The Odyssey – Review

One of the most well known stories in human history is Homer’s Odyssey. Even people who have not read the full story at least know parts of the story and some of the characters. It has helped shape western culture. (Amazon affiliate link)

But that also makes it a challenge to make a cinematic adaptation of the story. A lot of people have strong opinions and some people are always going to be disappointed.

Add to that the fact that we live in polarizing times and there is a culture war through which people see almost every aspect of society. People are looking to be outraged over something.

This has been one of the challenges of Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey. Even before the movie came out, some people were upset, there were threats of boycotting, and predictions of failure.

The concern was that the Odyssey would be “woke.” That is a loaded word that is used to mean so much more than what it originally meant. The main issue was that Nolan cast people of colour in key parts even though the story is supposed to be about Greeks.

Watching the movie, this was a non-issue. The reason being that as far as I know, no Greek actors were used in the movie! At no point did I ever actually think Matt Damon was Greek. So having an Indian or an African playing a part was not a big deal.

Now that I got that out of the way, how was the movie?

I will say right away that I am a fan of Christopher Nolan films. I really enjoy his style. And the Odyssey did not disappoint.

This movie had a star-studded cast and that can be either good or bad. In this case it was good, as many of them brought their full skill to the parts. Ann Hathaway in particular was excellent.

It helps that the Odyssey is an incredible story. It is not a typical action adventure. Numerous times, Odysseus and his friends are running away from superior enemies. Odysseus is definitely a hero who cannot win every battle. And even when he wins, he sometimes loses.

Of course there are changes from Homer. Some people will not like that. Parts were skipped and some stories merged. Even the character of Odysseus had some different motivations.

Christopher Nolan brought his own interpretation to the story, using a lot of creative license. But that is not a bad thing.

As someone who has studied ancient Greek literature to a certain extent, these stories were always being reinterpreted. Not everything remained consistent from one telling to the next.

I thought the story that Nolan wanted to tell was a great story that speaks to people today. That is a reasonable thing, as even the written Odyssey places events of centuries before into Homer’s contemporary age.

I believe Nolan’s Odyssey will long remain as a major piece of cinematic achievement. So much was incredibly well done. The scenes with the cyclops were terrifying and done far better than any other version I have seen.

I am glad that I watched Odyssey and I would definitely rewatch it.