The Odyssey in many ways feels like a spiritual successor to director Christopher Nolan's previous film Oppenheimer. A reckoning with the sins of empire-building, and the lies empires tell about the horrible things they did that people are willing to forget.
An adaptation of the epic ancient Greek poem 'The Odyssey' the film follows King Odysseus' journey back to his kingdom of Ithaca after waging a war on the kingdom of Troy at the behest of his Emperor Agamemnon, whom he serves as a vassal.
Instead of retelling a story written by the victors, celebrating their homecoming, Nolan chooses to interrogate the morality of its heroes and the suffering their victory caused.
Rage Against The Divine Machine
The Odyssey is a story that is about a man that defied the Gods and lived through their wrath to make his way back home.
Photo Credit: IMDb
It is worth examining why a director who is reputed for making films about rationality, scientific temper and the complexity of human nature would want to adapt a poem about Gods, magic and kings.
The Odyssey is a story that is about a man that defied the Gods and lived through their wrath to make his way back home.
A story that is equally defined by political intrigue and cynical power struggles as it is by angry Gods, vengeful monsters and cunning witches.
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Odysseus himself is well reputed for using his intellect to surmount obstacles in lieu of might, making him favoured by Athena, the goddess of strategy and wisdom.
The film tells the tale of humanity's pyrrhic triumph against nature, about how it used its intellect to brave it and defy it. How curiosity and scientific temper helped it overcome the uncertainty and the unpredictability of nature.
Nolan's Greek Gods are defined by nature. A terrible storm is the wrath of Poseidon; a life-saving idea is the mercy of Athena; victory in battle is the grace of Ares. At the mercy of nature, humanity found God. Then it found science, and used it to transcend the elements. But the victory rings hollow, since no amount of innovation stops nature from retaliating when man disturbs its balance, leading to global warming and natural disasters.
There are consequences for defying nature, just as Odysseus faces consequences for defying the Gods.
All The World's A Stage..
Anne Hathaway portrays Odysseus' wife Penelope with a refreshing amount of depth.
Photo Credit: IMDb
It would only be fair to address the Trojan horse in the room, regarding the film's casting choices. The movie caught flak for not having an all-Caucasian cast waxing poetic to each other in the accent and tenor of the Queen's English.
But the Greeks were not British nor did they speak in English. If an Ancient Greek were to somehow sit through any Hollywood retelling of their myths, they would find all the choices baffling and foreign and wrong. Because they were made from the sensibilities and the culture of the empire, that retold these stories in a fashion that best suited its agenda.
England's crown of global hegemony now lies heavy on the head of the US. And hence we have American actors using American vernacular speaking to each other in American accents. An accurate adaptation would have Greek actors speaking to each other in a vernacular closer to the era the story originated in, not Hollywood A-listers rubbing shoulders in leather tunics.
Or better yet, one can simply study the poem for themselves for maximum authenticity.
All that out of the way, the film's cast really does give the story the effort it's due. Such as the scenery-chewing Robert Pattinson as the scheming suitor Antinous, vying for Odysseus' wife and his throne during his absence. His gleeful menace is as entertaining as it is deadly.
Or Himesh Patel's Eurylochus, Odysseus' second-in-command, whose steely resolve and level-headed demeanour bounces off excellently against Matt Damon's Odysseus. Damon's Odysseus feels weighted down by the gravity of his choices, and that weariness and guilt is juxtaposed masterfully by his scientific curiosity and rebellious arrogance.
Other standouts include Anne Hathaway as Odysseus' wife Penelope who is written with a refreshing amount of depth as she employs her tact, composure and willpower to overcome the confines of a patriarchal society and polity whose rules are hell-bent on denying her agency.
Wrath Of The Titans
The costuming and set design felt very intentional in its choices.
Photo Credit: IMDb
The Odyssey is defined by sound and fury.
The sound and fury emanating from the thumping of a bard's staff, reverberating through the theatre as he tells a tale of heroism. The sounds and fury of waves breaking upon shores stained with sacrifice and treachery. The sound and fury of a wailing Cyclops clutching his wounded body, crying out in misery and wrath.
The film's sound design really draws you in and is complemented by composer Ludwig Goransson's uncanny ambition to abandon the conventional orchestral melodrama and give the film contemplative ambient soundscapes made from the instruments of the era it is set in.
The costuming and set design felt very intentional in its choices, such as with King Agamemnon's imposing helmet and armour, which did a ton of heavy lifting to project his cold and ruthless aura.
Though, it is rather baffling why a film set during the Bronze Age has actors wearing leather armour which was a tired trope the film could have chosen to sidestep. Era appropriate costumes would have set the film a class apart from its Hollywood peers in its visual identity.
A Coda To Humanity
The Greek hero is immortalised in myth not because of their morality but as a testament to their resilience.
Photo Credit: IMDb
The Odyssey uses simple contemporary language and American accents to create a level of accessibility and familiarity to the audience. Perhaps to remind them that King Agamemnon's Mycenaean empire, that Odysseus helped create was not so different from the empires that exist today.
That the Sack of Troy, was no different from what was done in Vietnam, or in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or closer to home, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. And that this hubris that empires have in their own righteousness might prove to be their undoing.
The film also questions what it means to be a 'hero' as it interrogates the morality and the hypocrisy of Odysseus, his defiance of the Gods despite his deference to Athena.
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His loyalty to his men despite his willingness to sacrifice them for victory and survival. And his determination to reunite with his own family despite orchestrating the massacre of scores of families through war.
The Greek hero is immortalised in myth not because of their morality but as a testament to their resilience in the face of overwhelming odds. The story the film chooses to tell, seems to echo humanity's heroism in the face of nature, as well as its hubris in causing death and destruction in the name of personal gain.
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