NEW YORK (OSV News) – Place one of Western civilization’s foundational texts in the hands of one of the entertainment industry’s greatest living auteurs and the results are likely to be impressive. And so it proves with “The Odyssey” (Universal), writer-director Christopher Nolan’s lavish and absorbing adaptation of Homer’s epic poem.
While taking some liberties with his source material, Nolan remains faithful to it in acknowledging the influence over events of the gods of Ancient Greece. Viewers formed by Judeo-Christian beliefs may, accordingly, find themselves somewhat adrift in a milieu in which these capricious, and often malevolent, pseudo-deities hold sway.
Yet these same moviegoers will easily identify with the screenplay’s underlying values.
As for parents, many may consider the educational value of this classic tale sufficient to justify allowing older teens to enjoy Nolan’s take on it, despite the presence of some material that would normally debar recommendation for them. The film is, however, both too complex and too gritty for kids.
Narrative of ‘The Odyssey’ told from two perspectives
The familiar narrative is told from two perspectives, those of its namesake, King Odysseus of Ithaca (Matt Damon), and of his youthful son and heir, Telemachus (Tom Holland). As the former begins to recover from the stupor of contentment into which he has fallen by eating lotus flowers at the urging of the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron), he begins to piece his past together.
Odysseus recalls the decade-long siege to which he and his Greek allies subjected the seemingly impregnable city of Troy, the ensuing deadlock and the famous ruse he eventually devised to break it. He also remembers the series of challenging, and costly, misadventures he and his men experienced after their ships lost their way on their frustrating journey home.
In the royal court of Ithaca, meanwhile, Telemachus witnesses his mother Penelope’s (Anne Hathaway) unwavering faithfulness to her absent husband as well as her disdain for the unwanted attention of the mob of unruly suitors who have taken over her household. The most prominent of these would-be spouses, cowardly Antinous, is played by Robert Pattinson.
Although equal to his mother in his steadfast devotion to Odysseus, Telemachus grows impatient with the chaos around him and steals away to gain information about the great warrior’s fate. Yet his visit to Odysseus’ erstwhile comrade, Menelaus (Jon Bernthal), King of Sparta, yields few clues.
Themes of hospitality, consequences for lawlessness and immorality
Nolan’s script makes intriguing use of subsequent history to assert a set of universally acceptable ethics. The most significant of these involve the obligation to extend hospitality to strangers, especially those in need.
Based on Zeus’ Law — a real-life code known in Greek as xenia — hosts must provide for the needs of travelers because any such sojourner, however humble in appearance, might turn out to be a god in disguise. Undergirding this principle is a broader pagan version of the golden rule.
Penelope’s loutish suitors doubly violate xenia: first, by abusing her hospitality outrageously and second, by mistreating Odysseus when he eventually appears among them pretending to be a wandering beggar.
Odysseus’ loyal servant and friend, Eumaeus (John Leguizamo), admonishes the intruders for their misdeeds. But they characteristically dismiss him, both because he’s blind and because he started life as a swineherd.
Yet in the movie’s emotional climax, Odysseus reveals to Penelope that he has come to regard himself as a transgressor against xenia. The use of the Trojan horse was a sacrilege as well as a fateful deception. The wanton destruction of Troy, moreover, not only involved preying on innocents but resulted in the desecration of the city’s principle temple, that of Athena (Zendaya).
All this is placed in the context of impending doom. As we know retrospectively, the civilization to which Odysseus belonged would soon be completely eclipsed by a historic cataclysm known as the Bronze Age collapse. Within the movie, the mysterious agents of this catastrophe, the so-called “Sea Peoples,” are already rumored to be wreaking large-scale devastation.
Odysseus foresees the coming disaster as a fitting punishment for the hubris the Greeks displayed in carrying out a crusade of vengeance for the abduction of Menelaus’ wife, Helen (Lupita Nyong’o), a conflict that was in no way a just war. Thus Nolan’s Odyssey is, in the weightiest sense, a cautionary tale about the consequences of lawlessness and immorality.
Viewers will assess Nolan’s message according to their own lights. And some may accuse him of imposing a contemporary outlook on classical characters who might have been bewildered by it.
What all can likely agree on, though, is that “The Odyssey” represents a masterful example of what serious cinema can achieve artistically even while simultaneously aiming for popular success.
The film contains much harsh but mostly bloodless violence, multiple disturbing images, a glimpse of rear nudity in a nonsexual context, a scene of marital sensuality, a couple of instances each of mild swearing and rough language, at least one crude term and about a half-dozen crass expressions. The OSV News classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
John Mulderig is media reviewer for OSV News. Follow him on X @JohnMulderig1.
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