Tell me, O Muse, of the man of many devices, who directed full many films after he had rebooted the sacred franchise of Batman. Yes, last night (July 6) marked the London premiere of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, before it crosses the wine-dark sea for a New York showing and eventually rolls out in cinemas worldwide on July 17. 

Hailed as an “absolute masterpiece” by Tom Holland – who plays Odysseus’s son, Telemachus – the film has a lot to live up to. Not least because it retells one of the best-known stories in Western literature and, as such, has to contend with a long history of both direct and indirect adaptations. These date back to the very, very early days of cinema, when the Georges Méliès film The Mysterious Island (1905) told the story of Odysseus escaping the one-eyed giant Polyphemus, and were still going strong as recently as 2024, with the Very Serious drama The Return.

Between these two dates, it’s impossible to say how many versions of Homer’s epic have graced our screens. After all, many of the best ‘Odyssey’ films aren’t based on the source text at all, but simply pick up threads from the archetypal story and use them to weave a new tapestry. (That’s a Penelope reference by the way – yes, I have read the whole thing! And I will keep making sure everyone knows about it!) It is possible, though, to assemble a list of our favourite films about arduous journeys home, long-awaited reunions, and tales that make us want to put our essential possessions in a bindle and set off on a journey of epic proportions. And the Dazed team has done just that, below.

THE STRAIGHT STORY (1999)

What is, on the surface, David Lynch’s ‘most normal’ film is still pretty strange. The Straight Story tells the (true) tale of Alvin Straight, who crosses Iowa and Wisconsin on a 30-year-old lawnmower in order to visit his estranged brother, who has suffered a stroke. The truly epic journey takes him through a landscape of golden fields, populated with hulking farm machinery and speeding traffic – the Scylla and Charybdis of the American Midwest? – as well as assorted waifs and strays. Along the way, Alvin (Richard Farnsworth) meditates on growing old, the importance of family, and the haunting after-effects of WWII, and at the film’s climax Harry Dean Stanton loads more emotion into about two minutes of screentime than most actors can hope to convey in an entire career. The reunited brothers barely even talk; Alvin’s journey does all the talking for them. (TW)

O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (2000) 

While Homer’s 800 BC epic is in many ways the prototypical adventure story, inspiring countless tales to follow, O Brother, Where Art Thou is a more direct retelling – swapping the Mediterranean Sea for the racist American South in 1937. Following a trio of escaped convicts (one of whom is named Ulysses – the Roman translation of Odysseus) on the search for hidden treasure, the film reimagines several key moments in the original Greek poem: the group are brutalised by an eye-patch wearing Bible salesman (the cyclops), seduced by three bathing women who eventually rob them (the sirens), and meet a blind prophet by the side of the railroad (Tiresias of the Underworld), to name just a few. But O Brother, Where Art Thou isn’t a simple rehashing of Homer’s tale: it’s firmly dedicated to its period setting, featuring an original country and bluegrass soundtrack album which is widely regarded as one of the best soundtracks of all time. (SPM)

AS I LAY DYING (2013) 

Based on William Faulkner’s seminal Southern Gothic novel, James Franco’s 2013 adaptation of As I Lay Dying follows the Bundren family as they journey across the fictional Mississippi county of Yoknapatawpha to bury their recently deceased matriarch, Addie, in her hometown of Jefferson. In some ways, it’s a classic ‘quest’ story – the title is even taken from a line in The Odyssey – but As I Lay Dying interrogates how grand acts of valour and heroism are so often undercut by selfishness. Almost all of the Bundren clan attempt to embark on various self-serving side quests during their journey: 17-year-old Dewey Dell wants to get an abortion; Anse, Addie’s widower, wants new teeth (and ideally, a new wife); even saintly eldest son, Cash, idly daydreams about buying a gramophone once they reach Jefferson. Come for the borderline farcical action typical of a quest narrative (eg Addie’s coffin toppling into a flooded river); stay for the thought-provoking reflections on identity, family, and death. (SS)

PARIS, TEXAS (1984)

Years before The Straight Story, Harry Dean Stanton was on the other end of the odyssey. Wim Wenders’s Paris, Texas begins with Stanton’s Travis Henderson adrift, on foot, in the West Texas desert. Presumed dead for four years, he’s soon reunited with his brother, who takes him to his LA home via a series of lingering shots of barren sunsets – here, he meets his abandoned young son, Hunter. Unlike the Odyssey, though, the journey doesn’t end with this homecoming, as Travis and Hunter go in search of the child’s mother through Houston’s peeping shows and parking lots. As far as epic journeys go, it’s much lighter on heroic acts and loving reunions than its ancient precursors, but it’s a 20th-century cinema classic for a reason. (TW)

THE LORD OF THE RINGS (2001-2003)

The Lord of the Rings is the greatest story ever told. And the greatest trilogy of films ever made. Following two gay hobbits as they traverse the fictional world of Middle-earth to destroy a nasty piece of jewellery, this immortal classic distils eternal truths about power, purpose, and the nature of good and evil. It also features the sexiest man ever committed to the screen – Viggo Mortensen as soldier-poet-king Aragorn – and the greatest speech in the English language (sorry, Dr King). This speech, given by one of the aforementioned gay hobbits when the other is having a wobble, speaks to the idea of journeys – and odysseys – and why they captivate us so much.

Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam.

Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened. But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?

Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for. (TS)

THE WARRIORS (1979)

While some critics have compared it to The Odyssey, The Warriors is actually based (very loosely) on a different Greek legend (Xenophon’s Anabasis). It transposes the action to a lurid, punky 1970s New York, where a street gang are framed for the murder of a respected gang leader. With every single rival crew in the city out to get them, egged on by a sultry radio DJ, they have to escape to their home turf of Coney Island. Each gang has its own distinct vibe: there are punks, roller-bladers, a baseball team in thick makeup, and the seductive, all-female Lizzies.

The Warriors is, to me, the platonic ideal of a fun film to watch with your friends, ideally while getting a little tipsy: it’s genuinely great (exciting and well-paced, with an excellent score and costume design) while also being kind of campy and unintentionally funny. A romp! (JG)

STAND BY ME (1986)

Stand By Me is easily one of the best coming-of-age films of all time. Set in small town America during the 1950s, it follows a group of 12-year-old friends who embark on a days-long trek through the countryside to see a dead body. While that may sound morbid, it’s a very sweet, poignant film about the intensity and transience of childhood friendships (that it stars River Phoenix, who would die of an overdose less than a decade later, adds another layer of pathos.) Like in The Odyssey, the gang are tested by a series of perils along the way, including an evil guard dog, having to outrun a speeding train while crossing a bridge, and a thrilling final showdown with a menacing local bully played by the young Kiefer Sutherland. If that wasn’t enough to sell it, it also comes in at a tight 90 minutes. (JG)