{"id":148422,"date":"2026-08-19T05:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T05:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/148422\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T05:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T05:59:10","slug":"its-a-case-of-history-meets-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/148422\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a case of history meets Hollywood"},"content":{"rendered":"

The eras of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d and the Vikings happened about 2,000 years apart \u2014 so how did a Viking longship end up with a starring role in this year\u2019s blockbuster movie? Look to director Christopher Nolan, and his obsession with bringing spectacle to life with real props, real scenes. But also credit a team of Norwegian shipwrights and sailors who built a vessel that speaks to both history and Hollywood.<\/p>\n

With its tar-soaked rigging, creaking oak deck and 50 spruce oars, Draken Harald Harfagre is the largest modern replica of a Viking ship. It mattered little that it had to drop its Scandinavian roots for Greek mythology \u2014 the anachronism blended into the service of Nolan\u2019s brand of realism.<\/p>\n

For the film, though, Draken had to be stripped of the dragon figurehead at its bow \u2014 typical of the Viking era, from the 8th to 11th centuries \u2014 as it sailed for the cameras in Greek, Italian and Scottish waters. \u201cWe found a Viking ship that had been built exactly according to those ancient specifications. And it was very much the whole shape and the rig that we needed to do a Bronze Age ship,\u201d Nolan told US television last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took the crew, and we put their crew all in our costumes. They became part of the movie crew, as it were. And Odysseus\u2019 guys, the actors, joined in with them, and they figured out how to raise the sail, how to rig it, how to row, all of this stuff.\u201d For months, the longship\u2019s crew of seasoned sailors rubbed shoulders with Hollywood star Matt Damon, who plays Odysseus on-screen, and a host of professional actors.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"People<\/p>\n

People visit the Draken Harald Harfagre (the ship used in the movie the Odyssey) as the ship is docked outside Oslo Opera in the Norwegian capital.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"The<\/p>\n

The oars of the Draken Harald Harfagre (the ship used in the movie the Odyssey) are pictured as the ship is docked outside Oslo Opera in the Norwegian capital.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Ropes<\/p>\n

Ropes and sails of the Draken Harald Harfagre (the ship used in the movie the Odyssey) are pictured as the ship is docked outside Oslo Opera in the Norwegian capital.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"The<\/p>\n

The Draken Harald Harfagre (the ship used in the movie the Odyssey) is docked outside Oslo Opera in the Norwegian capital.<\/p>\n

\u2018Doing the real thing\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was one day where one of the actors who was sitting in front of me got seasick and threw up over the rail. It blew back on me,\u201d recalled sailor Trammell Hudson. \u201cI thought that would be my big scene, because the IMAX camera was very focused on him and me in the background dodging the debris. But I didn\u2019t see that particular scene in the film,\u201d he told AFP when the Draken and its crew made a recent visit to Oslo.<\/p>\n

Based on Homer\u2019s epic, Nolan\u2019s film retraces the hero Odysseus in a perilous journey to his home on the island of Ithaca after the Trojan War in the 12th century BCE. Rather than recreating a ship with computer-generated images, Nolan wanted a real one, capable of sailing on the open sea with flesh-and-blood men aboard.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the scenes would be completely different if it wasn\u2019t for us being there, doing the real thing with the real ship and the real crew in the real ocean and real weather,\u201d said Emanuel Persson, expedition director for Draken. \u201cI think the viewers can actually feel the genuine materials. I don\u2019t know if you can really smell the tar, but you can tell it\u2019s really genuine handicraft instead of being a digital creation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Crew<\/p>\n

Crew members of the Draken Harald Harfagre (the ship used in the movie the Odyssey) work on board as the ship is docked outside Oslo Opera in the Norwegian capital.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"The<\/p>\n

The oars of the Draken Harald Harfagre (the ship used in the movie the Odyssey) are pictured as the ship is docked outside Oslo Opera in the Norwegian capital.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

A detail of the Draken Harald Harfagre (the ship used in the movie the Odyssey) is pictured in the Norwegian capital Oslo.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"The<\/p>\n

The Draken Harald Harfagre (the ship used in the movie the Odyssey) is docked outside Oslo Opera in the Norwegian capital.<\/p>\n

All hands on deck <\/p>\n

On board, everyone played their part. \u201cMatt Damon was very nice and very good. Never complained. Every one of the actors was out for a long time and it was very cold and sometimes rough,\u201d recalled the longship captain, Bjorn Ahlander. \u201cNo complaints, nothing, never. So that was fantastic to see.\u201d With such a mixed crew on board, it wasn\u2019t always easy to row in perfect sync. \u201cIt\u2019s very important that the hundred rowers coordinate because the oars are quite long and they will tangle with each other,\u201d Trammell Hudson stressed.<\/p>\n

He recalled being thrown \u201ca meter-and-a-half into the air\u201d, along with his rowing partner, when the blade of their oar hit a wave head-on. The sweet memories from the shoot are in sharp contrast to those from neighboring Sweden. Like Penelope waiting for Odysseus, the owners of another Viking ship used in the film had their patience tested: after the ship incurred damage during a shoot, they had to wait a year for compensation. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The eras of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d and the Vikings happened about 2,000 years apart \u2014 so how did a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[85],"tags":[3441,1193,8274,23353,23352,32259,157,156],"class_list":["post-148422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oslo","tag-case","tag-history","tag-hollywood","tag-kuwait-news","tag-kuwait-times","tag-meets","tag-norway","tag-oslo"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117120648497763671","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}