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Screen Notes: Thoughts on The Odyssey

I liked the movie. I enjoyed it for what it was, I think it was money well spent (we only saw it in a regular cinema, in Dolby Atmos, not IMAX, because we couldn't get tickets even on its second week), and I'm glad we finally saw it. I found Matt Damon's anguish believable, Anne Hathaway was the emotional center and glue, but John Leguizamo and Robert Pattinson were my favorites. Samantha Morton's Circe was also a highlight, as was the scene featuring the Trojan Horse.

That said.

There are things the movie did well enough for me, but there was so many other parts that I wish they did better. Was I expecting too much? Am I living in a bubble? Every reputable critic I've found online has deemed it perfect, Nolan's best work, elevated the material, etc.

And yet.

There was something missing for me. It lacked whimsy and magic? Grandeur and spectacle? For something that was labeled as a "cinematic masterpiece," I wanted the whole movie to be entirely astonishing in every scene, in every dialogue, and basically, in every way. Maybe my expectations were just too high.

I do appreciate what Nolan was trying to do. His message was not lost on me. The emotional and mental toll of war is incessant. The guilt can be unrelenting. And the pain - on both sides - is immeasurable. We see this through Penelope, Telemachus, to everyone Odyssey left behind, but also through his companions, who only ever followed orders, and after succeeding, only wanted to go home. The suffering is palpable. And it seemed like suffering was the point of the movie.

But was suffering the central premise of the epic poem?

This movie was anchored on the concept of Zeus' law or xenia, the sacred bond between host and guest. All guests must be welcomed with generosity and reciprocity, as they might be gods disguised among men. In return, hosts must be respected and shown gratitude. This social contract has sustained their civilization for decades, for millennia. But the Trojan War was the beginning of its end; this sacred bond slowly disintegrated as the events unfolded. The betrayal of Paris, who was welcomed in Troy. The war that lasted for a decade between the Trojans and the Achaeans. And finally, the Trojan Horse. An offering for Athena, a symbol of peace. Accepted with open arms by the Trojans, under the assumption that a gift so large could only mean something good, like a grand gesture of remorse. Only to be betrayed mercilessly as a consequence of their acceptance. And all this was Odysseus' doing. He created this deception, and contributed to the eventual disintegration of xenia. He played a huge part in it; and this movie focuses on Odysseus as he wrestles with the burden of guilt.

Penelope's longing, laced with anger and frustration, is so palpable on screen. She didn't want this to happen; and neither did her husband, it seemed. He didn't want to go. Nobody wanted to, it seems. But he had to.

So he did.

Odysseus' remorse and responsibility is what frames this movie. It is an admirable position to take for Nolan, because he is good at telling this type of story. He has done so, and has done it well, in Inception, Interstellar, the Batman trilogy, and Oppenheimer. He has mastered this craft, so much so that doing it to Odysseus felt like a natural progression of Nolan's storytelling.

But it is precisely what it ended up being: Nolan's story. Not The Odyssey. For me, it appeared that he used The Odyssey - the epic - simply as an apparatus on which he can hang and build his narrative of a man being burdened by guilt.

But guilt and remorse does not exist in The Odyssey. It is about glory, about winning, about excess, about spectacle and adventure. Not conscience. Odysseus is a man defined by his hubris alongside his endurance, not by an inner reckoning with what he has done. It is what makes him Odysseus. It is what makes him tell the Cyclops he was "Nobody," and it is likewise what makes him admit to him that it was "Odysseus," who ultimately shot the arrow. Damon's Odysseus does not want to embrace his greatness; Homer's Odysseus seems to revel in it.

Perhaps, my experience with the movie is tainted by me reading it beforehand. The story was fresh in my mind; I had presumptions and expectations. On its own, I was glad to have seen it. The three hours didn't feel like a slog. It was paced well, and the actors elevated so much of the script. It was actually a really good movie. Relevant, even, especially in these times. It just didn't feel like an excellent adaptation of The Odyssey for me.

But that is fine. Not every "cinematic masterpiece" has to cater to my taste. I can appreciate a movie for what it is, and disregard my own feelings for what I thought it was trying to do. If anything, I'm so happy to see people still flocking to it, and even reading The Odyssey because of it. People are going to the movies again! People are reading again! This is, all-in-all, a net good. So the movie did what it set out to do. Props to Nolan for that.

Stray Observations: