The standard measure of the quality and importance of a movie, or, to be grand, 'film', is enjoyment.
This is certainly one measure, but not the only one. There are layers to be considered: movies as a capitalist enterprise, as a propaganda form, as art, as a fleeting means of escape from the psychological and material pressures imposed by a collapsing world, as a peek into how the past - or, people in the past with access to money, technical capability and script writing skill thought of their world - and many other things I'm surely neglecting.
We'll talk about these things, avoiding the tendency of men to waste time with formless chatter. There's no time for that; the world is burning. There'll be structure, agendas, talking points and laughing no doubt.
So not grim, but, well, how should I put this: also not a clown car of opinion.
Hello everyone, this is Dwayne Monroe, co-host, alongside Samantha Youssef and Dennis Claxton, of the Film Conversations podcast. In today's episode, we continue our exploration and, dissection of the 2026 released, film version of 'The Odyssey' story. In the previous episode, Samantha applied her knowledge of, and experience with the film industry as it operates at large scale (with budgets in the tens or hundreds of millions) to a political economy centered analysis of this film, placing it in the broader context of the film industry overall.
Today, we will carry on with this analysis and add artistic and aesthetic considerations. A key question: how to think about the art of film, to the extent it exists, within the full context of the industry?
Links
Warburg Institute
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warburg_Institute
Ernst Cassirer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Cassirer
The Greek Way
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/129494.The_Greek_Way
Mithra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithra
On Joseph Campbell
https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2020/12/31/the-heros-journey-is-nonsense/
Office of Strategic Services (OSS)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Strategic_Services
31 Aug 2026
The Odyssey 2026: A Materialist Approach
In today's show, we discuss the most recently released film version of Homer's Odyssey, directed by Christopher Nolan.
I said, 'discuss' instead of review because our aim is not to offer yet another opinion on the film from a standard, film criticism perspective, fixated on effects, budget, actors and the director as a singular genius.
Our aim is to talk about the political economy of the film and how it fits in, and is an example of the full reality of film making under capitalism and yes, imperialism.
What is capitalism? It's the system we live under that places profit above all else, including our survival on this planet. What is imperialism? It's the means through which capitalist states extract resources, people and much else besides from peoples who are unable to defend themselves against aggression.
What does this have to do with film generally and 'The Odyssey' specifically? That is what we'll discuss from various angles and perspectives.
Contrary to marketing, it's not Christopher Nolan's Odyssey but a product produced by a system.
We'll part the curtain to see this system's gears in motion. Let's call this, a materialist approach to film.
References
All but War Is Simulation: The Military-Entertainment Complex
Tim Lenoir
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236793826_All_but_War_Is_Simulation_The_Military-Entertainment_Complex
Military–entertainment complex
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93entertainment_complex
Odyssey to Africa's last colony
https://africasacountry.com/2026/07/odyssey-to-africas-last-colony
Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Robert McKee
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/48654.Story
VFX Artist Debunks The Odyssey
https://youtu.be/8yRFeout9dk?si=rIjTLmeFGgvM3lrs
Website of the production company, DNEG
https://www.dneg.com/our-work/the-odyssey
'Behind the Scenes' film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRq0cKo6ciI
The Hidden Debt That Apple Owes to the CIA
https://www.wsj.com/tech/steve-jobs-apple-next-cia-161b65f9
Language and Myth by Ernst Cassier
https://archive.org/details/languagemyth00cass
Phaedrus (dialogue)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaedrus_(dialogue)
Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism?
https://monthlyreview.org/9781685901349/
Ulysses (1954 film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_(1954_film)
20 Jul 2026
Film Conversations Disney and Beyond: Part Two
In today's show, co-host Samantha Youssef, who has nearly twenty years of experience working as an animator and creative director for Disney Animation, continues her analysis of the motivations behind the current round of job cuts placing it within a broader historical and structural context.
She also provides us with a marvelous deep dive into how the studio functions, the work of animators and the role of precarity in the life of animators.
This is the second of two conversations on this topic.
As before, we had a lot of territory to cover and didn't get to everything so, please see the references for more information.
References
Samantha's website: https://www.samantha-youssef.com/
The Walt Disney Co. begins laying off 1,000 employees:
https://apnews.com/article/disney-layoffs-8434044668b03755c8a8c7a4b51f57bd (https://apnews.com/article/disney-layoffs-8434044668b03755c8a8c7a4b51f57bd)
Disney Layoffs Hit Marvel Studios Hard
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robsalkowitz/2026/04/14/disney-layoffs-hit-marvel-studios-hard/ (https://www.forbes.com/sites/robsalkowitz/2026/04/14/disney-layoffs-hit-marvel-studios-hard/)
Samantha's Compiled List of Industry Layoffs
https://acmpstor.blob.core.windows.net/acmpblob1/some_layoffs.zip (https://acmpstor.blob.core.windows.net/acmpblob1/some_layoffs.zip)
How to Read Donald Duck
https://orbooks.com/catalog/how-to-read-donald-duck/ (https://orbooks.com/catalog/how-to-read-donald-duck/)
Disney's Nine Old Men
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney's_Nine_Old_Men (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney)
Mary Blair
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Blair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Blair)
Glen Keene
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Keane (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Keane)
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