A genuine attempt to grapple with Homer

Homer’s great tale The Odyssey is the story of the epic journey of Odysseus and his quest to return from the war in Troy to his homeland on the island of Ithaca.

It has been told many times and in various forms in its 2,800-year history. It has now been given the full Hollywood blockbuster treatment by Christopher Nolan. Coming in with a production cost of $250m, this film has caused no end of comment and controversy.

First things first. Is it any good and worth going to see? Yes, it is.

Nolan has made a film that is loaded with cinematic spectacle and tension that is, on the whole, consistent throughout the nearly 3-hour running time.

A cast of actors that maybe only Nolan and a select few others could assemble, and his skill as both a director and producer, ensure a number of standout scenes that make the film as enjoyable as it is.

Matt Damon ably leads as Odysseus battling to get home to Anne Hathaway as Penelope. Though for me, Samantha Morton as Circe, fuelled by righteous anger while turning Odysseus’s men into pigs, along with Robert Pattinson as Antinous, the sneering lead suitor tormenting Penelope, are the standout actors in the film.

In addition to the Circe episode and the routing of the suitors at the end, the sacking of Troy along with the escape from the Cyclops work well to maintain dramatic tension where required.

Now, as expected, this is a modern telling of the story, and this in turn has produced a cacophony of comment, reviews, and opinion pieces, some of which are, in all honesty, culture-war guff, often written prior to the release of the film, and loaded with the usual reactionary fixations of the online right.

Of more interest has been the input from classicists. Most notably, Emily Wilson, whose translation Nolan reputedly read in preparation for filming, has written a long review in the London Review of Books.

She leaps to the defence of Homer and militantly points out the vast distance in values, ethos, motivations, and virtues between the original Odyssey of the ancient Mycenaean Iron Age from the modern mores that Nolan brings to his version of the story. Maybe, in the truly ancient spirit, she’s a bit cruel in her criticisms of the dialogue and sensibilities deployed by a modern American filmmaker.

Yet Nolan’s film is a major piece of cinematic work that makes a genuine attempt to grapple with the themes at play in the vast foundational poem that is The Odyssey. Imperfect it is, but vastly superior to recent blockbuster slop produced by Hollywood.

The film has stimulated a dramatic growth in interest in the Homeric world. The book, in its numerous translations, is selling hand over fist, and this is without doubt a good thing. If you haven’t yet seen the film, give it a go and pick up a copy of Emily Wilson’s translation too if you can; it’s well worth a bit of time and effort. §