The Odyssey is no 'woke-fest', its messaging is deeply conservative – Paul Wilson
Sir Christopher Nolan has mapped out a story arc infused with Judeo-Christian values around duty and self-sacrifice
Two weeks since its release in cinemas, Sir Christopher Nolan's summer blockbuster The Odyssey is as commercially successful as it has been controversial.
A frequent criticism of Hollywood is that risk-averse studios favour tried-and-tested formulas at the expense of more original subject matter – hence the conspicuous number of sequels, franchises, biopics and live-action remakes on offer these days.
But although Nolan has turned to a tale that is one of the oldest in the Western canon, the story of Odysseus had not been brought to the silver screen since Ulysses in 1954, with Kirk Douglas in the lead role.
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Perhaps producers were put off by the scale of Homer's epic, in the true sense of the word, which tells of the ten-year struggle by Odysseus, played by Matt Damon, to return home to his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and their son Telemachus (Tom Holland) after ten years spent fighting the Trojan War.
Judging by the film's global box office takings so far of more than $650 million and by a critical rating of 94 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences are more than ready for the ride – despite indignation from the likes of Elon Musk, particularly over casting.
The world's richest man has pledged that, before the end of the year, his artificial intelligence tool Grok will produce a full-length version of the story that is, in his words, “historically accurate and true to the art of Homer”.
He also replied "I'm down" to a suggestion on X that he should give Mel Gibson $100 million to make an adaptation with "painstakingly historically accurate ships, armour, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken from the original poem and delivered in Homeric Greek".
Gibson's credits include Apocalypto, which is entirely in the Mayan language of the indigenous central American tribes discovered by 16th century conquistadors, and The Passion of Christ, in Aramaic, Hebrew and Latin.
Nolan's Helen of Troy, reputedly the most beautiful woman who ever lived, "the face that launched a thousand ships", is played by Lupita Nyong'o, who is black.
Of course, if Helen of Troy existed in reality it is unlikely she would have been black, but does that really matter? Could any of the cast be described as ethnically authentic?
Findlater Castle makes an appearance
No doubt Damon's Odysseus had a far more ethnically diverse crew aboard his ship than his mythical antecedent. Damon himself is of British and Scandinavian descent, while Holland is about as convincingly Greek as a pasty-faced Englishman can be.
Much of the film was shot hundreds if not thousands of miles from the more “authentic” eastern Mediterranean, with locations including Findlater Castle and Culbin Forest on the Moray Firth. None of this gets in the way of the story or makes it feel in any way "inauthenic".
The controversial casting of transgender actor Elliot Page as Sinon, however, is more problematic. Page delivers a fine performance and the scenes featuring Sinon are as well put together as the rest of the film. But there is no getting around the cognitive dissonance of hearing the words of a male warrior spoken in the female voice of a slight 5ft 2in biological woman.
Page's screen time is brief though, and Musk and other socially conservative critics would be missing out if one bizarre casting decision led them to dismiss the whole work as some sort of "woke-fest",
Part of the beauty of adapting an ancient pillar of western literature is that there is plenty of room for manoeuvre.
In the texts derived from the oral Greek tradition of 2,500 to 3,000 years ago, there is little in the way of character development. We don't get much – if any – sense of an interior monologue from Odysseus.
The ancient Greeks gloried in glory. Glory is the whole point of the original. Odysseus masterminds the sack of Troy, goes off on wild adventures, comes home after 20 years and kills all his wife's suitors. Everyone cheers.
READ MORE: Disappointed Odyssey fans turned away after Edinburgh IMAX screen breaks before sold-out showing
Hospitality towards strangers
Damon's Odysseus is a more nuanced and introspective character. He is racked with guilt for violating "Zeus's law", which states that hosts should extend hospitality to strangers before asking their names on the grounds that they could be a god. The “gift” of the Trojan horse through which the Greeks entered Troy was Odysseus's idea.
The violation of Zeus's law, or “xenia”, is an aspect of the poem but it completely dominates the film, from the brutal destruction of Troy through to Odysseus's disguise as a beggar on his return home.
Odysseus believes his breach of the law through the Trojan horse led to a sequence of other violations that ultimately disrupted the peaceful prosperity the Greek world had previously enjoyed. Having corrected his wrong, he hands his kingdom of Ithaca to his son and goes into self-imposed exile with Penelope.
He does his duty, just as he does when he rejects immortality by leaving the eternally youthful Calypso, played by Charlize Theron, to return to his wife.
My reading of the film
This is deeply conservative messaging. Zeus's law is essentially God's instruction to Moses on Mount Sinai to "love your neighbour as yourself", and Christ's call for his followers to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you".
Nolan has mapped out a story arc infused with Judeo-Christian values around duty and self-sacrifice to make an ancient text resonate more strongly with modern audiences.
Others may take an entirely different view of this film. That’s fine. There are as many readings are there are readers. What cannot be denied is that this is a stunning work by the pre-eminent director of his generation, with excellent performances throughout.
Forget the culture war hysteria and enjoy The Odyssey in cinemas while you can.
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