The most anticipated film of the year, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, released worldwide on July 17th to massive success on par with the sheer scale of the movie. Between an all-star cast, epic cinematography (the first film ever to be shot exclusively on IMAX film cameras), and beautiful set pieces, it is no surprise the film is killing at the box office and has already cemented itself as an all-time classic.
One of the most memorable and hauntingly beautiful aspects of the film, however, is the incredible score. Composed by Ludwig Göransson (Tenet, Sinners), the score gives a feeling unlike any other, thanks in no small part to the unique design philosophy Göransson and Nolan followed.
Nolan wanted the film to sound as period accurate as possible, meaning the score consists of none of the traditional swelling orchestra audiences associated with thematically "big" movies. Instead, Göransson and his team delved deep into the historical instruments of the time period, recreating and learning two of the most prolific instruments of the era, the aulos (a double-piped reed instrument) and the lyre (the precursor to most modern handheld string instruments). Additionally, the team acquired a series of several dozen bronze gongs to infuse the score further within the setting, the Bronze Age. To top it off, the score is haunted by a cacophony of vocals led by James Blake.
These instruments come together to create a sound unlike any other, unique in both its instruments and its humanity. More typically, Nolan’s films are scored by the likes of Hans Zimmer (Interstellar, Dune, Inception), consisting of bombastic instrumentals and intricate weaving sounds that imbue the movie with a sense of urgency and mass. Göransson, on the other hand, delivers a score that feels in many ways unfamiliar, but also grounded in human capacity. The Iliad and The Odyssey originated as oral poems, memorized and recited by bards for generations before Homer captured the stories in his Epics; this idea of generational storytelling is pervasive within Nolan’s film. It feels fitting that the movie is paired with the same sounds produced by the same instruments that the poem was originally performed with thousands of years ago, giving a truly transcendent experience.
