I've loved myth and legend since I was a kid, growing up watching films like Clash of the Titans or Jason and the Argonauts, films which cemented an interest in the stories, characters, and monsters of ancient Greece. Despite this love I never really found the time to read through Homer's classic story over the years, having not been taught it in school, and my spare reading time often taken up by new books that I've picked up to review. Being able to experience a truly 'classic' tale such as The Odyssey was something that had been put on the backburner for so long I'd all but given up on doing so.
But then the trailer for Christopher Nolan's film adaptation hit the internet, and that desire was reignited in me, that childhood appreciated of gods and monsters, of heroes fighting against impossible odds. I lucked out that my partner had managed to win some free tickets to see the film on opening night, and so I got to see The Odyssey as my first IMAX experience and was blown away by how this story was brought to life in a way that felt not wholly realistic and grounded, yet never went so far into the fantastical that it felt more like a superhero film. I thought that Nolan managed to create a version of myth that had a sense of realism to it that made you believe that it could be possible.
With one of the most celebrated filmmakers of our time adapting one of the oldest stories ever written, in a format that had never been used for a full narrative feature film, it was hardly surprising that there would be a wealth of conversations around the film. Whilst there has been a lot of ridiculous talk around the movie (Black people existing and a trans man playing a character he wasn't actually playing being chief complains from internet weirdos), and some more well reasoned but arguably badly delivered criticism of this particular version over the book translations, I've seen very little talk about the film in terms of how it was made beyond people hyping up or complaining about the IMAX format.
If, like myself, you love to learn more about the making of movies and the art that goes into the behind the scenes processes, you'll probably want to check out a copy of Filming The Odyssey: Inside the Making of Christopher Nolan's Modern Epic a huge hardback book filled to the brim with gorgeous behind the scenes photographs, and detailed descriptions on how the movie made the leap from the page to the big screen.
The book opens with an introduction from Odysseus himself, Matt Damon. Damon's introduction to the book is fairly brief, but he uses his time to really hammer home the point that The Odyssey is one of the most impressive films he's ever worked on due to the sheer scale of it. He describes it as the toughest film he's ever made, one where every location and scene were gruelling, where the people in front of and behind the camera were pushing themselves to the limit not simply for money but for the sheer love of making movies and the desire to create one of the best films they ever could.
This sentiment is something that's reflected throughout the rest of the book. The Odyssey isn't just a book adaptation, it's a group of artists and craftspeople coming together to try and create something special, something of a scale and grandeur that's not often seen on the cinema screen. In many ways, seeing the level of craftsmanship put into the film, the dedication and skill, The Odyssey reminds me a great deal of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy; another book adaptation that was believed to be impossible to pull off with any degree of success. And like The Lord of the Rings, I think it's fair to say that The Odyssey is going to be a film that people discuss passionately for decades.
The book is split into decent sized chapters, each of which deals with a particular aspect of the creation of the movie, from discussing the challenges of having to adapt the source material, to discussing why each actor was picked and how they saw each of the characters roles in the story, to the various filming locations, and how they managed to piece together the final product. Each of these chapters gives a fairly deep and cohesive dive into their topics, cramming as much information in as it can whilst managing to not make itself too dry or tedious to read. If handled poorly this book could have taken away a little of the magic of the movie, or it could have been written in such a way that you'd end up bored of it; but instead James Mottram manages to not only keep me interested throughout, but makes the book hard to put down as I just wanted to keep on learning more.
There were some parts of the filmmaking that I'd become aware of thanks to the internet, such as the fact that the cyclops was a practical puppet on location so as to have real interactive lighting and something for the cast to act against, but seeing how that was done, getting to see the photos of what might be the most impressive puppet I've ever seen share space with Matt Damon and the crew really hammers home how impressive The Odyssey's creation was. The same can be said for the part of the book that goes into the special effects work for the scenes involving Circe and what might be some of the best body horror I've seen in a movie. The make-up effects the actors wore, and the practical puppets that allowed Samantha Morton to actually shove her arm down it's throat, it was amazing to see how such a visceral and disturbing moment came to be.
There's so much that I could talk about thanks to this book, the scenes in Iceland where the journey into the underworld was created, getting a better look at the monstrous Scylla, the construction of the iconic Trojan Horse, the Laestrygonian giants and the moving forest. These scenes from the film that were so beautifully presented on film, so enrapturing that they could have been an entire film unto themselves get time to breathe thanks to this book; and I think that the next time that I see The Odyssey I will be looking at it with a whole new level of appreciation.
With home releases of movies receiving fewer and fewer special features that go into the making of the films (gone are the days of several hours of extras) this book might be the best way to really explore how The Odyssey came to be. And even if the eventual home release versions of the film do include these details Filming The Odyssey is still a fantastically gorgeous book, one that almost demands you to pick it up and leaf through the pages, just marvelling at the beautiful photographs inside. A perfect purchase for anyone who loved the movie.
Filming The Odyssey: Inside the Making of Christopher Nolan's Modern Epic is available now from Titan Books.
