{"id":1024,"date":"2026-07-22T14:40:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=1024"},"modified":"2026-07-22T14:40:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:40:43","slug":"nolans-odyssey-robs-a-great-hero-of-his-masculinity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=1024","title":{"rendered":"Nolan’s\u00a0Odyssey\u00a0Robs A Great Hero Of His Masculinity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The newly released Odyssey<\/em> film is stunning and another testament to writer-director Christopher Nolan\u2019s artistic sensibilities. It uses minimal CGI, focusing instead on practical effects such as the puppeted Cyclops. The movie looks and feels like the high-end, polished blockbuster rarely found in cinemas anymore.\u00a0Despite sparking numerous controversies from casting to costuming, the film is spectacularly entertaining and lays out an interesting story over its three-hour run time.<\/p>\n

Read more New Jersey Dems Did Nothing For Years After Warnings About Noncitizens On Voter Rolls<\/a><\/p>\n

However, the fundamental problem with Nolan\u2019s Odyssey <\/em>is that it is an analysis of modern failings rather than a retelling of an ageless classic.<\/p>\n

In multiple interviews, Nolan explicitly singled out Emily Wilson\u2019s 2017 translation of Homer\u2019s Odyssey<\/em> as his inspiration for the film. Wilson\u2019s translation of the famous opening line refers to the titular character, Odysseus, as \u201cA complicated man.\u201d Historically, other translations referred to Odysseus as a \u201cresourceful man\u201d or a \u201ccunning hero.\u201d This change indicates Wilson\u2019s attempt to reframe Odysseus as flawed and self-interested rather than as a complex hero.<\/p>\n

Rather than honoring her subject material with a textually faithful translation, Wilson also claimed \u201cthe silencing of female voices\u201d was one of several \u201ccentral problems in the poem.\u201d She complained that Penelope, Odysseus\u2019s faithful wife, is \u201ca woman who experiences her attachment to her husband as the destruction of herself.\u201d Wilson\u2019s translation intended to fix these \u201cflawed\u201d areas and modernize the poem. In the same manner, Nolan\u2019s film reframes the ancient story for a modern audience.<\/p>\n

The concept of \u201cZeus\u2019 Law\u201d underpins the movie\u2019s message of morality, advising a mutual respect between guests and hosts. In modern terms, this boils down to something like the golden rule: Treat others the way you wish to be treated.<\/p>\n

In the opening scenes of Nolan\u2019s adaptation, Odysseus hatches a scheme to win the Trojan War: his infamous Trojan horse. The movie portrays Odysseus\u2019 cunning plot as inherently bad because it violated \u201cZeus\u2019 Law\u201d and the rules of war. As a result, he spends the rest of the film plagued by guilt.<\/p>\n

His journey back to his homeland, Ithaca, is contextualized as a self-inflicted punishment rather than an arduous journey back to his home, wife, and son. In the spirit of Wilson\u2019s translation, this framing of Odysseus is shaded by modernity. Rather than being proud of using his skills to defeat his enemies, he blames himself for throwing off the delicate balance of \u201cZeus\u2019 Law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Illegal Immigration Made The Average New House $30K More Expensive Under Biden<\/a><\/p>\n

Throughout Odysseus\u2019 journey back to Ithaca, we see him carry the guilt of the Trojan horse, which feels like an attempt to strip away his masculinity. While we see moments of strength from Odysseus, his interactions with female goddesses\u00a0Circe and Calypso suggest their femininity is greater and more just than his masculinity. For example, when Circe turns Odysseus\u2019 crew into pigs, the film insinuates the men were inherently gluttonous and dangerous, simply by virtue of being male.<\/p>\n

The movie culminates in Odysseus\u2019 return to Ithaca, where he must fight off the ravenous male suitors who endlessly usurped the hospitality of Penelope and their son, Telemachus. Odysseus proves his skill with bow and arrow and kills the deviant Polybus, as well as other disloyal servants who took advantage of his absence. Ultimately, in a final plot twist completely different from the source material, Odysseus abdicates his throne to his son, leaves the home he struggled to return to for 20 years with his wife, and exiles himself to honor the dead.<\/p>\n

In the original story, Odysseus does not abdicate his throne but stays in Ithaca to defend it. Nolan\u2019s iteration ends by punishing Odysseus for violating \u201cZeus\u2019 Law\u201d instead of showing him as the noble patriarch of the land he loves. The movie\u2019s ending implies Odysseus has a greater duty to strangers than to his own country and family.<\/p>\n

This is a very modern predicament; one that parallels the ongoing immigration crisis in America. We wrestle with the question of what it means to be a country and what it means to build a family. Nolan\u2019s Odyssey <\/em>seems tosuggest that the duty to defend one\u2019s house and home is less valuable than an alleged duty to an infinite number of foreigners.<\/p>\n

Odysseus\u2019 masculine wit, which allowed him to find success in the Trojan War and is a key element of the historic epic, ends up being punished for the duration of the film. This is a way for Nolan to inject modern morals into an ancient story about strength, virtue, and duty. While these themes are subtle, hiding behind beautiful cinematography and solid acting performances, it is certainly not the poem Homer asked the Muses to sing.<\/p>\n

Read more There Are No Ag \u2018Jobs Americans Won\u2019t Do\u2019 If They Earn A Living Wage<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nolan injects modern morals into an ancient story about strength, virtue, and duty. 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