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Ep 42 | The Odyssey: Christopher Nolan Subverts the Myth · Color Commentary

• Charles Cole: Welcome to Color Commentary, a podcast where the stories shaping our world are told in black and white first, and then we dig into the deeper meaning in full color. Each week I'll be bringing you the news like this. First, we'll start with what I like to call the black and white section, a clear, straight shooting rundown of the facts and the tradition of grace like Ed Bradley, Walter Cronkite, and the classic voices of journalism. Then we'll shift into the color commentary section, where I add my own personal opinions and insights. Sometimes it'll just be me. Sometimes we'll have guests. I'm a scholar, a hip hop junkie, a movie and culture nerd, and an avid book reader. Okay? So in these shows, you'll get a glimpse of all that. Let's get into it. And as we're discussing ⁓ all these things, I am, and one of those being a book nerd, which I definitely am, ⁓ we're doing movie stuff today. We we're we're just we're just doing it ⁓ at the time of recording this, it's the tw- I'm recording this on the twenty-ninth. July, my birthday is tomorrow. I'm in the middle of all this travel. And on the 31st, ⁓ Spider-Man comes out. So you'll probably hear more from movies on me. I'm about to talk about the Odyssey, and I'm very excited to talk about the Odyssey. And here's the thing: I went in thinking that I knew this story. Now, look, I'm not a Greek mythology scholar or anything like that, but I've taken any stories. A lot since I was a teenager. For the most part, everybody knows the Odyssey. But this is Nolan's version of the Odyssey. And he subverted my original understanding of it. And like, I just came out seeing things very differently. ⁓ And that was really dope. A movie hasn't really done that for me well in a long time. But before I go into my thoughts, let's just talk a little bit about. Where the movie currently stands, okay? Let's get into our black and white section. So here are the facts. The film is the Odyssey, and it's written and directed by Christopher Nolan. It's adapted from Homer's roughly 3,000-year-old epic poem. It follows Odysseus, the Greek King, played by Matt Damon, and he is on a long and punishing journey home after the Trojan War. The ensemble around him is just it's magnificent and it is enormous. It is it is huge, okay? And Hathaway as his wife Penelope, who killed her role, in my opinion. Tom Holland as his son, ⁓ Telemachus, ⁓ Robert Pattinson as Antonus with Zendaya, Charlize Daron, Lupita Niango, John Bernthal, John Leguzamo, Dr. Dre. Okay. Corey Hawkins, the cat that played Dr. Dre in the NWA movie is in this joint, okay? Travis Scott opens the movie as the Bard. ⁓ it's it's it's a massive, massive cast and and and to not get lost, I wouldn't be surprised. I know the Oscars added a new category basically for how you cast the film. It i it is definitely gonna get nominated for that, if if not when. but it runs almost three hours. i it runs about two hours and fifty-two minutes, is rated R. It is also the first film ever shot entirely on IMAX 70 millimeter film cameras, which as a a level of difficulty that I don't know if Chris Nolan needed to actually put himself and his his cast through. But that means is when you do shoot ⁓ in in with those cameras. I think in the interviews he said you can only shoot for just under three minutes and you gotta reset. ⁓ that's a lot. That's a lot. And then two, ⁓ an IMAX movie as of today cannot be longer than three hours. So there's a lot of things that had to get cut as in any movie. But ⁓ you just need special projectors and things like that to even show the movie the way that he wants it shown. All right. Let's get into these numbers. As of this weekend, the opening weekend box office was $124.5 million domestic and $264 million worldwide. This is the biggest global debut of Chris Nolan's career. The second weekend, it was about $90 million. And that's one of the biggest second weekends of the entire year. And through 10 days, There's over $650 million worldwide, and it's already one of the top grossing films of 2026, and it's only been out a few weeks. The budget was $250 million. This is the most expensive move movie that Christopher Nolan has made. Okay. Rotten Tomatoes ⁓ is sitting at about 95% from critics and 97% from the audience. Both are just the highest scores of Nolan's entire career. It's ahead of the Dark Knight. It's ahead of Memento. It's ahead of Oppenheimer. And the Metacritic is at 88 right now. All right? It it is it is definitely gonna be a front runner for Best Picture. predictions already have it ⁓ set for a double-digit number of nominations. We don't know because that's just a prediction. ⁓ I'm not a polymarket person. ⁓ so I don't I don't know if I'm I will be playing the ⁓ the prediction market. they don't sponsor this show, so I'm not about to go tell you to go gamble on this stuff. ⁓ and I'm sure that Matt Damon will probably be in some best actor conversations. I think Ann Hathaway is gonna get some supporting cast and what Ludwig ⁓ Gorenson did with the score. ⁓ it has to be nominated. He couldn't use a modern symphony because symphonies didn't exist in the time that the story was told. He he had to go and find things that could become instruments that would have existed during the time that the movie is supposed to take place. Okay. Chris Nolan is out of his mind. In a good way, but he's out of his mind. Anyway, that that's the news. Okay, now let's talk about it. You're listening to color commentary with Dr. Cole. Tommy, play the transition music, brother. Listen, I have a few thoughts on this, but like I opened up and I said, there were I was just surprised in a lot of different ways. I had always come to know the Odyssey story in in in a different way, right? Like You know, the Iliad if i i is like this war epic. And I've seen people, you know, quote the Iliad and and the Odyssey, especially people that are soldiers or playing a sport, and just, you know, when you talk about the Trojan horse and what that means, is is it was a sign, how I took it, of military intelligence, of of of of cunning, right? Like Trojan the Trojan horse is so symbolic in today's society, right? Like it's just a it's a huge thing. And for Christopher Nolan, by the way, spoilers, I don't know if I have to say this. You know, I know internet culture, let me do that. I get dinged sometimes. Somebody will say, hey man, you didn't say spoilers even though it's in the title. But back to what I was saying, because I had to give you the the disclaimer because I'm about to go into ⁓ what it did for me. The mean of the horse. I am used to seeing Odysseus as arrogant, ⁓ foolhardy, ⁓ and selfish. And ⁓ and he goes on this on this long this long journey to kind of find himself in, you know, and and there's lessons around that you can take, right? Everybody kind of means something. The cyclops represents something, you know, the horse represents something, ⁓ whatever. But The way that he flipped the meaning of this horse as as the ultimate breaking of Zeus's law or do unto others as you, you know, wish to have them do unto you, like the the basis of many religions, like ⁓ he broke it. He he he even if you're watching the movie and when Elliot Page gets get gets killed, ⁓ you know, the other person is about to Is about to like kill them, right? Like they they they come up and they see Elliot Page and they they you know it's a threat. We're in the middle of war. But when they're like, yo, this is a peace offering for Athena, the general has to be like, he has to stop his manns and be hey, ⁓ no, no, no. We it's a pe we have to accept a peace offering. Like we have to follow Zeus's law. And There's this whole mythology of this whole everybody in the movie is afraid of the people from the sea coming, the people of the sea. And for Matt Damon to reveal later on, like, yo, we were the people from the sea. We broke the law. Like we we broke this. And it can never we've changed the world forever. You know, there's this spiritual connection to Oppenheimer. I would say this is the ultimate prequel to Oppenheimer. And Oppenheimer is struggling with the same thing. And you can have your thoughts on Oppenheimer and that movie and how people think of it. And you know, the fact that that movie may not have shown those victims or what was happening, or some people argued that they almost felt like Oppenheimer sensationalized the bomb. I I didn't take that from it, but I get where those people are coming from. But if you look at Oppenheimer, if he left something on the table, if if if If it seems like on some level he heard that criticism and he felt that criticism and wanted to do a an even deeper character study ⁓ and show this change. So one of my favorite parts of the movie is when Odysseus is is is is hiding as a beggar. ⁓ because, you know, the other king told him, Hey man, I went home thinking things was gonna be good and and I got murked by my wife. Now there's more of that story. He sacrificed their daughter. So ⁓ You know, I don't I don't know if that was the takeaway that you should have took, but hey, I got you. But anyway, he gave he gave Odysseus some game when he went to Hades and was like, just peep the scene first. Just see, you know, the best view is from the beggars view, it's from the bottom. Another lesson, right? But when he's talking to his wife through the through the wall and he's confessing, and he's like, I don't know if I can come back home. I don't I d we did something so terrible, you know. ⁓ Odysseus to be here when you need him, but he's not home yet. And you know, that level of penance, that level of seeking pentance, that level of taking accountability, ⁓ and and and owning it and feeling it again, does not help everybody that lost their lives, does not help Elliot Page's character, does not help the you know, the the the thousands of people that died and and the millions of people that would die later on, ⁓ if what we're seeing from Nolan and and and hearing his messages, this changed how the world Dis does business. This changes how the world fights in wars. ⁓ and also Chris Renolan's ⁓ need and desire to be commenting on things that are happening right now. ⁓ like where's the honor and and and how some of these things happen? We used to have honor, and so this man is carrying all this, and that's what the mean of the horse is. The the the iconic shot at the end where they finally reveal what he's looking at and he's watching the horse burn. And and and it falls over and topples, you know, the the ancient great city of Troy. I I just thought it was profound. And I think that Christopher Nolan has a way of telling stories. The best stories, in my opinion, do something to you. They they have a chemical reaction inside of you. And there are parts of this movie where I did not expect to be impacted, and I was. And I you know, I run this organization, there's like a profound amount of pressure on me. And I think in that, you know, you're you're you're conscious that people have families. You're conscious that people live off of the salaries that you pay them. ⁓ I work in a f in a sector that's that is topsy turvy right now as far as the country's topsy turvy and We're very blessed to do we do and it can go away. And I carry that. I have that. And sometimes you make mistakes, but you're doing you're making the best decisions for the most amount of people ⁓ in the moment. And I'm a reader of game theory, you know, and and basically I I'm not a game theory scholar, but the concept is generally, you know, there's gonna there's about to be a winner and a loser. And sometimes you gotta make decisions and and people lose. And you gotta be responsible for that. And so maybe because of that, it touched me in a different way. ⁓ but again, I'm talking to a bunch of other people, and I'm seeing a lot of people be impacted by this movie in ways that they didn't really expect to be impacted, and those people tend to have big responsibility, and so I think that that was the the piece about the horse, right? Like when I talk about the mean of the horse. And and couple that with the guilt and accountability of it all, I think, you know, what does it look like to be accountable, to deal with whatever it is you need to deal with and then move forward? ⁓ you know, he he knew he would be exiled. There was a reason why Tom Holland couldn't help him. And I I do have my little not gripe, but ⁓ I have zero faith in Tom Holland's king. I I just I I look, bruh, you're you're struggling. Let's just this this is color commentary with Dr. Cole. Let me take my liberties. This is funny to me when you think about it like this, okay? Your pops just killed a hundred soldiers, a hundred people that want to be king of this place, that have been trained since birth, many of them. All of them weren't scary, snivelling people, you know, like like our main antagonist. He knocked it out, yo. He he he walking up to his wife with arrows up coming out of his back. Your son, B. Your son got one job, son. Stop stop the man from getting the weapons to the people. He's the cow herder. He ain't got no special training. He gave you all you can handle. He's one dude. He's one dude. I don't think the town is gonna make it, B. I I I don't think the town is gonna make it. I think Odysseus is about to fly out, is about to swim off with his wife. You know what I'm saying? Go honor his men. And the sun is about to get stronger up. Now, if you do know the full story ⁓ of of Odysseus. Now, again, this is Christopher Nolan's Odysseus. So that's what happens, that's the happily ever after in Chris Nolan's. In the actual poem, there's an epilogue. ⁓ and our our our our good man Odysseus was was was landed down in multiple places. Okay. He was with Cersei, you know, he was with he he he he was He he was sleeping with a goddess too, bro. Like for like years, okay? Like, ⁓ but you know, they here and Circe have a baby, and ⁓ you know, that baby ends up growing up and and and killing Odysseus, right? So neither here nor there. Go read the poems. I actually think you like the poems. It's something to say that something can last for 3,000 years, okay? With that. ⁓ but that was one of the big things for me. I I love the story of it, I love the detail that it took you on. I love I got harsh realities from the dog and the loyalty of the dog, this dog that was waiting for him to die, that they sat on a pile of shit, like like there's something there to be taken, right? Like, you know it you could you can make you can interpret that in a lot of ways. You can interpret the power of loyalty, and you could also interpret that as is it dumb to be this loyal to somebody. ⁓ i you know. You you can definitely do that. I saw it twice. ⁓ I saw it in what they call Limax. ⁓ I don't think it was a for for IMAX. Again, it's fine, man. I'm not really a movie snob. I do want to take in the movie the way he intends, though. It's a big thing. You know, he he is a mentor to Ryan Kugler. He's taught Ryan Kugler a lot about, you know, using these machines. So you can see it. You can see their both of their loves for the type of film. And actually Ryan Kugler shooting the next Black Panther on film. ⁓ because of the success of centers. And I'm sure that the success of Oppenheimer I'm sorry, the success of Odis of of of the Odyssey ⁓ also helped that case, right? So I watched it twice. Second time I watched a seventy millimeter, but not IMAX. And I watched it with my team. I definitely was more into it than my team was. We we we were in Vegas on our retreat and we went and we caught it. ⁓ but again, I it just had a lot of lessons for me as a leader. I think as a man, I think that ⁓ I think it's also an interesting time right now because there's all these conversations around The loneliness epidemic or or manhood or you know, and what does it mean to be a black man versus a non-black man or a white man versus a non-white man in every race and every corner of the world and every, you know, not corner of the world, but every corner of the United States. And you know, there it's an interesting time because things are being redefined. ⁓ what does that mean? What does accountability mean in this new era? What does that look like? And also, regardless of how advanced we think we are, as human beings. There's still gonna be some very tough decisions that that that have to get made about things that you're not where you're not gonna be able to come out clean. It's just not gonna be possible. It's just not. ⁓ you know, so whether you're looking at this from a philosophical standpoint of the trolley problem, whether you're looking it it's just there's a lot of ⁓ there's a lot there. Which brings me into the actual Odyssey. So on this journey, You know, they kind of shorten some stuff, combine some stuff. So for instance, in the poem, ⁓ Odysseus doesn't eat the lotus flower. His his his crew does and they're stuck there and he has to like basically drag them back to the ship, tie them down, right? Like but the lotus flower ⁓ in those scenes, right, like the subversion of, nah bruh, you really don't want to go home. You feel this immense guilt. You you you you saw it's an anti-war movie. It it's it's an anti-war movie from a piece of art and literature that is usually used to to help soldiers, that to like get soldiers in the right mindset, to to to get football players and hockey players and rugby players who's about to go onto a field or a rink or ⁓ a pitch or g or gym and be ready to physically put their bodies on the line, put their brains on the line. ⁓ in the case of Boxing and football and and and and hockey, you know, is it's supposed to get you there, but this one I give Nolan props. He held back. He was very patient in I'ma show you the glory. I'm I'ma show you this incredible ass scene when we finally get the horse in, we drop out, you know what I'm saying? Matt Damon's legs is asleep. They they they they they Made the horse scene a lot real. Like if you really did use that strategy, that means that you are stuck in this thing. There are no bathrooms, there's no food, water can get in, people are drowning, people that people are getting poked and stabbed because they're checking to see if there's anything in there. Could have probably checked a little bit more thoroughly. So, but you see it and you see them get out and you see them handle business. You know what I'm saying? And then when he Opens the gates and and and the king comes in. Like that scene is incredible. Like that scene is one of the coolest shots ever, right? So he knows what he's doing. He knows that I gotta make this picturesque moment because this is gonna be in the anals of of of movie history forever. And it has to be very glorious and it has to be very momentous, right? So he that's what he focuses on for three-fourths of the movie. But then in the last act, he breaks all that down. We've been seeing Zendaya's ethereal representation of Athena guiding him and talking to him. And then you realize that when you go and see what actually happened and you see the atrocity, they show you the atrocity, they show you the pillaging, they show you just. You know, they start with just the murdering of men and soldiers, but then it's like women, kids, and we are, you know, burning shit alive. And and and when when you see Zenday's character, she's not Ethereal in that piece, right? She's not the goddess Athena. You know, she is throughout the movie. That's what she represents. And he leaves things up to your interpretation. Are these guys real? Are they really having these conversations? This, that, and the third. I think he will say yes. I think he just didn't want to go that route in his storytelling, you know. like Clash of the Titans goes there in different ways, you know, they kind of have more fun, they have fun with it in that way. But he is like what he did with Dark Knight, right? He is he is grounding this stuff. And it's like, ⁓ shit, no, that's that was a little girl. A helpless little girl begging for her life. And he's watching and he doesn't stop it. So that begins, you know, his descent. And in that dissent, you know, that's why everywhere he goes, they're like, Why do you keep mocking the guys? Why do you keep questioning the guys? And and I'm gonna be real, Charlie, like again, I'm I'm Baptist. ⁓ I you know, if if you are Christian or Muslim, I think any of the religions, honestly, they don't really play around with you naming other guys and mentioning other guys and stuff. I just wanted to name that, right? Like I'm I'm I'm doing this as a piece of art. I I I believe in what I believe in. I I you know, I don't believe in multiple gods and things like that. ⁓ But they represent order. They represent like you all are gonna have your your your squabbles and your fight and war, and that's fine. But there's there's some laws that we are establishing. And he is trying to defy the gods because he has already had the biggest defiling act, which was the Trojan horse. So when the gods tell him, You're gonna lose your whole crew, they're gonna die. You cannot save them. You can't save them from theirselves. When he's When he when he lands and he's with Cersei and they do something very interesting. They have her run out. They have her kind of offer herself to them physically. And and and his man, you know, his right-hand man is like, Hamesh Patel is like, nah, we're not gonna I'm look, I'm I'm such and such. I'm not gonna hurt you, or whatever. And there he's building blocks into the story of like, nah, these are decent guys. It it's not until the end when you see the pillage, right? And you see a bit of it. In this scene with Cersei, because when you see how they're eating and the slop of it, right? They they're eating like pigs. They're being pigs. They cannot, it's their nature. You know, it is what war breeds, right? In order to some might argue that in order to even be successful in these type of wars where everybody is ruthless, you gotta be more ruthless. So the way that they were eating and it and and and it kind of paralyzed them and locked them in and she could do her her witch stuff. And she bows them into pigs. And and and I think they would have you they would argue that she didn't choose pigs for them. She said, take off your mask, let your true self shine through. And pigs is it was what they were being represented as. Now we we see her sister as a crow, and we see some other people who are like these majestic big cats, like panthers and lions and tigers, right? Beautiful animals. So Maybe those people were a bit more worthy or had more, you know, I I don't know, right? I I I just I get the artistry of it. I see how Nolan wants to be a poet in his own right to honor this poem. Like he's doing this these things without over explaining it. ⁓ he leaves things up to your interpretation. Nolan trusts his his audience in a way. And he also balances very well of I know there are people that just wanna be entertained, and I know there's people, ⁓ That want to go deeper into this. And sometimes they can be the same person. And what if I can create them? What if I can create a work of art that makes them the same person? And I just thought it was fascinating. ⁓ I know I'm jumping around. and and listen, I'm doing that because there's a million and two, you know, very good talks on the Odyssey ⁓ that break things down. One of my favorites is ⁓ the Midnight Boys, Van Lathen. I love those guys. I love I love hanging out, watching movies with them. I don't I'm not a big pair ⁓ parasocial relationship guy. ⁓ but I I like I just like their vibe. I just like that it's just some guys that love movies and Van Leighton is actually, I think he's really, really good ⁓ at being really like intellectual but like i like I like he he is a popular intellectual ⁓ around pop culture in a way that I I don't know very many people that ⁓ that do it better than him. Like I I I know he can talk on these bigger issues, ⁓ I know he can kind of go toe-to-toe with the Mark Lamont Hills ⁓ and all that stuff. And and and I think Mark Lamont Hill is actually really good in that stuff too. ⁓ but I think I think this is me. I think he's personally at his best when he's doing this, when he's talking about the Odyssey. When he's talking about Spider-Man, ⁓ Game of Thrones. I don't even watch Game of Thrones. I I I like them so much that I'll watch their reviews of Game of Thrones, even though I missed the boat on Game of Thrones, and I refuse. I refuse to go back to the beginning ⁓ and and and endure all that. So, ⁓ so shout out to them. So because there are so many really great shows and podcasts and and and critics that have broken this movie down, I'm gonna jump around a little bit. I'm just gonna have fun with this. ⁓ Let's let's I want to talk about each stop, right? And when we get to the to the stop with the Cyclops, that that scene is is beautiful. It is body horrific. and he says a lot without saying a lot, right? So Another way Nolan is subverting is you're on the journey with these men. You're from their perspective. We've been trapped at this place for years. We've been lost. We're trying to get home and we're running short on our rations. Let's see what's here. We're gonna follow Zeus's law because all we talk about is Zeus' law. Okay. So we come up on this cave and we see this, we see this, these giant sacks of food and ⁓ of goats cheese and it's good and then we just taking it bruh we're just about to build the fire we're gonna be here to greet him when he's when he's when he's when he comes back we don't know who this is and then you just see first off the audacity just to kick your feet up in somebody's shit and be like well Zeus's law everybody knows Zeus's law it's crazy right ⁓ but then you just see these ghosts come in and then you see this huge monstrosity of a Cyclops who is not overtly evil. He's not aggressive. It's just his house. He's just a sheepherder. And he just happens to be Poseidon's son. And Y'all are bugs to him. So he see y'all with his eye and then they instead of the eye, you know, being they they turn the eye around and it it was I mean it was great. If Nolan wants to do a horror movie, he'd be great at it. But then, you know, you do what you gotta do to get out of there, right? Nobody's blaming you. You gotta get out. Now you're not really, you know, as worried about the food, even though I still think they probably took a few of them sacks of ⁓ it was probably eating on that while they was in there, right? Trapped. But they come up with a plan to get out, and this is where they're supposed to show another example of how cunning Odysseus is, right? So first you got, you know, the the Trojan horse, and when you see John Bernthal later, he he Talks about Odysseus as one of the greatest minds he's ever met. And then you see them come up with a plan to get out of like, you know, disguising themselves as the sheep and kind of crawling out and crawling through. ⁓ but the Cyclops kills a lot of their men. They'll finally get out. They're free. They're gone. They can just leave. And Odysseus, Od you gotta know you, you you you don't know who I am, son. Did you just spit out one of my men's helmets in front of me? All right. Takes his bow, points it, shoots him again. He ain't had to do that. That cursed and damned his men. Now, in the epic poem, it's a little different. In the epic poem, ⁓ the Cyclops talks. It's a it's an island of giants and cyclopses, and he's they he's they show the cunning differently, right? Like he talks and he outsmarts them. And he basically he identifies himself as nobody. So when they shoot him in the eye, ⁓ he's he's screaming out, nobody is killing me, nobody is killing me, or something to that effect. And the other cyclops don't react because you're saying nobody. And then in that in the poem, he is ⁓ you know, at the end he says he his his his his his hubris takes over and says, And my name, I'm gonna do this the hood version. My name ain't nobody, my name is Odysseus, leader of such and such, you know, builder of the the Trojan horse bar block, you know. And then that night, ⁓ that Cyclops prays to his father and gives the name, and that's how he gets cursed on the seas. Anyway, but again, there's another layer of the storytelling that that that gets made there, right? And it's like you don't really fully hate ⁓ Matt Damon's character, which again, some of the interpretations I've read and seen, like, I don't like you don't like Odysseus. Like, Matt Damon was a really good pick because he's likable and you give him the benefit of the doubt. Like, Nolan is smart. He needs you to give these people the benefit of the doubt. So when the reveal happens that we're the people from the sea, he wants you as the as the watcher to feel. Some of that responsibility because you are empathizing with Odysseus and his crew. Well, they're tired. They gotta eat. They're on this place, and Zeus's law says this, so they just doing what they gotta do to survive. It doesn't start to crack for them until they get to the island where he says, after they do Hades, after they tell him that your crew is gonna die, you cannot save them from their self. And The cat from Hades is like, don't go to that island. They're going to eat the sun God's cattle. And the sun god will kill them immediately. So I I I truly love this this this ⁓ I I did. I love this movie. I love the conversation on it. And it makes me wish I was in high school with this movie coming out because I would have been really interested in actually read the text and compare. ⁓ and I think that's where we are at education, especially with our drop and decline in literacy and becoming less literate society and people reading less. I think p pieces of art like this can be very helpful. Because it this movie is going to inspire so many future storytellers, movie makers, showrunners. ⁓ it's just that good. It it is the effects about ⁓ that that are practical versus the overuse of CGI. I mean, there's all these things, but at the core, and don't lose this part. At the core, Christopher Nolan is good at the thing he has to be good at, and that's being a good storyteller. And you're taking on the weight and the pressure of telling one of the greatest stories, the oldest stories ever told. Okay? Stuff that predates the Bible. ⁓ so it's just very interesting, man. It's very interesting. ⁓ let me touch on the controversy and then get up out of here, man. There was a lot of controversy. The two big controversies were Travis Scott in the movie and Elliot Page. Let's let's just let's let's just do this because it's it's it's it's it's kind of dumb. Travis Scott is the bard. The bard is the person that's like the local MC storyteller. This is how history gets told. This is how we we tell them through song. We sing the song. A song doesn't always have a melody and things like that. It's poem. It's whatever, right? It's the tale, and you tell it over and over. This is how this is how information makes itself from one village, one kingdom to the next, right? Bards travel with you. They're your modern day. journalists. They're your modern day Howard Cosells, Tom Brokaws, right? Like so I think it's appropriate that a musician is the Bard. ⁓ I'm I'm fine with that happening in a fictitious tale. I I have no issue. ⁓ so that worked for me. I thought it was fine. and he gave you a great track for the soundtrack. Like ⁓ you know, Chris Nolan does what he wants to do, cast what wants. Elliot Page. Now Elliot Page used to be Ellen Page. they transitioned, and Elliot Page is somebody that's been in Nolan movies before. As Ellen Page, Nolan likes to use his crew. He likes to use people that he knows. And people were up in arms because they originally thought that Elliot Page was gonna be representing Achilles. Now, Achilles in this story is known as the world's greatest soldier, right? Greatest warrior. So people jump in the gun and listen. I don't think that Elliot Page works as Achilles. I don't think anybody thinks that. I don't think Chris Nolan thinks that. But the character that Nolan has Elliot Page playing and the sacrifice is so emblematic of the larger story and the larger decisions that have to be made that is not just super black and white. Elliot Page is small, small in stature, small in frame. And the character were basically the herders or servants of Robert Pattinson's family's character. And Robert Patterson was the one that was supposed to go to war and got Elliot Page to take their play, to take his place with the promise that his family would be taken care of and live in riches and wealth. And that happened. When they die, they all go to Hades and the dead get to talk to each other and share stories. And like, no, we I died in squalor. You did all this for nothing. So Elliot Page is really important because Elliot Page is somebody that loves Odysseus, loves Ithaca, is honored to be a soldier here. And think about it when you watch 300. Remember the imp like the the hunchback that wanted to be. A part of the the army and couldn't hold the shield or any of that stuff. ⁓ it's similar to that character, but they have different turns, right? And st you know, this character went ⁓ to the other side to to kind of live in a little lap of luxury because of how horrible he was treated and that you know he was kind of laughed at ⁓ in in 300, right? Elliot did the opposite. Elliot was honorable to the end, almost so much to the point that Odysseus was so smart and had this plan that I have to deceive Elliot Page's character too. They there cannot be any type of breach in the plan. So I can't risk Elliot Page knowing that we're inside of this horse. I can't trust that. Yeah, sure, I've known this person since they were a kid. Yeah, sure they say that they love me, but this is too, there's too much on the line to take. the risk. So when Elliot Page dies, that's that's the opening salvo. Like that is that's what sets everything off. Elliot Page may have only had between Elliot Page, Travis Scott, and Lupito Niongo, maybe less than six minutes total. But that's great storytelling. ⁓ because you get to act your ass off in those in those moments and they matter. So when you get back to Hades now and you're talking to Elliot Page, and he's trying to explain there Matt Damon is trying to explain to Elliot Page, like, I needed you to believe and Elliot Page like, and he's like, Matt Damon's like, I was there with you. I was right on the other side when you were dying. He was like, the fuck that do for me now. I I just thought it was profound. And I think that's like an embodiment of what true accountability is. Because I understand why Matt Damon made the decision. And I also understand where Elliot Page is coming through. And I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't really know. You have to weigh these decisions. Because let's say Matt Damon does have the foresight, and it's like, okay, let me tell you. What what if what if Elliot Page does anything different? What if they make a different smirk when they're when they're you know about to die? What if what if there's something, what if they do a glance at the horse, you know, as they're strung up or whatever? Or you're what if they want to be epic themselves and say, give them hell, guys, or something like that, right? Like you just don't know, and then that whole plan goes nowhere. And you guys, sorry about my focus. My ⁓ I had to switch my camera ⁓ out. ⁓ I'm still getting the settings right, so. This will be fixed. you know, give me an episode or two. I'll I'll get it right. ⁓ so I know I'm your your eyes are not tripping, you're not crazy. ⁓ my I have to fix the settings on this camera. But anyway, ⁓ let me stay in focus. But yeah, it it it just that small role was so important. And Elliot Page killed it because of their transition, they are very small and frail in stature. They would not be seen. As one of these, you know, ultimate warriors like Achilles or like John Bernthaw's characters or or or or Matt Matt Damon, right? Who's like super swole and all that shit, right? Like now, I don't know if Hamesh Patel, you know, I don't know if he got the memo that we all working out, but hey, brother, you you did your thing. I'm not mad at you, cuz you you good. I'm babbling on now. I would just say, go watch it. And I'm putting this out there. If anybody I wanna just talk to somebody about it. I love, I love this movie. I I really enjoyed it. And I'll end on this. I respect Nolan. I think Nolan may be, if not the, one of the best filmmakers of our time. ⁓ I love the the leaves off his branch, like the people that he worked with. ⁓ I love how he took Ryan Cooler under his wing and you can see the influence and Ryan Cooler taking it to another level. I would love to see what their movie together would be. ⁓ but I'm gonna land on some of my favorite movies. Okay, my favorite Nolan movies. I have to say this. I'm gonna lose a lot of people here. And it's okay. Because I'm gonna tell you to Nolan movie I do not like. I respect the hell out of it, but I do not like it. Interstellar. I I Interstellar's not in my top five. ⁓ I do not like this movie. Now, do I I respect the hell out of it? I respect the science of it. I respect how beautiful it looks. ⁓ I respect it. I just hate the movie. I I hate Merv. I hate it. ⁓ I hate it. I hate it. But it's it's a good movie. Let me be clear. I get why it's in people's tops. I and maybe I just need to watch it some more. I've seen it like five, six times because it is a a feat. ⁓ I hated going to the to the to the to the planet with Matt Damon. I mean, I get the reveal. I get it. Also, Matthew McConaughey's character really only loved one of his kids in that movie. Timothy Chalamet, bruh. I'm sorry, B. You give us no love, cuz you're not murph. Murph! You you gets no love. Okay. So now that that's out there, if it's in your top five or maybe your favorite movie, I understand it. I'm not yucking your yum. I d I just did not like it. Maybe in no order. Dark night probably number. Another one that's not gonna be popular that I loved. But they always call this his worst movie. I love Tenet. I love it. I get the gripes. I see the audio issues. ⁓ I see that, you know, I the story is kind of hard to follow. I think that movie is great. I love Spy Ship. I love it. And I think John David Washington did an incredible job. I I don't know if he'll get to work with Nolan again because of the because of. you know, the criticisms of the movie, but I would say that's not John David's fault, bruh. I'd say that's yours. You the one that don't care about people hearing your audio. Okay? All right? You the one that want to take on these stories and add layer on layer on layer, you know, and again, daring movie making to have these people going forward, these people going backwards, and you need your own special air because the air is moving forward and the carbon dioxide to the oxygen. The fuck? I don't know what type of drugs you be on, bro, but you you one of them ones, man. You you're great. You are great. You are great, Nolan, but Tennet is up there. I would then say The Odyssey. Oppenheimer. Prestige. That that that that would be mine. That's what I would say. That's what I would say. Those are those those are mine. All right. Well, if you watched and you stayed here, appreciate it. ⁓ thank y'all for letting me be me. Thank you for, and I mean this sincerely, like I don't have I don't have like a super huge audience, but it's my audience and it's and it's very intimate. And I love hearing from you guys. I love the conversations that we have. in between episodes. I love the push and the questions. ⁓ I I like the little community we build. ⁓ I know it's a clip economy now, you know, I know that the show may not get thousands and thousands of views. The clips do well. Clips are getting, you know, eight to ten thousand, you know, views here and there. You know, we kind of level around four thousand, five thousand, which I think is beautiful. But for you folks that are here and and and and with what we built, ⁓ I just wanted to say thank you. I'm really grateful. ⁓ anybody live if it's 20 people ⁓ that's 20 people that's given me their time and listen to what I have to say. And I think that that's that's beautiful and it's a blessing. ⁓ so thank you. ⁓ with that being said, man, let me let me get us up out of here. Thank you all for being patient too. There's a lot of travel, so I know that the shows have come out a little differently. I'm gonna try to knock out multiple episodes ⁓ so so you all don't feel the lag, but sometimes I just can't do it. Like I'm gonna be out of the country. You might just have to get, you know, ⁓ me in a hotel room or do an episode, which I think is fine. I don't think you all have a problem with it. But with that being said, man, thank you so much for listening to Color Commentary. We would love to hear from you. So drop us an email at color commentarypod ⁓ at gmail.com. Again, that's color commentarypod at gmail.com. And if you like what you hear, please subscribe to the show, leave us a five-star rating and share it on social media. ⁓ and come shop with us at Charles Cole the third.com. That's Charles Cole II.com. And join us every Thursday ⁓ for more color commentary with Dr. Cole. Take care of yourselves, take care of each other, man. Meantime, God bless, peace.