Nolan's Odyssey - A very technical analysis by a very nitpicky Classics student - Earl Rambles

Nolan's Odyssey - A very technical analysis by a very nitpicky Classics student

PREFACE<br>This is not a be-all-end-all review, this is a more critical analysis of the choices made concerning the writing and plot from the lens of criticising an adaptation. There were bits I liked about this film, but I believe some of the choices made detract from the original themes and characters from the text, to the extents that they are genuinely unfaithful at points. Not saying it makes the film unwatchable or awful, but saying that at times, it doesn’t feel like the Odyssey. But hey. Classics students amiright. I will not cover everything in this, because my memory is not good enough for that, but I’ll include as much as I can. This is very stream of consciousness, so I apologise in advance if this makes no sense. Happy to clarify anything that is incoherent lol. SPOILERS ARE ABOUND. IF YOU WANT AN UNSPOILED EXPERIENCE READ OR WATCH FIRST. Ok enjoy.

ODYSSEUS IS NOT ODYSSEUS

They take out all his tricks!!! No overcoming the Cyclops through trickery, no deceiving Circe! Guy whose main epithets (and intro in opening lines) is as a trickster and he does no tricks!!!

He is essentially written as Achilles, inserted into Odysseus’ plot. Very puritan action hero who beats everyone up and challenges everyone and surges into unsafe situations without scouting.

Guy whose main driving force is wanting to go home literally says the line “maybe I don’t want to go home.” Insane work. He literally spends 7 years MISERABLE on Calypso’s island weeping and begging to go home and instead he just. Forgets. With the lotus (which shouldn’t be on Ogygia). For plot. Sure. (I assume this was an attempt to explain why he was stuck on Ogygia for so long which to be fair is hard to do, so I get that. Even more so when you remove the divine, but we will get to that later :)) )

They also try to make him a perfect action hero and detract from all of his morally grey moments - his second in command Eurylochus randomly makes some of Odysseus’ bad decisions seemingly taking away his agency in making those choices which end up harming his men - at Scylla and with Circe (random mutiny very early on?? Is Odysseus that bad a commander??) Imo too much “action hero”-ing and not enough fighting with creativity and intelligence - he’s not favoured by Athena for nothing!! (or not at all, ig??)

Weirdly seems to be a bad leader??? Like seems to make no decisions, gets mutinied so quickly and for little discernible reason. His men do not trust him or seem to respect him at all. Idk just a bit strange.

His trickery at the end also is very watered down. Lack of divine influence results in it just being Matt Damon in a hood rather than an actual disguise.

I thought the actual suitor slaughter was actually a little underwhelming? Action hero-ification of Odysseus does not extend to his ability to kill the suitors ig? Again, issue of not having gods (Zeus and Athena help in text, as does Telemachus instead of running around being kind of useless and being told to stay out of it). Severe lack of ruthlessness from Odysseus. Missing the driving force of wanting to return home no matter the cost, no matter the sacrifice. I felt leaving some of the suitors who surrendered alive really detracted from the visceral catharsis and kind of undermined Odysseus’ authority? Like yes these men pursued your wife for years and mocked and intimidated your son and ruined your household but at least they said sorry! The purification of kind of morally grey heroes frustrates me.

NO GODS

This is dumb for many reasons. Taking a story driven and incited by actions of gods and removing any real evidence of them doesn’t really work, because it then removes credibility from multiple parts of the story.

Nolan wanting to show forces of nature as gods is fun, but ineffective when you don’t actually explain that to the audience as a direct cause!! A one-off mention to Poseidon is hard for those who are unfamiliar with Greek myths to understand! Even more so when the next storm is actually sent by a different god! (Storm after Helios’ island is sent by Zeus. This is not well communicated)

Most obvious with the Cyclops, lack of direct and overt address to Poseidon from Polyphemus praying for revenge and for Odysseus to never make it home makes the Greeks seem incompetent in their travels!! The whole point is that no matter how good they are and what they do, because of the insult to Poseidon they will never make it home safely!! They are doomed by Odysseus and are forced to foot his punishment!! Removal of gods removes the interplay between fate and free will, and the notions of godly politics influencing how gods and mortals interact

Additionally, removal of gods forces wisdom imparted by gods (normal, believable as all seeing immortals to be able to act as messengers in this way) to be...