Sounds like maybe you’re in there
Me judging him from my Barre railing
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To be honest I left the Odyssey screening very annoyed. Not much of a spectacle, or a plot, or immersive Greek tragedy. Just an American style post war ‘there is no God’ ‘it’s all me’ indulgent story.
The casting of two black actors and two Asians were not the problem for me, the question was why bother at all when the rest of the cast are still ‘American’ white. And perhaps if it was revealed at the end that Odysseus was just another ex-CIA coming back to Boston from the Middle East and the whole thing was because he did his ptsd coke while reading Homer then I could have been less bitter (but still hated that I paid to see it).
TBH, I am surprised how many of these guys are so well versed in the Classics. I didn’t do them at school and most of my interest comes from watching Ray Harryhausen films as a kid. I did read some of the stories afterwards, but it was definitely an easy reading retelling (lots of nice pictures to go with them)
The problem with that is that I just know enough to realise when someone is bluffing.
These days, I am happy enough to listen to someone like Mary Beard, who seriously knows her stuff but can make it accessible.
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I have to say that I enjoyed it, but I’m still not quite sure why certain artistic decisions were made. For example, having all America accents when half the cast was British. Usually this type of film goes for either an RSC stage English or mid-Atlantic accents. Both of those are fake, but it is the cinematic convention.
One thing I would say is that I watched the OV version (English original language) whereas my son and a few friends saw the German dub. One friend in particular, who is well versed in the Classics as well as Wagnerian Opera hated it, and specifically picked out anachronisms such as using a Viking ship. Maybe the accents served a purpose.
The filmmaking itself is breathtaking, but I had noticed a few scenes that reminded me of other films. Particularly, the scene where Circe turns men to pigs strongly reminded me of a scene from The Company Of Wolves which I happened to see a few weeks ago.
I wonder if that was what he was hinting at. The Odyssey is the origin for many artistic tropes. But for a foundational classical hero, many of his mythical adventures are not as heroic as the telling might portray.
I am planning on rewatching it when it comes to telly.
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I finally got round to watching ‘Hail Mary’ at the weekend. Wasn’t expecting to enjoy it but I did. Never really been a big fan of Ryan Gosling, although I did like him in Remember the Titans and Nice Guys.
Starting to warm to him now though having watched him in this, La-La Land last weekend and The Fall Guy a few months back.
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Also what was the Netflix movie in which Gosling was the good guy and Chris Evans was the bad guy? That was good too
Watch the Blade Runner sequel, was probably the first thing I saw him in - wasn’t expecting to like it but it was really good.
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I think he’s great. I think he picks some dodgy projects at times, but even in those he is very watchable. There have been questions on whether he can carry a blockbuster as a lead and some attempts at that have floundered (the fall guy), but with PHM and his new Star Wars film coming maybe he’s finally quietened that
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Gray Man?
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I started watching it but never got into it. I’m going to give it another go now though.
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If you want to watch Ryan gosling at his best… watch him in Fracture with Anthony Hopkins - Excellent movie
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Yesss! and the outro song (Wild Child) by The Black Keys is killer!
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while on topic of top scifi movie performances…I absolutely loved Sam Rockwell in Moon
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Yeah, I was wondering during Hail Mary whether Gosling or the director was channelling Moon or Rockwell because a number of the early scenes on the ship reminded me of that film - and the hat he briefly wears reminded me of Rockwell’s character in 7 psychopaths
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One of my faves!
Film and actor!
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Same! Rockwell is a genius actor! He made me hate his character in The Green Mile and he was also a hilarious bad guy in Iron Man 2
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Well I had a go at Masters of the Universe.
It’s naff, deliberately naff. Naff with a healthy dosing of cheese.
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