The Odyssey (Florence + the Machine) - Full Analysis

The Odyssey

Florence + the Machine

The Full Analysis

This is our final analysis from the How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful era; the full ‘The Odyssey’ film. We won’t be going into depth as we’ve done that already in previous analyses; this is an overview of the full cohesive film, although we do go into depth for ‘Third Eye’ as it is the newest and yet to receive an analysis.

“Between a crucifix and the Hollywood sign we decided to get hurt”. Florence has mentioned many times that How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful was the first song she wrote for this album, but also the last that she finished. It was the song that began Florence’s ordeal, and the opening scene to the Odyssey reflects that. A slow zoom into the crucifix that looms over the whole Odyssey (and LA) highlights the start of the descent into chaos, but also an isolating calm that Florence experienced during her year break. 

CHAPTER 1 - WHAT KIND OF MAN

Everything is rosy: Florence is driving in a car with her boyfriend, when suddenly, the car-crash happens. This is the start of Florence’s destructive year. The What Kind of Man sequence plays, which provides the feeling of sudden chaos that Florence is thrown into with this relationship. The storm of a relationship that will turn her life upside-down looms (in the air on the balcony - a nod to ‘Various Storm and Saints’ - and on the TV). She’s trying hard to fight the men that haunt her; that pull her down. It’s futile. She’s never had this experience before so she remains weak compared to this coming storm. 

CHAPTER 2 - HOW BIG HOW BLUE HOW BEAUTIFUL

Florence crawls out of the car-crash. She’s lost; she’s knocked down. She wonders in the street looking for somewhere to go, and instead finds herself led to the bridge that forces her to cross from freedom to purgatory, under the guise of the crucifix. She’s decided to get hurt. 

CHAPTER 3 - ST JUDE

Set in Mexico, this is no longer reality. This video jumps inside Florence’s head and soul, looking from the inside, hence the back-dated 1950s look and different setting. The storm that the meteorologists and that Florence saw coming on the balcony has arrived, and it has soaked her. She’s fragile; she can only be supported by her boyfriend at this point. The car crash has also caused a split to become apparent in Florence; on one hand she’s strong enough to walk by herself, and to see all this pain, but on the other, she physically sees her lifeless self being carried by her boyfriend, and is powerless to stop it. She wonders around, lost. 

CHAPTER 4 - SHIP TO WRECK

Back to reality, looking at Florence from the outside again. Florence has come from LA to London, just as she did on her year off. The two sides to Florence diverge even further. One half wants calm, the other is destructive. They are at odds with one another, fighting for different things, and hence fighting each other. Florence goes from on the floor in her bedroom, and ends up back in the same spot at the end, symbolising the repetitive nature of destruction that she just could not stop. 

CHAPTER 5 & 6 - QUEEN OF PEACE / LONG AND LOST

We jump back to inside Florence’s mind. This time, it’s set in Scotland; Florence’s ancestral home, when they were younger. These videos mirror the youth within Florence wanting peace and calm, but is unable to establish it because everything around her is not allowing it. It also highlights how her family and friends are trying to protect her from this man that is destroying her, but she’s blind to it. Eventually, they pull her away and force her to leave him behind. It destroys her. 

CHAPTER 7 - MOTHER

Back to real-life, Florence is trapped on this bridge still. Notice that this time, she’s physically imprisoned on it; she can reach out to freedom (the hole in the fencing), but she can’t quite get it. She’s told by her friend to leave, and she tells him she wants to stay. Her friend knows this can’t happen though: she can’t live in purgatory her whole life. 

CHAPTER 8 - DELILAH

Florence realises that it’s time to leave, or at least try. Throughout this video, she’s supported by those around her that help her leave. The man who told her to leave even offers to have his hair cut to give her the strength to do so, just as Delilah cuts Samson’s powerful hair in the biblical story. Together, her friends help her finally see that the other side to Florence is simply not her. They help her escape, and by the end of the video, she’s finally reached freedom, surfing on top of the car. This is ironic, considering her problems started with a car-crash. She’s learnt to control and make sense of the car-crash, and now she’s literally above it.

CHAPTER 9 - THIRD EYE (full analysis)

Florence has finally managed to burn away her problems; burn the storm within which she was trapped. This directly mirrors the hurricane symbol in “St Jude”, and the lyric “now there’s a few things we have to burn”. She’s finally managed exactly that, highlighting the full-circle that Florence has completed on this Odyssey. Instead of being passed on from man to man as in “What Kind of Man”, the man carrying Florence puts her down and leaves her. Florence is finally able to stand by herself. The men still surround her, but she’s able to lead them. They follow her this time, rather than her being carried by them. She’s able to walk through the purgatory of men carrying the weight of their stones/sins. She is no longer that person. The men around her come back, and try to bring her down, but with her saviours looking on, she is not strong and experienced enough to know how to control them. Through dance, she overcomes her torments. Florence said this herself, stating that within her year off, dance was her anchor whilst she was out at sea. The music fades, and Rob Ackroyd appears, showing us that Florence has truly come full-circle. Her band support her back onto stage, and she finally appears on stage. This is the final and ultimate level of freedom. Singing these songs that describe such an isolating time in her life to millions of people is literally the highest level of projection/freedom anyone can achieve. She’s returned to where she belongs; she’s returned to her true whole self.