Christopher Nolan's Aversion to Relying on CGI in The Odyssey

Using practical effects along with the powerful performances of the actors and actresses involved, Christopher Nolan brought authenticity and human emotion to otherwise unimaginable scenes in his adaptation of The Odyssey. Most of those who have seen the film agree that the scene where the witch Circe turned the Greek soldiers minus Odysseus into pigs was one of the most memorable scenes in the adaptation, due to its disturbingly graphic nature and the performance of Samantha Morton. What made the scene simultaneously hard to look at and hard to look away from was the manner in which Circe calmly used her hands to mold the soldiers' faces into pigs and put her arms down each of their throats.

When asked about the scene, Samantha Morton herself said in an interview with Vanity Fair "I just have to say there's no CGI, and everything is real and in camera." Christopher Nolan applied a no CGI rule to his adaptation so in order to accomplish this extraordinary visual, pig animatronics were created for Morton to form with her hands. Morton's performance along with well-placed cameras and meticulous editing brought the scene together.

That part of the film was not the only one that stayed with audiences once the credits rolled. Another scene is the one where Odysseus and his crew enter a cave and are confronted by the towering cyclops Polyphemus. The sequence was shot in a real cave known as Nestor's Cave located in Greece. Cast and crew carried all the required props and equipment up to the location including a 60-foot-tall puppet made by the production team to be the cyclops. Wide shots of the cyclops were done using the puppet which helped the actors understand the scale and accurately be fearful of what they were faced with. While the puppet itself was manmade, only a small amount of CGI was used to visually enhance the design. Not relying on CGI to sell those particular parts of the movie among others are a huge part of why it was so visually pleasing and a box office success.