Regardless of anyone’s opinion of director and writer Christopher Nolan or his attempt to make this impossible movie, you have to admire the hard work, planning, and the 375 million dollar budget. For the first time in movie history, this film was shot using an IMAX camera 100% of the time. This required IMAX to make a new, lighter version, which weighed 300 pounds. The machine was so loud that it had to be put into an enclosure to mute the sound it makes. The original IMAX camera could not record sound, so workarounds had to be invented for this additional problem. Each scene had to be shot for three minutes at a time, so the actors had to freeze in place so that the film cartridge could be reloaded. Many of the scenes were filmed on the ocean, making all of the logistical problems even more challenging. For this film, the crew shot two million feet of IMAX film, over 91 days.
The star of this movie, Matt Damon (Odysseus), has said during interviews that this was by far the most difficult acting job he has ever taken. The main reason for this was that the majority of his scenes were about fighting in wars or soaking wet on a boat, constantly being doused with seawater. For someone worth 170 million dollars, going through six months of this level of hardship has to be respected. Other well-known actors in this movie include Robert Pattinson(Antinous), Elliot Page(Sinon), and Anne Hathaway, who plays Odysseus’ wife (Penelope).
This movie is based on “The Odyssey” (Homer), which is over 2700 years old. To try to make a movie based on a book this famous, based on Greek Mythology, Christopher Nolan had to have scenes that included a giant 60-foot Cyclops, an Ocean Whirlpool, a giant Trojan horse, and many scenes of death, almost all due to swordfighting. All of these insane scenes added more challenges to the cast and crew of this film. To create the 60-foot Cyclops, Nolan actually built a giant puppet, because he prefers to use a minimum of CGI in all of his movies.
The acting in this movie is very good throughout, and this film will, of course, be nominated for best picture and best director, with Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway nominated for best actor and best supporting actress. John Leguizamo (Eumaeus) is also likely to get a best supporting nomination for his excellent performance as an almost blind shepherd in this film.
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings are a very high 96%, with my rating a not-as-high 90%, due to the slow and boring parts in this story and the too-long running time of 2 hours and 52 minutes. I give this film a solid recommendation.
A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies. 