Episode Debrief: The Odyssey — Not Service Connected

Combat veterans. Cinematic opinions. No safe takes.

The Beards convened for one of the big ones: Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Homer by way of IMAX — and a room full of veterans with real feelings about long trips home.

The debrief

The crew came in braced for the hype — and split on whether the hype helped. Rambo’s take: the buildup did the film “a little bit of a disservice,” but what’s underneath held up — a war story about what happens after the war, which is exactly this crew’s territory. The sailing talk got real, we needed Scorched Earth for this one, the Cyclops got its due, and the conversation kept circling back to the thing Nolan snuck past everybody: this is a PTSD movie wearing an epic’s armor.

“Not one but two different parts in the film were so close and so real to me that I’m crying in the theater — like, holy shit, Nolan, you got me. I came home in person, but it took me a long time to come home. I think a lot of veterans have that.”

— Cap’n Jack

And because this is still Beards of War: seven years on a private island with Charlize Theron “would help anybody’s PTSD, if I’m being honest — but again, that’s not service connected. There’s no coverage for that.” There’s your episode title.

The scorecard

Beards’ score: 9/10. IMDb’s crowd says 8.5. For once, everybody agrees: go see it — with an open mind, and maybe a battle buddy.

On the mics

Watch the full debrief