A Bookish Shade

also loved menelaus i thought the actor and the character was great he really had the vibe of "ancient greek leader" down

i understand why films in the cinema don't have subtitles but man i had no idea who a lot of the characters names were i need those subtitles man

also i fully jumped when the monster came after them after they managed to escape charybdis i completely forgot about it

i loved the character of odysseus' right hand man i have such a sweet spot for right hand man characters and this guy was all the right things, like voice of the crew members, a voice of reason and comfort sometimes, a generally nice dude (and south asian so likeeeee)

zendaya as athena was pretty cool but for me personally, i imagine athena as older, maybe late 40s

i did really enjoy the cinematography like it did feel very "ancient greece"

the way they designed polyphemous is probably my favourite every cyclops design, the twisted face with the eye just really gives the impression that it is close to human but not quite, like you can feel its internal struggle through just looking at it

oh also i was stressed for every character throughout the movie which is pretty great it's always good when the movie manages to make you feel worried on behalf of the characters

the way odysseus reacted to his men eating apollo's cows was also amazing, it felt like he wasn't completely angry at the crew but half resigned to the fact that it was always going to happen and also angry at himself for letting it

robert pattinsons' character was also pretty good cause he managed to make me hate him!

also the way it started with the trojan horse, it really put the story into perspective for me

i love sinon's storyline, of the injustice of him being there in the first place and then him being the one to keep guard of the horse and then giving back his shame

i have to keep thinking about that storyline because i think there's a lot to unpack there but my general line of thinking is what a fantastic way to zoom in and show the individual tragedy and the direct consequences of odysseus' actions

also loved the scene of telemachus and everyone at athena's temple it felt very right for what i'd imagine an ancient greek temple to be, with the people praying, the high stone walls and the small lights

circe i love her to bits oh my god such a great way to highlight the individual impact of war on women, I'm guessing back then she would have been seen as crazy and a character to be ridiculed but now i am on her side queen

like i remember being a little ancient greece nerd as a kid and thinking wow there's really no way to win as a woman back then. safest thing is to become a priestess and hope no one pays too much attention to you. i really felt that while watching the movie with Helen being a commodity that is fought over, Penelope and how the only way she is truly characterised is in tandem to her husband and circe, trapped on an island with a curse.

calypso my insecure attachment queen

oh also i really loved the scene where helen told telemachus to apologise to penelope from her, it was such a heartbreaking scene of her knowing that she had no agency in this whole situation but also taking some responsibility for penelope

to me it was helen reaching out, woman to woman, both victims of the decisions of the men around them

i love how every single character has some sort of motivation that makes you soft for them in a way

also loved how we never saw agamemnon's face, i thought that was a great way to highlight how it doesn't matter who it was who started the war, it was the people who were affected

the whole story is so anti-war and it couldn't have come at a better time my god i am so glad

i love how much of a flawed person odysseus is but at the same time still very much a hero

the archetype is age old, i guess people want to see a hero who makes mistakes but still ultimately wins, a hero like them

the themes of how war changes you, sacrifice, leadership, devotion, glory, fate all under the patriarchal setting of ancient greece once again, it makes sense why a story like this would stand the test of time

speaking of the patriarchy, there's so much to say about the dehumanisation of women in the odyssey. penelope is only really praised because of her loyalty to odysseus, without that she would have been torn to pieces.

Then there's the faithful wife vs the other woman of penelope and calypso, where calypso is deemed evil for keeping him from his wife (although i do think the movie showed calypso in quite a forgiving light which i enjoyed, her story really is a tragedy)

circe and her view on men and soldiers, i guess back then she would have generally been viewed as completely a villain, painting her as having a cruel, narrow view of the world

the effect of war on women is something that isn't hugely considered in the mainstream, the raping and the murdering of women were generally seen as an unfortunate side effect of war, something that we could only hope wouldn't happen if the winning party had enough mercy

so circe being shown as someone who was given this terrible gift of being able to see us both in prophesying and in seeing the world as it is, in all its flaws and cruelty, is pretty important

also i wanted to say that my dad read the odyssey in bangla when he was 12 and he watched it in the cinemas with us today at the age of 53 and loved the movie

(my dad is incredibly picky about movies this is a feat)

the ending was satisfying in the way that an ancient story can only be, they managed to get that sense that the ending was written into fate

another thing that my dad made me think about is the similarity between this ancient greek epic and hindu epics

maybe it's more the way epics are structured that makes them similar but the stringing the bow to win the hand of the princess, gifts and curses from gods, loyal women waiting for their loves, the similarities are there

maybe it's showing how these ancient societies aren't that different from each other, maybe that people aren't that different from each other