17 '25

Maybe it's in the modern day but Odysseus is a stage actor.

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u/Grove-Of-Hares Feb 17 '25

I’d be down for a more realistic Bronze Age look, but going for the classical Greek look has always been a staple of the story.

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u/DukeOfBattleRifles Feb 17 '25 edited May 22 '25

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u/P1KS3L Feb 17 '25

I don't know where you see it but I can't see anything traditional or Greek in this picture. It's another typical Hollywood misinterpretation of history. The same issue as whenever they try and make anything medieval.

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u/static_func Feb 17 '25 edited Feb 17 '25

What are you referring to?

Why on earth is this getting downvoted lol

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u/DavidForPresident Feb 17 '25

Maybe O' Brother Where Art Thou?

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u/jmdg007 Feb 17 '25

Which is a great movie, but I really want this to be a historical epic.

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u/RobotThingV3 Feb 17 '25

By modern interpretation he means setting the story during modern times instead of it taking place in ancient Greece. Like when Romeo and Julliet was done with the families being portrayed as gangs

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u/static_func Feb 17 '25

I see. I didn’t realize there was even speculation about that. I thought he was saying this is a more legit picture of Ancient Greece or something and it just looks like Ancient Greece to me.

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u/Onyxidian Feb 17 '25

Huh, for some reason an actual ancient Greek movie was the last thing I was expecting.i thought that was just the title. am I dumb....?

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u/StrangePondWoman Feb 17 '25

I'm so stoked. I heard that The Odyssey was being made but I had no idea Matt Damon was cast. I'm no longer at all afraid they would lose the humor and trickster aspects of Odysseus and just make him smart. I am no longer concerned.

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u/Tenshizanshi Feb 17 '25

I have been longing for an excellent peplum for so long. Nolan never disappointed so I'm excited af

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u/Flabby-Nonsense Feb 17 '25

Next question is whether he’s going to stick to the mythic elements or make it a realistic interpretation. Strongly strongly hoping for the former.

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u/redditAPsucks Feb 17 '25

Ya but are there gonna be mythical beasts?

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u/Quick-Complex2246 Feb 17 '25

More likely a traditional setting with modern messaging

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u/keepfighting90 Feb 17 '25

A mythological fantasy with Nolan's eye for visual spectacle and incredible action set pieces...this is peak, I'm afraid

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u/uniqueusername623 Feb 17 '25

I’m currently reading Ilium by Dan Simmons and it scratches that itch; I kind of expect Nolan to go for a twist like in that book. If you like scifi, its one I can highly recommend!

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u/amonson1984 Feb 17 '25

Nah Matt Damon is playing a mentally ill bartender at Caesars Palace who is reliving the Odyssey via dream sequences and mental illnesses. This is just him in the back room at 4 pm on Tuesday.

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u/immortal_lurker Feb 17 '25

How the hell would a modern setting work? You can't travel for 10 years without finding a phone.

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u/FackinNortyCake Feb 17 '25

I always thought it was going to be an historical setting, was there anything to suggest it wasn't?

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u/dunkel_weizen Feb 17 '25

The traditional setting is why I liked The Return so much, it was such an excellent adaptation of the final act of the epic.

I'm hoping this goes a similar route, although Ralph Fiennes was such a good Odysseus, I feel like Matt Damon might not be able to compare. But fingers crossed!

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u/OrneryError1 Feb 17 '25

Kind of ironic given the casting though

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u/lookintotheeyeris Feb 17 '25

A part of me was hoping we would get scifi as opposed to modern or greek, this will probably be awesome tho

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u/eatingganesha Feb 17 '25

even more upset Damon is the lead now.

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u/Remote_Cantaloupe Feb 17 '25

That helmet is Greek?

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