The Odyssey: What’s Old is Made New Again

 Warning: Spoilers ahead for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey

The Odyssey is a truly beautiful film, and seeing it on the big screen was a true sensory experience. The use of sound was truly amazing, and I felt the seats shake many times! I was really struck by the movie’s true respect for the source material and its perfect combination of old and modern (for example, a Bard is often seen at the feasts and is played by a rapper!). Here are the themes that stood out the most to me:

Female roles: I’m calling it now, Anne Hathaway as Penelope and Lupita N'yongo as Helen of Troy will be winning all of the awards this year. Although Penelope is restricted to the role of dutiful wife in the original story, she is front and center in the movie. When Telemachus complains to her once again that Ithaca needs a king, she rightly lashes out. Why is her experience and knowledge that she used to serve Ithaca during Odysseus’s voyage seen as worthless because she’s female? A truly moving scene is when we’re introduced to Helen, whose face is scarred presumably by her violent husband in revenge. She hurriedly whispers to Telemachus to tell Penelope she was sorry that the war was started in her name. She also defends her sister Clytemnestra for killing her husband Agamemnon, who sacrificed their daughter to have the gods on his side of the war. Nolan approaches each character with nuance and sympathy.

Exile as redemptive: In the ancient world, exile was considered a punishment worse than death. Many Greek tragedies end with the hero (or anti-hero) exiled from his homeland and from heaven’s favor forever. Nolan, however, turns that trope on its head. Before the beginning of the war, Odysseus wants to self-exile himself and his family to escape from Agamemnon’s rage. The fear that Telemachus would be sacrificed stops him. When Odysseus reveals himself at the movie’s end, he and Penelope board a boat together and leave Ithaca. Odysseus also recognizes the need to properly mourn his dead and give thanks to the gods. But there is one aspect of this that stuck out at me the most-Telemachus is named king but his parents did not broker a marriage for him before leaving! No self-respecting ancient Greek family would completely disregard their children’s future by not having some spousal options up their sleeves.