NethingButNot

A mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enema

[Sensurround @ShamashAran]

the fact we let them in at all is a mystery to me.

Each one is a defacto spy for the CCP. They generally force students to spy, by threatening them or their families.

[hbd chick @hbdchick]

the $64,000 question.

[Disparu @disparutoo]

@JonsLongs It GOT WORSE

[The Kino Corner @thekinocorner]

My initial thoughts on The Odyssey

I went in with an open-mind. If I buy a ticket to see a movie, then I want to like it. That being said, I left the cinema with mixed emotions and thoughts.

It is a grand spectacle of a film and it mostly works on that level. The monster designs are good and there is an epic feeling to it. The movie moves at a breakneck pace and feels shorter than it is. Sometimes, the pace feels a bit too fast and I was hoping we could have some breathing room in some scenes and the result is that this film feels like there's a cut of it out there that's at least an hour longer.

Most of the acting is serviceable, but the only three actors who are given anything to reall chew on are Matt Damon, Tom Holland, and Anne Hathaway. Robert Pattinson and John Leguizamo don't have as much material to work with as the other three, but are definitely standouts, even if Pattinson is just acting like a spoiled brat for the whole film.

The other actors are honestly kind of barely in the film. I suppose Elliott Page is in it more than the others, but Sinon is mentioned more than shown. I thought it was definitely an interesting choice to cut out Achilles but include Sinon (a character from The Aeneid).

That leads to how the movie changes the story of The Odyssey. There are changes made that I understood were basically just made to streamline the film a bit more, such as havign Odysseus recount his journies to Calypso rather than to the Phaecians. Some changes were pretty major and completely changed the meaning of the scenes.

For example, the whole Circe story is different. In the poem, she's a beautiful witch who tricks Odysseus's men into drinking her potion, turning them into pigs. She breaks xenia. However, in this movie, her aesthetics reminded me more of medieval stories about witches. She doesn't live in a palace, but in a witch's hut. She old and seemingly helpless at first. The soldiers break into her hut and demand food, then when they eat, they feast like pigs, so she turns them into pigs. The transformation scene recalls An American Werewolf in London. Then, instead of tricking her and showing force, Odysseus gets her to help him by giving her his blade and making himself vulnerable. In a lot of ways, it's a complete inversion of the story from the poem.

The otehr major change from the source material are the gods. There is talk of gods in the film, but we almost never see any. Athena (Zendaya) shows up every now and then to scowl at Odysseus or comment on what he's doing, but she felt less like a god and more like his inner voice or conscience.

Things like bad storms, lightning, bad winds, etc are attributed to the gods in the film, but without seeing them, it makes us think of all these things as just their way of describing the world around them. It's not played like that in the poem as the gods have a heavy hand in the plot and often talk to the characters. It gives the film more of a modern spiritual sensibility.

But even if the gods aren't all that present here, the monsters are. My question is why cut most of the gods but include the monsters? The designs are cool and the Cyclops does look fantastic, the Laestrygonians do feel like otherworldy beings, and Scylla was pretty terrifying.

But that's leading me to how I think this film is a trojan horse of sorts. I know someone else made this claim, but I have a bit of a theory and I'm not sure how accurate it is. What struck me is how modern the film feels. They speak in American English. Even the British actors speak with American accents. Their attitudes feel modern, as well. Odysseus, in the film, is less inclined to perform various funeral rites for some of his men, when in the poem, he goes out of his way to perform them for Elpenor. The movie is also basically about him having PTSD from the Trojan War and there's this idea that he can't return home because of that trauma. He's not the same man who left for Troy with Agamemnon.

So, whereas the impetus for Odysseus's wandering in the poem was him blinding the cyclops Polyphemus, it's his shame for tricking the Trojans in the movie. He feels like that trick violated Zeus's Law and, because the trick worked, he watched his men slaughter and raze a whole civilization. Then, after that, those same men became the Sea Peoples, plundering and raiding all over the known world, causing the Bronze Age collapse. Then, there's this whole overarching theme about the senselessness of the killing. The dead soldiers are angry that they died for nothing. Helen laments her role in the war but Menalaus states that her capture was just a reason for Agamemnon to attack Troy as it was strategically placed. Sinon, in Hades, cries that he was lied to and that lie led to his death, but Odysseus says that he had to believe the lie if they were to win the war.

He seems to know that it was his fault that the whole world is falling apart. The movie has heavy overtones of an incoming apocalypse. It's an apocalypse caused by Odysseus's generation.

Now, just stick with me for a minute. There's another addition by Nolan. Antinous is a draft dodger. He sends Sinon in his place to fight in Troy, vowing to keep Penelope and Telemachus safe at home, instead. He and the others of that generation of fighting men don't do that at all. No, instead they bleed Odysseus's wealth dry by eating all his food and drinking all his wine, abusing the hospitality that Telemachus and Penelope must give.

On top of that, there's a weird word choice that Odysseus uses. He calls himself a veteran of the Trojan War. It might just be a simple translation, but it did get me thinking. Now, onto another MAJOR change that's in the film. In the poem, Odyssey does not partake of the lotus flowers. He finds some of his men eating them and drags them back to the ship. In the movie, Calypso feeds Odysseus lotus flowers and the implication is that he basically developed an opiate addiction to deal with his PTSD. He essentially lives as an addict for 7 years before he retuns home (in the poem, Calypso had him trapped there as her sex slave and he really really didn't want to be trapped as a sex slave to a beautiful woman in paradise).

So I think this movie is not about Mycenaeans, but rather about a post WW2, or perhaps post-Vietnam America. Maybe it's a commentary on the GWOT. It all feels very modern. Odysseus's struggles with PTSD and drug abuse, plus how he comes home as a beggar (which is in the poem, but context is different) all feels reminiscent of Vietnam vets. The older generation consuming all the wealth and leaving little for the future generations also feels like a contemporary issue.

AND HEAVY SPOILERS

The ending is different. After Odysseus kills the suitors, he doesn't take the throne. Instead, he exiles himself and Penelope and gives the power to his son, Telemachus. The reason given is that he violated the suitor's hospitality, but I think the actual reason is that he realized that his generation sort of screwed everyone over and set off the events that would cause a new dark age. He even says that this bronze age would come to an end (I thought that was way too on the nose). His way to perhaps pave the way for a better future is to have his generation bow out and pass the torch to a generation not marred by senseless violence and excess.

Maybe this is all cope but I also do think that this film being a secret sequel to Oppenheimer is why there are anachronisms and a diverse cast.

Overall, I liked it but don't know if I loved it. It has some of the typical Nolan problems like clunky expository dialogue, weird editing choices, and many characters feel less like fleshed-out characters and more like characters that just exist to advance the plot. I did enjoy the music and its use of drums, chanting, and flutes. I also saw the film on 70mm, but not IMAX, but it felt like it was composed for scope and I don't know if seeing more sky or water will add much, but maybe I'll see it in IMAX later, idk.

These are just my initial thoughts. Will have to sleep on it some tonight before I write my video.

[St. Rev. Dr. Rev ⏭️☯️🏴😻 @St_Rev]

somebody poast it if trump says anything actually interesting

[Klara @klara_sjo]

One of my favorite genres of video is people testing tazers on themselves.

[Metatron @pureMetatron]

I watched the Odyssey.

Holy shit those movie critics and their reviews were actually completely lies. I don't even know how they sleep at night, lying like that.

I'm filming my actual honest review tonight, I'll edit it and post it tomorrow.

Aside from the awful race swaps, terrible costumes and disrespect for the Greeks, there were some actually really good things about this movie and of course some really bad things.

I'll talk honestly about all, the goods and the bads, on tomorrow's review.

[David Hines @hradzka]

Actual. Material! Loss!!!

[People @people]

William Shatner, 95, to Launch His Heavy Metal Band The *uckers with Debut Performance at Riot Fest https://t.co/vSE47rQtUD

[ⓘ Dogs don't have thumbs @MorlockP]

8/

better spin: "my 'love language' is being left alone, and I am willing to reciprocate that to absolutely everyone on the planet."

[ⓘ Dogs don't have thumbs @MorlockP]

3/

You realize that there are actually mountains of evidence, including memos from C suite executives saying that racial and sex discrimination were explicit corporate goals, and people would be fired unless they met goals?

[Jesse Singal @jessesingal]

1/ There was a spasm of insanity that peaked in 2020 and 2021. I have friends who got fired. People tried to make me unemployable. There was never any real accountability in media and academia. Asking people to just move on isn't tenable.

[NethingButNot @NethingButNot]

Tonight TCM has John Carpenter introducing and discussing a triple feature of 50s SciFi movies that inspired him starting with The Quartermass XPeriment at 8 PM EDT.

[Coming Up on TCM @TCMComingUp]

#ComingUpOnTCM

THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (1955) Brian Donlevy, Jack Warner, Richard Wordsworth
Dir.: Val Guest 5:00 PM PT

A space mission returns to Earth with only a single survivor who quickly begins mutating into an alien.

1h 18m | Science Fiction | TV-PG

#TCM #TCMParty

[Rekieta Law @RekietaLaw]

The ending of the Odyssey was literal trash, holy fuck. I'm livid

[NethingButNot @NethingButNot]

@RekietaLaw @Will428304 Thanks, I was already leaning that way. If you have Amazon Prime, it's free.

[Rekieta Law @RekietaLaw]

@Will428304 Watch the like 90s miniseries. Its corny but way better

[Rekieta Law @RekietaLaw]

Why do these studios make classic stories into movies if they didn't read the story?

[Freedomain - with Stefan Molyneux, MA @StefanMolyneux]

SAVE YOURSELVES!

It’s too late for me I’m afraid…

[Jeremy Kauffman 🦔🌲🌕 @jeremykauffman]

these police should be in jail for not understanding email wildcards

[NethingButNot @NethingButNot]

@ShamashAran Woo hoo hoo!