The new movie, “The Odyssey,” directed by Christopher Nolan, is a cultural phenomenon that has been reviewed many times by people who usually don’t review movies. “The Odyssey” has grossed $911 million globally after just three weekends in theaters, positioning it to imminently cross the $1 billion milestone.
I saw it yesterday.
My impression is that the original story and characters were carefully modified to appeal to the broadest possible American (and international) audience.
There was no sex or more than soft G-rated romantic scenes. (Despite Homer’s poem describing Odysseus’ affairs with Calypso and Circe.) The movie is rated R for violence and a couple of “f-bombs” but adults who do not want to see sex scenes will attend the movie in the knowledge that they will not be offended. Parents will be able to rent the movie even with kids at home because the violence is no worse than many commercial TV shows.
The choice of Matt Damon, a nice-guy northern-European hero, was targeted at the American public who want to relate to their heroes racially and in their admirable character. The real Odysseus was a tough killer who prided himself on his clever ability to lie and trick - an anti-hero who would not appeal to American tastes. Obviously, he was Greek and would have had dark skin and hair. The choice reminded me of 1950s movies where non-white characters (e.g. Native Americans, Asians) were often played by white actors in dark makeup.
The plot was gratuitously changed in details which I don’t understand. In Homer’s “Odyssey,” Odysseus cleverly tells the Cyclops that his name is “No-man” to hide his identity, but after the ship escapes Odysseus tells the Cyclops his name out of pure hubris - a mistake which ends up killing the entire crew. None of this is in the movie but Odysseus gratuitously wounds the Cyclops after blinding him, which isn’t in Homer’s “Odyssey.”
One detail added to the movie that wasn’t in Homer’s “Odyssey” is the mention of Sea Peoples who are marauding along the coast. I picked up on this because I have a personal interest in the 1200 BCE Bronze Age crash which was followed by 500 years of dark ages. (I was never taught about this in school, but the destruction of a sophisticated, multinational trading collaboration among empires created the power vacuum in which the Kingdom of Judaea arose.) In fact, Homer’s “Odyssey” was a very long song/ poem that wasn’t written down until after the end of the long dark age. The Linear A script used by the Minoans (trading partners of the Greeks) was forgotten and can’t be translated to this day. So the comments by Odysseus in the movie are little hints of an impending crash that most people won’t notice.
The ending of the movie is totally at odds with the written character of Odysseus and the ending of Homer’s “Odyssey.” The real Odysseus would have been proud of the destruction of Troy and never regretted it. He would have ruled his kingdom proudly and not departed. The many comments about treating others as you want to be treated appeals to Christian audiences and was never an ancient Greek ethic.
For an ordinary audience, I would give this movie 5 stars for excitement, production values and perfect tuning to the audience. I’m sure it will become a classic movie and continue generating profits for decades to come. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone films “The Iliad” next, turning Achilles from a bisexual psycopath into an all-American nice guy. (Anyone remember the movie “Troy” with Brad Pitt playing the psychopathic bisexual Achilles as a sullen California surfer dude?)
For me, I would give it 3 stars because it was fun but I really wanted to see the genuine tough, brutal, clever Odysseus suffer agonies and ecstasies as he did in Homer’s “Odyssey.” Matt Damon is just too bland and too darn nice to be Odysseus. And I hate to see a great story changed - though the changes were subtle and obviously commercially motivated.
Wendy
