‘The Odyssey’ on track for record-breaking opening weekend

[00:00:00]Christopher Nolan cinematic adaptation of the Odyssey is now in cinemas near you. But good luck getting tickets because Showtimes have been sold out more than a year in some cases. A good time then to bring in Siddhant Adlaka, a film critic based in New York. Sant, it's great to see you.

[00:00:17]>> Thank you for having me.

[00:00:18]>> Now, you are among the few who've seen this film already. In fact, you've seen it twice, you said. What were your expectations going in and did it meet them?

[00:00:28]Uh my expectations uh included a large scale grandiose epic and uh Christopher Nolan is generally good at delivering those things. Um especially with this one which is actually the first Hollywood feature shot entirely in the 70mm IMAX format which is as big and as clear and as immersive as you could possibly get. But he's also someone who tends to you know change things around in a very interesting way with his adaptations.

[00:00:56]Um, and he, even though he's adapting a nearly 3,000-y old text, he makes it very contemporary and very relevant to today. And it was really emotionally fulfilling in all those ways.

[00:01:08]>> There's been a lot said about the cinematic and technological achievements of this film. In fact, if I could ask you about that, you mentioned that this is the first ever feature film to be shot entirely on IMAX cameras. Talk to us about the significance of that because that's no easy task. and and was there anything else that you really see as you know a an achievement in terms of what he took on there?

[00:01:30]>> Sure. Uh the reason no one's been able to do this so far is because IMAX cameras are generally very loud. So it's impossible to capture dialogue. Um until recently when you know him and his team made these enormous I want to say like bubbles or blimps for the camera that would uh sort of drown out the motor sounds. Um, so of course there was um there was a need to then, you know, figure out how to get actors in uh a close space next to each other with the cameras right by them. And so because of that, they were acting opposite each other with mirrors. But that's not something you obviously see on the big screen. Um, all of that is sort of edited and cut around. Uh, but as a technical achievement, it's it's maybe one of the most uh intimate large screen films I've ever seen because as much as we may think of, you know, the the large frame format as something that delivers uh spectacle and landscapes, and this very much is that, it's also something that Nolan uses to uh give us a sense of proximity to the characters and to highlight their isolation and loneliness.

[00:02:38]And of course at the center of the film is Odysius or Ulyses. Um but the man at the center of this entire production who had you know the audacity really to take this on is Christopher Nolan. And I know this because we go some way back but you've actually been in a Nolan film. So if I may ask you impartially where would you rank the Odyssey across his body of work?

[00:02:58]>> Sure. I should clarify that I was very very far in the background of uh the stadium scene in the Dark Knight Rises.

[00:03:04]So don't try and look out for me. I've tried. Um, but this is definitely on the higher end of his work. Uh, because he's someone who, even though he keeps telling, I don't want to say the same kind of story over and over again, but he often tells stories of, you know, these guiltridden male protagonists trying to find their way home to their families. Uh, which is sort of at the heart of, you know, how the Odyssey has influenced Western storytelling. Uh, but this is probably not the kind of movie he would have made 20some years ago.

[00:03:35]actually he was one of the uh initial directors tapped for the movie Troy with Brad Pitt uh but things ended up changing around but now in 2026 the movie he makes is really chaotic and visceral and it's probably not something that he would have done when he was first starting out and so because of that I think I would probably say it's maybe one of the best films he's ever made uh in terms of how emotionally impactful it is at every stage.

[00:04:02]>> Wow. Okay. That's that's high praise.

[00:04:04]maybe one of the best films he's ever made and took him 20 years to finally get down to do it, not unlike his protagonist, Odysius himself. This is a 3,000-year-old epic and there was this preemptive backlash ahead of this film release about casting choices, the type of language used. We're hearing a lot less about that now, I should say. But did you come away with any concerns, any areas where you felt it felt it maybe fell short? Were you satisfied with Nolan's treatment of female characters?

[00:04:31]That's something he does get criticized for.

[00:04:36]Yeah, and it's a fair criticism across his body of work, but I think uh the way he leans into certain aspects of the text, um and I don't want to spoil anything. Um it it really highlights uh the way he's kind of analyzing the story as he's telling it. And so I would say this is probably a marked improvement in how uh women come across in his films.

[00:04:56]Um, as for the, you know, the casting controversies, I think that's something that is is sort of a just a manufactured outrage that you don't really need to pay attention to because the approach here is sort of Shakespearean. It's kind of a an anything goes um, you know, cast the best person for the role type of uh, type of approach. Uh, as for the language, so I think the um the primary source he used was Emily Wilson's translation uh which is it it sort of simplifies a lot of the more verbose um translations of the text over the last several decades, but it kind of takes it back to the simplicity that, as I understand it, the poem would have had when it was first quote unquote written.

[00:05:43]Um, and so the language ends up being very simple and accessible, but uh for a pointed purpose because all the characters, regardless of where their actors are from, speak with American accents, which is uh something that a lot of Hollywood viewers will be familiar with. And it's also something that in the process makes you think about um the centricity of not just Hollywood storytelling, but also uh America as an imperial force in uh in today's world. And that's something that's at the heart of this adaptation, too.

[00:06:15]>> Yeah. And that's probably uh that's something that the translator, you know, the first woman ever to have translated Homer's Odyssey and Iliad actually spoke about saying that it's unfortunate that a lot of translations are written in the sort of English of a few generations ago when actually this is 3,000 years old.

[00:06:31]And if you want to do, you know, an accurate translation, it would have to be in the kind of language that we use today. Um there's also the fact that she wrote it in verse. I could talk about this all day, but Sudhan, finally, you know, as a film enthusiast, how has all of this hype been for you to see people showing up to screenings at 2 and 3 in the morning, folks traveling to different cities to to watch it in 70 mm IMAX, and do you have any advice for some of our viewers who might be planning to buy a ticket?

[00:07:00]Look, the only way I was able to watch it uh on opening day here in New York uh at the I believe the largest IMAX screen in North America was by buying tickets a year ago. And uh currently tickets uh at that particular screen are sold out through I believe the middle of August.

[00:07:16]Uh but there are there are you know multiple ways to watch it um which may not be the same like vertical large screen format. So, I would say, you know, if you can get tickets to it, whether it's a Dolby cinema, a regular 70 millimeter cinema, um, just watch it as soon as you can and, you know, let the let the IMAX release keep rolling out because you'll probably get to see it that way eventually. It does seem like it's going to stick around in theaters for a while.

[00:07:44]>> All right, Sudant, we leave it there, but thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and your insights.

[00:07:50]>> Thank you for having me. That is film critic Sedant Alaka.