An Odyssey Movie Review for Now

I finally saw The Odyssey after getting back from Greece. For me, the most exciting part of all of this is the revitalization of the ancient world into mainstream culture. People are seeing the ancient world as a portal to the modern world, as history is and has always been a reflection of the present. I’m also glad that there have been so many discussions on diversity and sexual fluidity in the ancient world, which I’ve been passionate about for as long as I can remember.

I went into the theater with an open mind because myths are made to be retold. Specific themes will be the main focus depending on the telling, and I knew Nolan’s movie would be different from other retellings.

In the beginning of the movie, I rolled my eyes (quietly) at all the exposition, but I understand that there needs to be a lot of set up for such a big movie. The beginning with Telemachus and Penelope talking reminded me why I’ve always preferred the Iliad to the Odyssey. Tom Holland is way too old to play Telemachus, but I also understood pretty quickly that this movie isn’t a faithful retelling of the epic, but its own thing.

It doesn’t surprise me that many Classicists don’t like the movie. So many aspects of the original were changed or excluded. One of my own favorite parts, the Nobody bit with the Cyclops Polyphemus was omitted.

In the poem, Odysseus tells Polyphemus that his name is Nobody. When Odysseus and his men blind Polyphemus, the cyclops cries out to the other cyclopes that Nobody has hurt him. This also sets up Odysseus getting in his own way and ruining what could have been a smoothly executed move. In the original, when they escape Polyphemus, Odysseus brags and tells Polyphemus his name. This act of hubris leads to Poseidon cursing Odysseus with storms, which wouldn’t have happened if he had just kept his mouth shut and stuck with being Nobody.

Another part of this scene that was excluded that was significant in the ancient world is Odysseus escaping Polyphemus’s cave under a giant ram. I’ve seen so many vases and sculptures of Odysseus clinging to the bottom of a giant sheep in museums. The average person in the ancient Greece would immediately recognize this image—symbolic of Odysseus’s trickery and ability to survive against all odds by using his creativity. But Christopher Nolan’s Odysseus is not the ancient world Odysseus.

Ultimately, what was important to focus on for the ancient Greeks, isn’t what is important to us or to this particular retelling. The bit of comedy where Polyphemus tells the other cyclops that Nobody put out his eye would have been very funny sitting around listening to the story, but this movie wasn’t meant to have comedy. (Though there were a few parts where I laughed even though I probably wasn’t supposed to.)

(Spoilers) Overall, I enjoyed the movie. The constant mention of Zeus’s Law was a bit redundant, but the point of helping the stranger, of treating others the way you would like to be treated, is a painfully relevant theme. Once I watched Ezra Klein’s take on how this relates to our current political situation, I appreciated it even more and thought a lot about the suitors’ cruelty not only to the blind Eumaeus but also to the 20-year-old dog Argos. Here are the powerful being purposefully cruel to the vulnerable, as the GOP has always been to those who need help not harm.

I enjoyed that Calypso, the seductress, is turned into a therapist on her island of self-help. Those scenes were beautifully shot and the modern version of Calypso—not a seductress, not someone who forced Odysseus to sleep with her every night while he cried all day—but a therapist who helped him recover the memory he had erased because of his pain, worked for me.

I also enjoyed Circe’s isle including so many large cats, something symbolic of the original and also of The Mistress of Animals in the ancient world. The images in Circe’s cottage that were excessively witchy, like the crow in a cage, did make me laugh a little. Circe literally turning the men into pigs by reshaping their faces was pretty gross though. I didn’t need that. But if you haven’t read Circe by Madeline Miller, I highly recommend it and her beautiful Song of Achilles.

Back to the movie, the main theme at the end, of Odysseus feeling guilt for his tricks, of him worrying about losing his own humanity was not true to the ancient text, but very poignant to the world we’re living in. To me, it made a film I wasn’t fully onboard with cohesive. This is an Odyssey with no real gods, no sex, or actual trickery. This isn’t the ancient world Odysseus, but I felt that it ultimately worked for our world.

I really enjoyed the parts in the beginning and toward the end where the bard singing the poem stamps his staff. In some parts of the movie, the theater was shaking so much, I thought we could have an earthquake and not know it. It reminded me of being on a Disneyland movie ride.

Though I have still not listened to the whole thing (narrated by Clare Danes!) I have enjoyed what I’ve listened to of Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey. (The introduction alone is mind-blowing.) Wilson translated the first line “Tell me Muse of a complicated man,” which is quoted in the film. Emily Wilson’s latest review is amazing. She hated it and goes into great detail why.

As a writer of mythic retellings, I also noticed that this was a world with no real gods. There’s always a choice in mythic retellings to either have the gods as characters or for the gods only be alive in the minds of the characters.

In the original epics, both the Iliad and the Odyssey, the gods are very real characters who get involved in the lives of their favorite mortals. In the movie, it seems that Zendaya’s character is Athena, until we get to the end and it’s revealed that she’s actually a priestess of Athena who was slaughtered at Troy. That was how I interpreted it. That the woman by Odyssey's side who we thought was Athena was actually the ghost of a priestess who was killed in Troy who had been gently haunting Odysseus. I’ve read that Nolan left this purposefully open for interpretation.

This lack of the gods being real also comes up with the storms that plague Odysseus’s crew. Odysseus says that his men blamed him for the god’s anger but the way this is delivered leaves it as a question of if it was bad weather luck or actually the curse of Poseidon.

One of my favorite parts of mythic retellings is seeing writers reimagine the Greco/Roman gods. I’ve loved reading about gods and how different writers focus on different aspects of the gods. The sadly short-lived TV series Kaos did such an amazing job of imagining the gods in the modern world. Having the gods be real characters is one of my favorite things about mythic retelling. As a writer, I’ve had such a good time writing scenes about Dionysus and Artemis, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Hephaestus, and especially Hades and Persephone, and even Hera and Zeus.

This is definitely a version without the gods, where mortals are looking for gods, but only finding other people. Telemachus tells Mentor that he has eyes like Athena. In the poem Athena disguises herself as Mentor (and basically ever since I read the Odyssey in high school every time I see the word mentor I think ‘a mentor is Athena in disguise.’) In the end of the movie Odysseus tells Telemachus, “Don't look for gods in men; you'll always be disappointed." In many ways, this is great advice for a father to give his son, but it is definitely not a lesson from the original or the ancient world where gods can pop in and out, give advice and leave. Or as referenced so often in the movie, stop by dressed as beggars looking for hospitality.

Finally, I can’t write about this movie without talking about one of my longtime favorite subjects about the ancient world. The ancient world was incredibly diverse and sexually fluid. Just casting a Black woman as Helen brought up so much racism for months before the movie came out. The ancient world has been white-washed and straight-washed, something I spoke about at the Historical Novel Society in 2019. The very idea that what we now call Ancient Greece was “white,” a concept that didn’t exist, and heterosexual, an idea that not only did not exist, but that we have clear historical documentation against in specific city-states, is far-fetched but commonly accepted. I appreciate that these ideas were brought up and that racists once again outed themselves by claiming that a beautiful Black woman couldn’t be Helen.

I’m excited that issues I’ve been passionate about for years are now being discussed in many places. For me, one exciting aspect of  retellings is that the teller and the audience take away different lessons based on the time and place. This is one reason retellings like Circe are so popular--even why there are so many superhero movies. We crave the familiar with a new spin with something relatable. We want to see an old story with a new twist and from a new perspective.

The hubris of the Nobody part is still an important lesson, but it didn't work for this Odysseus. This Odysseus lives without gods and with guilt, in a time of change. He doesn’t brag. He’s not proud of his trickery, instead he regrets it and is haunted by the ghost of a priestess of Athena. He chooses (spoiler) exile instead of kingship. His crimes must be punished. He is not really a hero in the movie, but a man, a complicated man and also a man who is reviving so much interest in the original.

Here are a few photos I took in Athens, where the gods are still appreciated in all their forms.

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