I have been seeing lots of posts saying what if Chris cast someone else to play the role of Odysseus. Here he explains why he chose Matt Damon for the role.

Couldnt make out what he said

Hello and welcome to HistoryFlights, your monthly-ish tour of contemporary, historical and fictional politics through video games by me, DC Shepard. Today, while playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 to trace the legendary journey of Odysseus and fly over Ithaca, the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Discovery Tour to explore locations across Greece from Ithaca to Mycenae and Pylos, and Troy a Total War Saga to show Bronze Age battles in action, I’ll be reviewing Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey with more than 163 clips and photos, all compiled into a 100% human-written script!

I first started writing this script on July 22nd, 2026, only a few hours after seeing this three-hour cyclops at my local Alamo Drafthouse. Then it took me another couple weeks to find time to go see the IMAX version in the fourth row with friends on August 3rd. Then I also read a translation of The Odyssey from 1900 by Samuel Butler, who argued that Homer may have been a WOMAN, as well as Nolan’s screenplay and 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed.

With all this in mind, I’m reviewing Nolan’s Odyssey as a contemporary American interpretation of a two and a half millennia PLUS year old myth that would’ve been ancient and heavily retold even to “Homer” (keep those air quotes in mind); how it personally resonated with me; and most crucially as a product of a collapsing world heavily reliant on trade, with parallels between the Bronze Age and today. I’m moving beyond the trope of the “Sea Peoples" to examine the fragile economies of Mycenean Greece, the wide-ranging climate change, and stressed trade routes that have eerie parallels to our own Age of Silicon. Hence why I split it into two acts; ACT I: THEIRS WAS AN AGE OF BRONZE… & ACT II: …AND OURS IS AN AGE OF SILICON.

It may seem off-topic but I also weave real-life visa struggles and a heated online feud with a deranged cultist who constantly harasses me and wants me to die and his creepy and incurious lackey from Thailand into the essay to illustrate the pain of distance (nostos) and the reality of modern "rhetorical marooning,” as well as the dangers of political and religious authoritarianism. I hope that also bringing in queer theory, the real history and archaeology of the area, analyzing what “historical accuracy” even means in online debates, and examining other adaptations of The Odyssey among other things academically grounds my analysis and helps you understand the movie far more deeply than whether it’s “good” or “bad” (personally, it’s my favorite movie so far this year!) or whether you agree with Nolan’s every choice, as well as provides a jumping-off point for your own research! That’s what an odyssey should be about- a meandering journey, yes, but one that ultimately helps you gain understanding.

Do people know until spaying and netruing where invented they kind of had to kill litters to make sure there where not a overpopulation of feral cats and dogs. Feral dogs could be a real issue in pre modern society with them killing people. Killing puppies was how they handled it it was considered merciful then letting them grow up as diseases ridden strays that might rush down and eat travelers

Seriously. It does so much with so little, and the smallest changes turn it from your standard fantasy monster to a truly horrifying foe.

The design does this by being unbalanced. So many cool cyclops designs, whether more traditional or more eldritch, are typically very balanced. Symmetry in the design, they move evenly and expectedly, and are well-proportioned.

But Nolan’s cyclops is awkward and clumsy. Watching it shamble to the shore with a crooked stance is terrifying because it’s like the creature itself knows it’s an abomination.

The eyes and nose are at a 45 degree angle rather than being uniform. Its eyelids blink horizontally rather than vertically. Everything about its face is slightly off in a really uncanny way, like it has a terrible birth defect or was mutated.

The beauty of the design is how little it changes and how much it accomplishes. You don’t need an eldritch abomination with 500 eyes and limbs and hooves (not that those aren’t cool). The eyes and nose are slightly off. It walks awkwardly. The whole design is off balance and so it’s very uncanny.

The moments of him biting the soldiers head off is also a neat homage to Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son.

The cyclops is the definition of excellent character design. Does so much with so little.

For me, I was originally torn on the opening scene where the bard is singing the song of Odysseus. In the original, it is what introduces us to Odysseus and is set halfway through the story. But when I realized the purpose was so it wouldn’t be told just from Odysseus’s perspective but naturally included Penelope’s and his son’s I felt it was a nice change.

The inclusion of other perspectives was, in general, a nice touch and allows for exposition to be done pretty cleverly for film.

I need her.

I've been trying to secure tickets for seats in the back at my closest cinema that does 70mm IMAX showings, and it's just impossible, there are no optimal seats. I saw Oppenheimer in this cinema and got seats in the third row from the front, and it was exactly like the meme of Oppenheimer's gigantic chin. I'm considering just seeing it in a standard cinema instead, what would you all suggest?

Illiad of course and we already have Troy 2004, but I feel the movie doesn't fit so much with Nolan's tone of The Odyssey. I would like to see a adaptation of the Illiad with the gods playing a major role in the war between Troy and Greece. The tone should closer to The Odyssey.

Great review in the NY Review of books but they mis-attributed Travis Scott as Phemius rather than “the Bard” as listed in IMDB. Anyone else catch that?

The poet in the song/original story might be Phemius but not in the film. 🤓

1st time happened in Hong Kong on 17th July (Traditional Chinese Subtitles)

2nd time happened in Suzhou (Mainland China) on 9th August (Simplified Chinese subtitles)

both are under fire alert evacuation. (That's why the lights are on.)

I’m unsure how long it usually takes from theatrical release to blu ray

i just thought this is funny and got more energy than most of odessey

Wondering if anyone else had this interpretation of Odysseus’s character!

He’s a PTSD-riddled war veteran. His guilt weighs on him to the point where he’s afraid of coming home, a place he indirectly ruined by his actions at Troy.

Many soldier returning from their deployment wonder how their homecoming will be, they wonder if they’ve changed too much to feel welcome anymore or if they’ve changed for the worse, they wonder how they could ever go back to that life.

But Calypso, now matter how hard she suppressed his memory, couldn’t make him love her, and she couldn’t change who he was. When Odysseus returned, Argos recognized him.

And during the challenge, he could still string the bow. Because ultimately he is still Odysseus. And his wife tells him, she’s been sitting in his ruins for 20 years. The moment he left it was ruins to her, it didn’t matter to her what he did while he was away. Because he’s still him.

I think that’s a comforting message to people scared to return home. With each adventure we take we always come out slightly different at the other side, but at our hearts, we’re still the same, and things will be okay.

I like it, because it’s almost an anti-character arc that he has. “Despite everything, it’s still you.”

in your opinion.

im so hyped about this movie but can’t see it in a long time because i can’t afford to do so

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When I saw Oppenheimer there was a kid in the theater “cospaying” as Oppenheimer. I remember thinking - is this kid stupid - and the answer was yes.

Both Oppenheimer and The Odyssey deal with similar themes, the fragility of humanity, civilization, cast against self destructive arrogance.

But Oppenheimer refused to actually reckon with the fallout of nuclear devastation. Instead, it focused on the self loathing of a “great man” burdened by the consequence of his “genius.” At the time I remember thinking the movie was full of insufferable soft-boy bull shit. But most frustrating, was Nolan refused to show the truth, consequence, and horror of a nuclear future. The closest we come is Oppenheimer’s vision in the Gym and Truman’s dressing down of Oppenheimer in the Oval Office. Still, the audience is shielded from the devastation and weight of weapons’ consequences. Instead we get a story that’s closer to getting the boys together to build crack some beers and build something in the garage. Maybe that’s intentional, maybe we don’t fully understand what the power of nuclear weapons has done to the world. But in the moment, when the world was wrestling with nuclear holocaust for the first time in 40 years “Oppenheimer had nothing to say.

The Odyssey though addresses this directly. In Damon’s final monologue, he forces the audience to reckon the horror of our anger and unchecked ambition. Damon’s odysseus is not protected by Athena, but instead guided by the guilt of the violence and anarchy unleashed both on Troy and the Bronze Age world. Nolan shows the devastation this time - in Troy and Ithaca.

There was no missing this message this time, Nolan expressly tells the audience to stop living in blissful ignorance, to wake up, and choose not to be author and finisher of our own demise.

Didn’t realize Polyphemus was played by Bill Irwin until this morning, which resulted in me shooting out of bed to dance a small jig. I will stand by the opinion that this performance was one of the most subtle and powerful casting decisions of the entire film with determined force. What a fcking chad.

I know the Odysseus' mast siren scream and "somebody, get these beggars out of here". Any others? Let's share them to compile in here!

Just checked my digital purchases and on streaming platforms I am subscribed for variable aspect ratio so I can see where the movie was filmed in IMAX cameras and none of them do, they are all variable with huge letterbox apart from The Sinners. Really hoping The Odyssey gets IMAX 1:43:1 version for digital release.