So, next weekend, July 17th, is the release of Nolan’s next film, his adaptation of The Odyssey. A

Universal Picture

movie that has already drawn fire from idiots online who believe that true beauty can only be represented by fair skin, blonde hair, and sky-blue eyes and has reignited the, from what I can tell, unjust attacks on Emily Wilson’s translation of the epic. I can’t see this two-bit controversy causing any damage to a film by Christopher Nolan and creator who managed to make a lengthy feature that focused on testimony in bland little rooms into an award-winning and box office monster. No, The Odyssey will do just fine, and my sweetie-wife and I will be there Sunday morning to see it on its opening weekend, but it will be a test of endurance as the reported running time is a staggering two hours and fifty-two minutes.

Clearly Nolan cares as little for his audience’s bladder health as he did for their respiratory health when he pushed Tenet into theaters while the COVID pandemic, a pandemic that killed a million Americans, still burned hot. Because the studio, Warner Brothers, delayed the film’s theatrical release, from its original July 2020 until September of that same year, Nolan severed his relationship with them and has since camped his productions at Universal.

Three hours without an intermission is hardly in the same category as expecting people to flock into a confined space while an airborne disease burns its way through the population, but it is also a sign that the filmmaker has little regard for the comfort of their audience. AMC theaters will be a little unhappy because while I plan to see this film, I have adored most of Nolan’s projects (Following is dumb and Interstellar is an overly cynical derivation of 2001: A Space Odyssey.) I will not, for my own comfort, be purchasing any size of diet soda from the concession stand.

When Quentin Tarantino released his nearly three-hour feature, The Hateful Eight, an enjoyable but ultimately lacking film, he included a limited run of a ‘roadshow’ release where the film was presented with an intermission. Nolan isn’t even giving us that. It’s a large-format film and nearly three hours but without a break for the audience.

Nolan is a talented director and writer, someone willing to challenge audiences with complex plots presented usually in a non-linear fashion, but I wish to the gods that he did not also challenge our biology as well.