I think this gets to a really interesting point about the movie, which is that contra Oates, Nolan was not in particular in service to the text, or engaging with it in “good faith” - i.e. attempting to in some way reproduce its message for a modern audience.
By introducing the the Zeus’s law theme - indeed the distorted version which smuggles in “treat others as you would be treated” rather than simply “treat others well for they might be the god” - Nolan is pretty radically reimagining the Odyssey. As @Lantern2 says, this is aHomeric - throughout Homer, Odysseus’ tricksiness is celebrated, his manipulation of others is one of his defining characteristics (the other is that he is a city-sacker, which is pretty explicitly in favour of the kind of behaviour Nolan’s Odysseus bewails) and there is no suggestion that the Trojan Horse ruse is any kind of transgression.
Even more fundamentally, nowhere in Homer and Greek myth will you find that transgressing the rules leads to social collapse. The Furies pursue individual vendettas against such as Orestes, the gods punish the hubris of any person who puts themselves above their mortal place, at worst cities might get collectively punished for their leader’s flaws but the whole collapse of society is not on the cards.
For all Nolan took flack for casting choices and “making Homer woke”, Musk and the Magabrosphere seem to have missed what he’s really doing, which is promoting a conservatism so old-fashioned as to nowadays be completely radical. Norms matter! Standards matter! You must not declare war on a pretext! You should never tear up international rules-based order for temporary advantage! You cannot destroy the lives of your children! And not because of moral sensibility, but because the consequences of abandoning the rules is the destruction of all you hold dear.
Nolan takes the episodes of the Odyssey and puts them on screen tremendously well, but all in the service of a very radical transformation of its themes to make a point that is well worth making, but has very little to do with the Homeric worldview. Which Wilson, as @MrDibble says, does such a good job of laying bare.
In terms of the episodes that Nolan used, it was certainly all the hits - Circe, Calypso, Cyclops, Charybdis etc - but I did miss the Naussica interlude (after all the calamity and high adventure, let’s just spend some time with the princess and her companions playing ball games while Odysseus hides naked in the bushes*, then give the guy some clothes and a good meal and let him sob his heart out). But the main thing I missed is the actual gods! Wouldn’t have worked for Nolan’s theme of “we did this to ourselves” but I just genuinely want to see Poseidon raging at this puny mortal, divines on Mount Olympus haggling over the lives of their favourites while acting out soap opera level petty jealousies and affairs, show me these uncaring forces whose whims can raise us up or destroy us.
I did quite like how it was clear that the characters believed in the gods and interpreted thunder/storms as divine intervention, but making it apparent to the audience that nah, that’s just nonsense takes something away, I think. Imagine doing e.g. a Moses/Exodus story where the plagues and parting of the sea were explained away - what would be the point of the tale?
I think it’s made clear that the gods do exist - I mean, Athena left Odysseus a beggar’s cloak, and the prophecies about Poseidon and Apollo etc all came true. Plus they literally went to the afterlife.
?? It’s not apparent to the audience that the Gods are nonsense. You can have that interpretation, but I never thought the Gods in the film weren’t real. I think that’s a real stretch to see the film that way. I mean they interact with all kind of monsters, and witches, it’s not a stretch that the gods are real too. It could be a reading that Odysseus is imagining Athena, but she gave him her cloak when he landed at Ithaca. That’s a corporeal item that was not there when he landed.
Which Nolan never denied. He never claimed that he was making the “definitive” Odyssey, whatever that is, only that he was telling the story he wanted to tell.
Personally, I went to the theater to see Nolan, not Homer. At this point in time, the former interests me more than the latter.
Hands up, I completely missed the bit with the cloak so fair enough. It is then some very light touch gods.
In terms of the afterlife, witches, and monsters, yes those are real but so much more real than Poseidon - at best a roll of thunder and a storm - or Zeus - maybe some thunder aimed at Calypso (who herself pointedly fails to answer the question “are you a goddess”). I take the point that Athena has some direct input but it’s still a far cry from the interventionist gods of the poem.
Matt Damon: "To him, she’s there. She’s what he has wrought, and she’s living in his head, like his conscience. But we played it like an interior monologue, almost like a soliloquy. She’s gone when the story tells you who she really was.
Christopher Nolan: "The way Telemachus interacts with Athena in the poem, you feel this idea of projection, of seeking the divine in everything around us and also in other people. That’s so important to the way that society had to hold together because in this world, as soon as you leave the house, you’re at the mercy of strangers.
If you’re going out on a journey for more than a day or two, you’re turning up and saying, ‘Feed me, clothe me, help me.’ And so there has to be this glue, this binding principle of ‘I will treat you as if you were a god in disguise, as if I might be judged by the gods for the way I treat you.’ And the poem gives you that. It also gives you the more literal version, but it’s constantly alluding to the idea of gods in disguise walking amongst us. That, to me, felt like the key."
Which doesn’t explain where the cloak came from but I think the reveal that she is a manifestation of his guilt is more in keeping with the big theme.
Haven’t seen it yet, but I find it interesting that Matt Damon’s stunt double was a 4’6" woman. Apparently when his character is fighting giants, they used her as a double and forced perspective to exaggerate the difference in size.
I won’t pay to see it on IMAX, I’ll see it whenever it becomes available for free on one of my streaming packages.
Also, while im firing out random things that occur to me:
In the poem, they go to Hades and meet Achilles, who explains bitterly that his choice to live a short but glorious life as a great warrior was in retrospect, really dumb. Now hes dead forever, he’d rather be a lowly swineherd eating scraps but alive than the most admired of the dead.
That gets swapped for Sinon’s confrontation with Odysseus, but could there have been room for both? Because that fits so well with Nolan’s theme! War isn’t glorious, this macho oo-ra check out my kill count, do you even slaughter bro bullshit is poisonous nonsense, stay home and raise pigs like a grownup.
I liked the new Odyssey adaptation, but I never loved it. The core problem is that the film strips out the single most defining emotional through‑line of the poem — Odysseus’ delight in his own cleverness.
The near‑absence of the gods didn’t bother me. That’s a perfectly valid artistic choice. What bothered me was the transformation of Odysseus from Homer’s joyful trickster into a dour, remorse‑soaked man who seems to take no pleasure in anything he accomplishes. The tricks are still there, but the joy is gone.
In Homer, Odysseus is a man who revels in his victories. He’s the rare hero whose defining trait isn’t strength or piety but wit, and he knows it. He celebrates it. He performs it.
A few examples:
The Cyclops escape — After pulling off one of the great heists in ancient literature, Odysseus can’t resist taunting Polyphemus from the safety of his ship. Reckless, hilarious, absolutely in character.
The Sirens — He literally has himself tied to the mast so he can enjoy the forbidden song. He wants the thrill, the experience, the story.
Circe — Even in darker moments, his interactions with Circe have a sly, knowing quality. He’s negotiating, maneuvering, performing his identity as the clever man.
Across the poem, Odysseus is someone who takes pleasure in being the smartest person in the room. He’s not just a survivor; he’s a performer of cunning. That’s why his homecoming works — he doesn’t simply endure suffering, he outwits it.
Now, here’s the part the movie does get right:
I like the idea that the Trojan Horse trick ends the ancient code of guest‑right and hospitality and has severe consequences for Odysseus and his family. That thematic link to the suitors — men violating hospitality in his own home — is sharp, coherent, and genuinely clever. It’s a good interpretive move.
But the film treats that idea as the only emotional note in the entire story. Everything becomes fallout, guilt, and grim consequence. Odysseus is reduced to a man crushed by the weight of his own cleverness, rather than someone who experiences both the cost and the thrill of it.
The poem gives us a man who suffers, yes — but who also laughs, boasts, schemes, and delights in the world’s challenges. The movie gives us a man who seems crushed by them.
Yeah, I see the point and agree that Achilles’ message is a strong one as the theme goes, but in the context of the movie itself as a standalone vehicle - who is Achilles? He doesn’t appear, isn’t mentioned, just flat out is not a character.
Yes, you’d have to show Achilles in flashback in full warrior mode, but it neednt take much. I think three speeches from the dead might have felt too much though.
Yeah, but then you have two warrior heroes in the story. Works when you have thousands of lines and 50+ hours of recitation time, harder to jam into one movie. Any way I see it, Achilles’ presence randomizes the story more than it helps. Personally, I thought Sinon’s speech was so powerful that anything else would take away, not add.
Sinons speech is powerful and does a big part of what Calder points out, which is making it clear that Odysseus hates himself for his trick on Sinon and the Trojans (although he does then reluctantly trick his crew into choosing Scylla).
But that scene also had Agammemnon laying out how he too paid the price for his transgressions, and warning Odysseus about homecomings. So I’m a bit torn on a third warrior/comrade in arms making a speech, might be overkill, might be rule of three.
Anyhow, this isn’t me saying Nolan you Oscar winning fool what the hell are you playing at, its just a random reflection.
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