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Only a few more days to wait for the long, Memorial Day weekend break! Decide now to read Emily Henry’s Beach Read this weekend so you can join us on June 18th at 7:30pm Central Time to discuss this escapist title about books, bookish people, writers, publishing, and, you guessed it, the beach! (and maybe a little bit of romance, too) SIGN UP HERE to save your spot in the sun…I mean… to register so you receive the virtual book club meeting link.

Today’s post is about mythology in modern(ish) film. Now, my rules for this are that the mythologies can be fantastical and magical – that’s what makes much of mythology, well, mythology – but they must also be based on actual Earth cultures. (You will not find Middle-earth mythos here – sorry my LOTR fans.) This is not an exhaustive or extensive list, and unfortunately, they are all American films because Hollywood is very prolific in making films based on myths from the Mediteranean. ~A.

Just to get it out of the way, 2004’s Troy is a powerhouse of a movie. The cast is beyond compare: Brad Pitt as Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector, Orlando Bloom as Paris, Peter O’Toole as Priam, Diane Krueger as Helen, and Sean Bean as Odysseus to make some highlights. The acting is solid and engrossing. I don’t like some of the changes the writers made from the Iliad, but sometimes that makes a better, more easily understood movie. Definitely worth watching at least once. The score by James Horner is also a winner.

Clash of the Titans (1981) – Harry Hamlin plays Perseus who must go on a quest to save Princess Andromeda from being sacrificed to appease the gods. Laurence Olivier plays Zeus, Maggie Smith plays Thetis, and the indomitable Ray Harryhausen produced the special effects. This was my introduction to Greek myth on film and it was frightening and thrilling as a child. 10/10 recommend parents scare the bejesus out of their children with this movie.

Clash of the Titans (2010) and Wrath of the Titans (2012) – This is a movie about Perseus with the same name as the 1981 original but with few other similarities. Liam Neeson as Zeus, Sam Worthington as Perseus, and Ralph Finnes as Hades. Wrath of the Titans, the 2012 sequel, the actors reprise their 2010 roles so that Perseus can travel to the underworld to save his father Zeus from the scheming Hades.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (2010) and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013) – Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, and Alexandra Daddario star in the cinematic adaptation of Rick Riordan’s series but with some differences in plot. Happily, Disney+ has a brand new live-action series in pre-production, where the majority of the teleplays will be written by Riordan himself. They are currently preliminary casting for the series, and the details can be found on Riordan’s website here.  [Nikki here: I previewed the first movie considering it for littles, and…I’ll just say I’m excited the powers that be are having another go at doing this book justice!]

Hercules, like Perseus, has several iterations including: Disney’s 1997 animated film Hercules, because who doesn’t love Michael Bolton’s Go the Distance. Dwayne Johnson starred in the 2014 live action film. Additionally, Kellan Lutz starred in The Legend of Hercules in 2014. No one of a certain age, like mine, could forget Kevin Sorbo in TV’s Hercules: The Legendary Journeys for six seasons and 111 episodes.

One of my personal favorites that spun off of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys from the late 1990’s is Xena: Warrior Princess with Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor. Definitely a show that formed my thought process about what women are actually capable of in real life. I definitely watched them and then discussed them with my Girl Scout troop members.

Who can forget (me, I guess?) 2011’s Immortals with Henry Cavill playing the mortal Theseus to stop Mickey Rourke’s King Hyperion from finding a weapon that can end humanity. Kellan Lutz also acts in the movie. Let’s just find some snacks to eat while watching some snacks on screen. 

Gods of Egypt is a 2016 film starring Gerard Butler of 300 fame and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau who played Jamie Lannister in Game of Thrones. They play two rival Egyptian gods fighting for the fate of the universe. I’ve seen snippets in passing, just whoa on the graphics.

In our introduction post for Mythology in May, I admitted that we can’t be friends if you don’t like 1999’s The Mummy.  [Nikki here: She makes exceptions, just don’t bring it up. ;)] Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz reprised their roles of Rick O’Connell and Evelyn Carnahan in 2001’s The Mummy Returns. I like both films, but The Scorpion King with Dwayne Johnson (are we seeing a pattern?)…I fell asleep to it in the theatre during after prom festivities in 2002. It was junior prom, I was exhausted.

I won’t skip over American Gods a Starz original series even though I mentioned it in our Virtual Book Club Recap post. And, no, I still haven’t sat down to watch some episodes. 

Nikki tagging in here: It isn’t lost on us dear readers, that this is a list of films mostly featuring a lot of white actors playing Greco-Romans.  We do have some representation from Egyptian mythology, but the actors are still on the pale side.  There are more films out there, surely, we hope, maybe, featuring mythology from other pantheons, reflecting other cultures, but either they haven’t been marketed in the US or we’ve missed or forgotten them.  If you have something to share that helps us consider a more diverse body of work, or more diverse actors, please help us learn about those!  

~Ashley & Nikki

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