Movies don’t always get their final verdict when they leave theaters, and Matt Damon said something about making The Great Wall that still stands out years later.
Nearly a decade after The Great Wall first arrived, Matt Damon’s massive fantasy adventure is getting another shot with audiences. The movie recently broke into Netflix’s U.S. Top 10, putting one of the more unusual blockbusters of Matt Damon’s career back in front of viewers. For a movie that arrived with enormous expectations and a lot of conversation surrounding it, finding a new audience on streaming gives The Great Wall a very different kind of second life.
And whatever you think about the movie itself, there was one part of making it that Matt Damon clearly never forgot.
The Great Wall is getting another chance with viewers
If there was ever a movie designed for a giant screen, The Great Wall certainly qualifies. Directed by Zhang Yimou, the filmmaker behind Hero and House of Flying Daggers, the movie takes historical China, adds a monster story and goes very big with both. Huge armies, elaborate costumes, enormous sets and fantasy creatures all became part of a movie that was clearly aiming to feel like an event.
Matt Damon plays William Garin, a European mercenary who travels to China looking for gunpowder. What he finds is something he definitely wasn’t expecting. The Great Wall isn’t simply there to keep an invading army away. It is protecting the country from the Tao Tei, monstrous creatures capable of overwhelming just about anything in their path. William eventually joins forces with an elite group of Chinese warriors who are trying to stop them before they can move beyond the wall.
The international cast was another big part of the movie. Jing Tian plays Commander Lin Mae, while Pedro Pascal stars as Matt Damon’s fellow mercenary Pero Tovar. Willem Dafoe and Andy Lau are also part of the ensemble. The Great Wall was Zhang Yimou’s first English-language feature and, at the time, was described as the largest movie ever filmed entirely in China. There certainly wasn’t anything small about it.
Matt Damon remembered seeing the Great Wall in person
For Matt Damon, making The Great Wall also gave him the chance to experience the real thing. Around the time of the movie’s release, Damon talked about visiting the Great Wall of China with his family. Friends who had already been there tried to describe it to him. Still, he said nothing could really prepare him for finally seeing it himself.
What impressed Damon most was the sheer scale of it. He remembered looking at something that seemed to keep going forever. He was also struck by how long ago it had been built and that people had done the work by hand. Even after years of traveling the world, the experience stood apart for him.
That makes his comments especially interesting now that The Great Wall is finding viewers again. The original theatrical conversation has long since faded. But Damon’s reaction to seeing the Great Wall in person still gives the movie a personal connection years later.
Click on the video below to hear Matt Damon talk about seeing the Great Wall in person.
The Great Wall still has plenty of spectacle
The Great Wall had a lot working against it when it originally arrived in theaters. Expectations were huge. The movie reportedly cost around $150 million to make. It was also being positioned as a blockbuster that could connect with audiences in both China and the United States.
It eventually made roughly $335 million worldwide. That sounds like a lot of money, and it is. But expensive productions also come with major marketing costs. A worldwide total like that doesn’t always mean everyone involved walks away happy.
Streaming gives a movie like The Great Wall a completely different opportunity. There’s no ticket to buy, nobody is waiting to see whether it can deliver a massive opening weekend and there is far less pressure surrounding the decision to watch it. Someone scrolling through Netflix simply sees Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, monsters, giant battle sequences and one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world. Sometimes that is more than enough to hit play.
The cast also looks different nearly a decade later. Pedro Pascal’s career has exploded since The Great Wall arrived, while Matt Damon remains one of Hollywood’s most recognizable stars. Someone finding The Great Wall on Netflix today may have little connection to the expectations, reviews or box-office conversation that surrounded the movie back in 2017. They may simply be looking for an entertaining fantasy movie with a familiar cast.
Visually, The Great Wall still has plenty to offer. Zhang Yimou fills the screen with enormous armies, colorful battle formations, elaborate costumes and giant fantasy creatures. Even if the story doesn’t completely work for everyone, it’s hard to accuse the movie of not giving audiences something to look at. That spectacle may be one reason the Matt Damon Netflix movie is finding a new audience years after its original release.
Nearly a decade later, The Great Wall doesn’t need to become the blockbuster everyone originally hoped it would be. Finding a new audience on Netflix is a pretty good second act.
The Great Wall is available on DVD, Blu-ray, 4K, digital platforms and is streaming on Netflix.
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