The Odyssey is the latest movie from Christopher Nolan, the director behind giant hits like The Dark Knight, Inception, and Oppenheimer. The Odyssey is his most ambitious effort yet, and people are going crazy for it.
The Odyssey is based on Homer’s 2,700-year-old epic poem about the Greek king Odysseus (Matt Damon) trying to make his way home to Ithaca after fighting in the Trojan War. Between the ancient Greek setting, the mythological monsters, and the sword fights, the movie has all the markings of a sword-and-sandal epic, a movie genre that has risen and fallen in popularity multiple times over the past 70 years. While we wait for The Odyssey to make it popular once more, check out these classics.
Ben-Hur (1959)
Back to the beginning
Directed by William Wyler, Ben-Hur was the prestige sword-and-sandal movie of its day. It follows the life of Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston), who is falsely convicted of treason and condemned to slavery before escaping and becoming a champion charioteer. The chariot race sequences remain spectacular to this day.
Along the way, Judah witnesses the life of Jesus Christ and learns forgiveness, giving this film a spiritual element the rest don’t have.
- Release Date
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November 18, 1959
- Runtime
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222 Minutes
- Director
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William Wyler
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Charlton Heston
Judah Ben-Hur
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Hugh Griffith
Scheich Ildirim
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Jack Hawkins
Quintus Arrius
Spartacus (1960)
The TV show is great, too
Directed by the inimitable Stanley Kubrick, Spartacus follows a slave (Kirk Douglas) who trains a gladiator and eventually leads a rebellion against the Roman army. The movie features remarkable battle scenes, all the more amazing because they were shot before the advent of modern special effects. It’s also a heavy story with a brutal, melancholy ending. Like Ben-Hur, this is a prestige sword-and-sandal film.
In 2010, Starz premiered a Spartacus TV series, which covers a lot of the same events in much more detail. It’s also well worth watching.
- Release Date
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November 17, 1960
- Runtime
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197 Minutes
- Director
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Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Mann
Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Jason and the claymation skeletons
Not every sword-and-sandal classic is a somber epic about a Roman slave. Jason and the Argonauts is a good deal more fun and campy. It follows the deposed Prince Jason (Todd Armstrong) as he journeys to retrieve the magical Golden Fleece and reclaim his throne, aided by the goddess Hera (Honor Blackman) and a crew of Greece’s greatest heroes. It’s a fast-moving movie with lots of action and excitement.
The real draw here is the amazing stop-motion animation by special effects master Ray Harryhausen. Jason and his followers fight the bronze giant Talos, wicked Harpies, a seven-headed Hydra, and an army of skeletons. The special effects were mind-blowing at the time and remain charming today.
- Release Date
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June 13, 1963
- Runtime
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104 Minutes
- Director
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Don Chaffey
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Ignore the remake
Sword-and-sandal epics mostly flamed out in the 1970s, but one occasionally still broke through. Clash of the Titans shares a lot in common with Jason and the Arnonauts. Again, it’s a fun, fleet-footed journey through ancient myth, with Ray Harryhausen once again sprucing things up with terrific stop-motion animation. This time our hero is Perseus (Harry Hamlin), who fights the fearsome Medusa as well as the towering Kraken.
Look out for Laurence Olivier and a young Maggie Smith showing up as Zeus and the vengeful goddess Thetis. There was a 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans, but it’s mostly a muddled mess.
- Release Date
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June 12, 1981
- Runtime
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118 Minutes
- Director
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Desmond Davis
Gladiator (2000)
Are you not entertained?
There was a mini-revival of the sword-and-sandal epic in the 2000s, thanks partly to the success of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. After the Roman general Maximus (Russell Crowe) is betrayed by the emperor’s vile son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), he becomes a slave and then a gladiator, which is a theme that seems to repeat in these stories. The movie is very much a tribute to the grand sword-and-sandal films of the past, except this time the cast and crew have access to more modern technology.
Ridley Scott made a sequel to Gladiator in 2024, and while it’s not as universally beloved as the first movie, it still delivers.
- Release Date
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May 5, 2000
- Runtime
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155 minutes
- Director
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Ridley Scott
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Russell Crowe
Maximus Meridius
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Joaquin Phoenix
Emperor Commodus
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Troy (2004)
Homer’s other classic epic poem
The Odyssey is set after the Trojan War, as Odysseus is making his way home. But before he told that story, Homer wrote The Illiad, an epic poem set near the end of the Trojan War. Odysseus is one of the characters in this movie, played by Sean Bean, but mainly we follow Achilles (Brad Pitt), the mightiest warrior of his time.
Troy isn’t as thoughtful or poetic a movie as Nolan’s Odyssey, but it’s a muscular action flick that will get the blood pumping.
- Release Date
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May 14, 2004
- Runtime
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163 Minutes
- Director
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Wolfgang Petersen
300 (2007)
History but make it insane
Director Zack Snyder gave us his version of a sword-and-sandal epic with 300, which is every bit as off-the-wall wild as you’d expect from him. Nominally, the movie tells the story of the Battle of Thermopylae, when an alliance of Greek city states fought an invading Persian army. But the movie bears little resemblance to actual history; instead, it’s an excuse for Snyder to direct a lot of very stylized, very over-the-top action scenes, which is just fine in our book. The movie is a blast to watch.
In 2014, director Noam Murro made a sequel called 300: Rise of an Empire, but it’s not nearly as good.
- Release Date
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March 9, 2007
- Runtime
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117 minutes
- Director
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Zack Snyder
Quo Vadis (1951)
Back to the beginning again
Before we end, let’s go back to the early days of the sword-and-sandal epic. Quo Vadis is set in ancient Rome and tells the story of a star-crossed romance between a military commander named Marcus Vinicius (Robert Taylor) and a noble hostage named Lygia (Deborah Kerr). But the real draw is Peter Ustinov’s unhinged performance as the mad emperor Nero, who burns Rome and then blames the emerging Christian population.
Like a lot of these movies, Quo Vadis indulges in grand spectacle, with huge sets and elaborate costumes. Older movies like this aren’t always entertaining in a way modern audiences are used to, but there’s still a lot to love here.
- Release Date
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November 8, 1951
- Runtime
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171 minutes
- Director
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Mervyn LeRoy
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Robert Taylor
Marcus Vinicius
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Even more of The Odyssey
If your loyalty is to The Odyssey specifically rather than to the sword-and-sandal epic in general, there are lots of other adaptations out there. And if you want more of Nolan, one of his forgotten masterworks is returning to theaters soon.
