In 2000 Ridley Scott’s Gladiator was released and become a titanic pop culture phenomenon that ushered in a new wave of sword and sandal films, the neo-pepla. In the years that followed, to capitalize on the rejuvenated genre, films such as Troy (2004), Alexander (2004), 300 (2006), Clash of the Titans (2010), Centurion (2010), The Eagle (2011), Immortals (2011), Wrath of the Titans (2012), and many others (including television shows such as Spartacus), were produced. Like any filmic cycle the genre would eventually run out of momentum and reach its periodic valley.
Twenty-four years later Scott attempted to repeat the success of Gladiator with Gladiator 2. It was not the powerhouse in either commercial or critical success when compared to the original. Two years later Gladiator 2 has already begun to fade away from cultural memory, having laid no groundwork to bring forth a new cycle of neo-pepla.
What Gladiator 2 failed to accomplish, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (2026) is succeeding in spades. The Odysseycould possibly become the Ben-Hur (1959) for the 21st Century in terms of scope, grandiose, influence, impact, epic-ness, and spectacle.
In an A to B hero’s journey style, The Odyssey depicts Odysseus’ (Matt Damon) trek from Troy to his home in Ithaca with these major beats: encountering the cyclops who slays a few of his men, the armoured Laestrygonians who slay even more men, Circe (Samantha Morton) who turns his men into pigs and back again, a descent into Hades to council with the undead, sailing past the sirens, mooring on an island of sacred cattle, spending seven years with Calypso (Charlize Theron) on an island with his memories gone, and finally making it back to Ithaca where he proves his identity by stringing his bow and firing an arrow through a row of axes, defeating the suitors who have been attempting to court his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway). Odysseus’ adventures have been depicted numerous times in films and other media, with the most recent version being The Return (2024) starring Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus.
The story may have been told many times before, so what makes Nolan’s incarnation different and stand out?
Firstly, Nolan’s auteur elements are on full display in The Odyssey. The non-linear narrative structure he has used in prior films, such as his neo-noir Memento (2000), is applied to the Odyssey, and suit it quite well. Overtly, issues of memory loss/regaining memories are shared between Memento and The Odyssey. Subvertly, Nolan uses this tactic to take a revelation that occurs chronologically early in the narrative and place it near the film’s end to give the audience a climax and quasi-twist ending. For Memento, the twist is Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) purposely writing down that Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) is “John G”. For The Odyssey, the “twist” comes from changing what the story is about: from a “traditional” (though not traditional at the time) hero’s journey of getting from A to B and the encounters in between, to a story of why he is self sabotaging his journey to get back home. The Sirens call this out and Calypso even states that he was not ready to go home. These statements are at odds of what the film has shown the viewers so far, of Odysseus leading his men back to Ithaca on their boat. He has had some setbacks, but nothing overtly pointing to sabotage. Yet it is near the film’s end through Odysseus’ son Telemachus’ (Tom Holland) time spent with Menelaus (Jon Bernthal), that the truth of Odysseus as a character is revealed. Why he does what he does is learned before being overtly said by a disguised Odysseus to Penelope.
Odysseus’ truth comes at the beginning of the narrative has he conquers the city of Troy. He has what can be best equated to a Lovecraftian/cosmic horror moment of revelation. In cosmic horror, a character can sometimes peer beyond the view of reality to see the truth of how the universe works, and in the process of sublime madness, goes insane at trying to comprehend it. Odysseus has this moment of seeing the real truth of the world, of what sacking Troy means, what his actions bring to civilization. He is at the cusp of becoming a Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) from Apocalypse Now(1979) style character, but miraculously manages to avoid this fate. PTSD, sure, but Odysseus has seen something bigger than himself (caused by himself) and that is the albatross he is chained to through the movie, though the audience only learns this near the movie’s end. Nolan is passing off story A, but with his Memento-style rearranging, is really telling story B.
For the last segment of The Odyssey, when Odysseus has returned to Ithaca and is combatting the suitors, Nolan reaches in his auteur toolbelt and pulls from Batman: The Dark Knight Rises (2012). In that film, Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale), has his back broken and is exiled to a prison in the Middle East. He escapes, makes his way back to Gotham, and engages in Batman-style action things. Odysseus, though not back broken, is certainly twenty years older than when he left Ithaca. Despite his age, upon his return he becomes a Batman-style super hero character, single handedly taking on a room of suitors, using his bow, arrows (sometimes as daggers), his fists, and whatever weapons that happen his way. He gets pummeled a bit, and has a few arrows protruding from his body, but he emerges victorious none-the-less.
But this sequence is much more than Nolan lifting from his own Batman. In by doing so, Odysseus becomes a strongman character (Hercules, Ursus, Samson, Maciste, etc.) that dominate the classic era of the genre during the late 50s to mid 60s. Matt Damon is not a strongman actor, and this incarnation of Odysseus is not a strongman character (leave that type casting to Dwayne Johnson as Hercules back in 2014), but this scene is a close enough simile to the likes of Steve Reeves, Mark Forest, Reg Park, Gordon Scott, and many others who single handedly fend off waves of soldiers and barbarians using nothing but their fists (and maybe a tree trunk) and their wits. Nolan may not have been consciously trying to homage classic pepla, but he wound up doing so, and in a refreshing way. The scene is over the top, but what Maciste movie from the early 60s isn’t?
Why does The Odyssey succeed while Gladiator 2 failed?
Gladiator 2 committed the cardinal sin by trying to replace or supersede its original rather than building off of it (see my review here). The original Gladiator was a pop culture juggernaut. Its hero, Maximus (Russell Crowe), is on his own odyssey, his journey from Germania back to his wife and child in Hispania. Gladiator 2 does not respect its own original text, rewrites Maximus as a father of a secret affair child and displaces his journey and subsequent rise through the gladiator ranks onto his son. This is a cynical approach, and probably expected from a director in his twilight years who has embraced his films as product rather than art. In essence, Gladiator 2 is a hollow remake of the first Gladiator film that contributes nothing new (to the story or to the sword and sandal genre).
The Odyssey gets a free pass compared to Gladiator 2 in that the story had not reached (until now) as mammoth pop culture artifact. The Odyssey (story) is certainly massively influential on all forms of western art and culture, but this comes with infinite adaptations, translations, performances, movies, comics, games, splinter stories, and so on. Gladiator 2 has to compare to Gladiator 1, a strict 1 to 1 relationship that audiences can easily weigh against. The Odysseycompares to something more nebulous, fluid, reshape-able, perhaps even subconscious. Because of this adaptability, within capable hands, The Odyssey can become a variety of things. In Nolan’s hands, The Odyssey found a voice it had not happened upon before. It does not supercede any text before it and instead contributes to the “Matter of Homer”. It is a beautifully crafted film, done by an auteur who brings a level of prestige to his work. Something that Ridley Scott once had but has long since lost.
With the success of The Odyssey, (and, concurrently, with superhero movies in decline), perhaps a wave of a new cycle of sword and sandal films can finally happen. These movies are all about spectacle, and with Nolan raising the bar with shooting all on IMAX, there could be a fantastic series of pepla in the future.