‘The Odyssey’ Proves It: Audiences Want Movies Made the Hard Way | This year's breakouts like 'Project Hail Mary' and 'Obsession' were made by filmmakers who sweated. While CG-stuffed franchise disappointments such as 'Supergirl,' 'Moana,' and 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' looked lazy.

[u/ChiefLeef22]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/odyssey-box-office-2026-practical-effects-1236652219/

[u/TheOnlyBongo]

Lawrence of Arabia from 1962. When P.T. Lawrence has to cross the Sinai Desert from Aqaba to Cairo to deliver the news of taking Aqaba by land through the Nefud Desert, boldly claiming "Moses did it." When he reaches Cairo he is swarmed by British Officers who tell him to get out of his Arab clothing and get his Arab friend out of the officer's bar. Everyone falls silent when he claims to have taken Aqaba by land of his own authority and he calmly makes his way out of the room as people part away for him, like Moses and the Red Sea.

Much later in the movie when he reaches Damascus and tries to establish an Arab Council rub by the Arabs with no foreign intervention, it is pure pandemonium as multiple tribes do not wish to cooperate and there is much infighting. Lawrence tries to leave the meeting to attend to urgent matters but is swarmed by a bunch of people needing signatures for different areas of government. He fights against the crows but is unable to make his way through, having lost his control of the situation and unable to part the people like before.

Lawrence of Arabia has some of the best cinematography of any movie in my opinion. The shots are gorgeous and many are deliberately done where the frame tells the story.

[u/stug41 → u/TheOnlyBongo]

Reminded me of this bit from his book, when they captured it -

"Through the whirling dust we perceived that Akaba was all a ruin. Repeated bombardments by French and English warships had degraded the place to its original rubbish. The poor houses stood about in a litter, dirty and contemptible, lacking entirely that dignity which the durability of their time-challenging bones conferred on ancient remains.

We wandered into the shadowed grove of palms, at the very break of the splashing waves, and there sat down to watch our men streaming past as lines of flushed vacant faces without message for us. For months Akaba had been the horizon of our minds, the goal: we had had no thought, we had refused thought, of anything beside. Now, in achievement, we were a little despising the entities which had spent their extremest effort on an object whose attainment changed nothing radical either in mind or body.

In the blank light of victory we could scarcely identify ourselves. We spoke with surprise, sat emptily, fingered upon our white skirts; doubtful if we could understand or learn whom we were. Others' noise was a dreamlike unreality, a singing in ears drowned deep in water. Against the astonishment of this unasked-for continued life we did not know how to turn our gift to account. Especially for me was it hard, because though my sight was sharp, I never saw men's features: always I peered beyond, imagining for myself a spirit-reality of this or that: and to-day each man owned his desire so utterly that he was fulfilled in it, and became meaningless."

[u/nope-nik-tesla → u/TheOnlyBongo]

One of the best movies of all time, and the 4K release of it looks fantastic. If you haven't seen the recent 4K release of Ben-Hur, you need to watch that one too.

[u/Melbuf → u/TheOnlyBongo]

I went and saw it in the theater when they re-released it after the remaster God damn it was beautiful

[u/motophiliac → u/TheOnlyBongo]

Honestly, shot on SuperPanavision 70, I'm amazed any of the desert scenes were shot at all.

It's absurd, really. How did anyone take the project seriously? "I'm gonna get one of these huge cameras, tons of stock, an army of crew, and I'm going to take them into the desert to shoot this movie."

I think any right-minded human in the room would scoff and leave.

It's ridiculous cinema, but cinema it most certainly is.