Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is a brilliant reinterpretation of the ancient story. Matt Damon's Odysseus is a man haunted by his deeds in the Trojan war, whose guilt complicates his decade-long efforts to return home. Nolan's signature muted color palate and disjointed narrative feature heavily here, but it works, as we learn the story from Odysseus as he is weened off the lotus flowers that he has devoured ever since washing up on the sea nymph Calypso's shores, crewless and desperate not to remember. Zeus's hospitality--the ancient law to treat others under your roof as you would treat one of the gods--is constantly referenced. Through tricking the Trojans into thinking Athena has left them a gift, Odysseus ended the Trojan war by opening the gates of the city after exiting through the famous horse. "Ten years of rage poured into the city in one night," he confesses. One of the great twists of the movie involves the appearance of Athena (Zendaya), who periodically appears to Odysseus to represent his conscience. The whole gritty realism trend in media was started by Nolan--his version of Batman strips the character of much of the overtly fantastical--but he doesn't not necessarily do this with the Odyssey. The cyclops, giant warriors, a trip to Hades--these all appear. But the focus of the story is not on building a mythical universe. Rather, it's all about how the powerful destroy civilization by breaking down the basic hospitality that holds us together. Nolan is angry about the modern world (as am I), where the previously unthinkable seems to happen everyday. Odysseus is forced into the Trojan war by Agamemnon who towers over the rest of the Greeks in his intimidating armor. However, when Odysseus meets his king in Hades, Agamemnon tells him not to go home and expect a welcome, as he was slain by his wife for sacrificing their daughter for favorable winds for the journey to Troy. Stripped of his armor in the flashback, Agamemnon is soft, his hair billowing down to his shoulders in luscious curls. He is killed in his bed by a tiny woman, revealing his entire stature to be an illusion. This is why Nolan's Odyssey is dangerous to fascists. It's not the casting of Elliot Page as one of Odysseus's soldiers, or Lupita Nyong'o's portrayal of Helen of Troy (though it does reveal their bigotry) that really endangers them. It's the fear that the powerful will be revealed as fakes like Agamemnon. It's the idea that shame and empathy can mar the feats of a legendary warrior like Odysseus. Elon Musk has threatened to make a non-woke "historically accurate" version of the Odyssey using AI, proving once and for all that he is an absolute moron (Where are you going to find a historically accurate cyclops, Elon?). That he thinks he can surpass Nolan's artistic achievement using his plagiarizing, destructive technology shows that he is a true villain, an man who thinks the rules of civilization do not constrain him. He is Robert Pattinson's Antinous, a coward plotting to steal Odysseus's kingdom while he is away. In the Odyssey, there is a reckoning, and despite atoning for his mistakes, Odysseus goes into exile, leaving his kingdom to the next generation. Such is the way of life, no? The Odyssey is the best film of Christopher Nolan's career, a must-see movie that's about as moving as a blockbuster film can be.
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