Format: Market Square Theater #3.
So, while I am going to talk about the movie, I think the controversy is worth a paragraph here. The backlash against The Odyssey was framed as being “historically inaccurate” because of the casting. Were people upset that we didn’t have an actual cyclops? Or that Odysseus was being played by a guy from Boston? No, of course not. The problem was that Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, was being played by Lupita Nyong’o, a woman who is objectively gorgeous, but happens to be Black. Oh, and Elliot Page plays Sinon, who actually isn’t in Homer’s epic poem and that freaked a lot of people out. In fact it freaked people out so much that the rumor was that Page was actually playing Achilles. And in the movie? If you aren’t waiting to be outraged, you wouldn’t even notice.
You should know the basics of the story, even if you only know the roughest of rough outlines. According to the epic, the Trojan War finally ended after 10 years when Odysseus came up with the idea of the Trojan Horse. The Greeks built a giant horse, and the people of Troy were convinced to drag it into their otherwise impenetrable gates by Sinon. Turns out the horse was filled with Greek troops who came out that night opened the gates, and let in the Greek army to sack the city. Menelaus (Jon Berenthal) reclaimed his wife Helen, and the Greeks left. This is essentially where The Odyssey starts.
Odysseus (Matt Damon), the cleverest Greek who ever whipped up a plan, leads his men back to Ithaca, but decides to take a route different from that of the leader of the Grecian army, Agamemnon (Benny Safdie). This takes the Ithacans on a route that slowly whittles their numbers down and leaves Odysseus on an island with the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron) eating lotuses to forget his past and recover from his trials.
The inciting incident in all of this is Odysseus and his men landing on an island that is the home of Polyphemus (Bill Irwin), a giant cyclops. Polyphemus kills and eats a few of Odysseus’ men and they escape by blinding him. Odysseus can’t resist a parting shot at the cyclops when they leave, not realizing that the creature is the son of Poseidon, who naturally asks for revenge from his father. What this means is that the rest of the voyage will be cursed over and over again. Everywhere they stop, men will die, and Odysseus comes closer and closer to being alone on that island with Calypso.
Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, the fact that Odysseus has been gone for 20 years means that people are restless. Queen of Ithaca Penelope (Anne Hathaway) is plagued by suitors demanding that she choose one of them to be the new king. This group is led by Antinous (Robert Pattinson), who takes out his anger on Telemachus (Tom Holland), son of Odysseus and Penelope. He also has a great deal of wrath for Eumaeus (John Leguizamo), the last loyal servant of Odysseus.
There is honestly too much going on here to go into more detail without this being eternal. So let’s talk about what this film is really about beyond the spectacle and the bullshit controversies. This is a movie about the end of a civilization and in many ways the end to the age of heroes and legends, that sort of misty past where all of the Greek myths allegedly happened.
In this legendary past, the world operated under Zeus’s Law, a sacred idea of hospitality. Because, according to the beliefs, any stranger could be a god in disguise, guests and strangers were always to be treated with hospitality. There was a code of mutual respect between hosts and guests. And Odysseus broke these rules to win the Trojan War. The walls of Troy could not be breached, so he essentially became a guest in the city and used that subterfuge to overthrow it and have it sacked. His cleverness overthrew the way that the world worked, turning it into a much darker and harsher place. The Trojan Horse was the Greek equivalent of eating the apple in the Garden of Eden—it killed a particular type of innocence.
And this is the theme that runs through the movie. I won’t spoil it, but the question that Odysseus is asked by Athena (Zendaya) and Calypso both is why he doesn’t want to get home even though he actually does. That conflict within him causes the loss of his men and his sojourn with the nymph.
The reality is that The Odyssey is good and borders on great. It’s not the second coming of movies, nor is it the second coming of epic films. It’s too loud in places, and the most interesting part of the encounter with the cyclops is the banter between Polyphemus and Odysseus, and this is cut entirely. The more you’re a purist, the more you’re going to find things to nitpick. That said, Nolan found a way to make this clearly relevant to the modern age, not just giving us a good story and a lot of bombast.
The cast is huge and deep and great. For as little as Elliot Page is in this, he is memorable, as are many of the bit parts. Seeing James Remar as Tiresias is crazy—he’s unrecognizable. Everyone here is worth seeing in their roles.
But if the reason you’re not going to see this is because Helen of Troy is Black or Sinon is played by a trans actor, The Odyssey wasn’t made for you and you need to grow up.
Why to watch The Odyssey: It’s epic in the way that few movies are.
Why not to watch: If you’re a purist in terms of the story, you’ll miss some critical elements.
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