The eras of The Odyssey and the Vikings occurred about 2,000 years apart — so how did a Viking longship secure a starring role in this year’s blockbuster film?
The answer lies in director Christopher Nolan’s determination to create spectacle using real props and locations; and the Norwegian shipwrights and sailors who built the vessel.
With tar-soaked rigging, a creaking oak deck and 50 spruce oars, Draken Harald Hårfagre is the largest modern replica of a Viking ship.
Its Scandinavian origins mattered little when enlisted to represent a Greek mythological vessel, the anachronism accepted in service of Nolan’s trademark realism.
The Draken was stripped of its dragon figurehead — typical of the Viking era, from the eighth to 11th centuries — before sailing for cameras in Greek, Italian and Scottish waters.
“We found a Viking ship that had been built exactly according to those ancient specifications”, Nolan said. “It was very much the whole shape and the rig that we needed to do a Bronze Age ship”.
The sailors worked for months alongside Matt Damon, who plays Odysseus and other actors, teaching them to raise the sail, handle the rigging and row.
“One of the actors who was sitting in front of me got seasick and threw up over the rail. It blew back on me”, sailor Trammell Hudson said during a recent visit to Oslo.
“I thought that would be my big scene, because the IMAX camera was focused on him and me dodging the debris. But I didn’t see that scene in the film”.
Based on Homer’s epic, Nolan’s film follows Odysseus on his perilous journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War in the 12th century BC.
Rather than use computer-generated imagery, Nolan wanted a real vessel capable of sailing the open sea with a crew aboard.
“Most of the scenes would be completely different if it wasn’t for us being there, doing the real thing with the real ship and the real crew in the real ocean and real weather”, said expedition director Emanuel Persson.
That practical approach defined Nolan’s vision.
“I think the viewers can actually feel the genuine materials. I don’t know if you can really smell the tar, but you can tell it’s really genuine handicraft instead of being a digital creation”, Persson added.
Captain Bjorn Ahlander praised the actors for enduring long hours in cold, rough conditions without complaint.
Rowing in sync, however, was difficult. Hudson recalled being thrown “a metre and a half into the air” with his partner when their oar struck a wave head-on. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
