This Is Your Reminder: ‘The Odyssey’ Isn’t Real. It’s Not “History.”
The latest trailer for The Odyssey arrived this week, providing the most comprehensive look yet at Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation. From the second it was confirmed that Nolan would be adapting the classic story (and not telling a “father/son story with helicopters”, as had been initially rumored), there have been waves of debate and discourse… but it has now hit a fever pitch.
In the hours since the latest The Odyssey trailer debuted, several talking points have swelled to the surface online. There are nitpicks about certain line readings — particularly Matt Damon’s Odysseus passionately saying “No one can stand between me and home – not even the Gods.” — being “inaccurate” to the source material. There’s the ongoing racism over Lupita Nyong’o being cast as Helen of Troy. And there are a lot of complaints about anachronisms of characters speaking in American accents and saying more modern words like “daddy.”
A lot of it is, admittedly, just a byproduct of how the Internet reacts to the vast majority of pop culture: criticism and “hot takes” are more likely to go viral, regardless of whatever nuance may or may not be brought to them. But that byproduct is especially fascinating with The Odyssey given the fact that… it’s fictional. It is not a retelling of actual historical events, which should already be apparent with the cyclops and other mythological elements on display in the newest trailer. It is an epic poem that has been reinterpreted and retold and remixed so many times across history… and this just so happens to be one iteration of that.
Even though people probably associate The Odyssey with a certain time period and aesthetic choices, there has always been a lot of nuance and wiggle room with interpreting it. Some of that has been literal, as different translators have found new meaning in components of the ancient text. But some of that has also been artistic: the Coen brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Simpsons‘ Season 13 episode “Tales From the Public Domain” are undeniably good adaptations of The Odyssey, even as they have subversive approaches to the text.
Is The Odyssey Historically Inaccurate?
There is really no “definitive” adaptation or telling of The Odyssey: in part because it’s a fictional world that has inspired so much of other fiction. Nolan basically said as much during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that was tied to the trailer’s release, arguing that everything from Star Wars to the current moment of modern superhero stories is borrowing from the story’s structure and themes.
“They are the original superheroes,” Nolan explained. “Even comic book culture, whether you’re talking about Marvel or DC or all the rest, a lot of it comes directly from the Homeric Epics. The thing about Homer is, nobody knows if that was a person. Homer in a way is the George Lucas, maybe, of his time… Homer is the Marvel of its day, that’s the thing. It’s very directly this desire for us to feel or believe Gods could walk amongst us, and I think the modern comic book is kind of our expression of that.”
So while some of Nolan’s choices might seem jarring at first, they shouldn’t be thrown out altogether in the name of a “historical accuracy” that doesn’t actually exist. They also shouldn’t be judged on a pass-fail grade months before the movie even comes out, and everyone is able to see how those choices factor into the context of the entire piece.
You can have your own personal gripes with The Odyssey and its latest trailer, but these knee-jerk reactions are setting impossible standards for one of the most interesting blank check projects in modern Hollywood history. (Those standards are also frustrating given… how little a lot of people seemed to even be aware of the source material when the movie was first announced.) Nolan doesn’t have to make the definitive version of The Odyssey, he can just make his definitive version, and that should be exciting in and of itself.
(featured image: Universal Pictures)
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