“The film of the decade”: a film review of The Odyssey

The film that Elon Musk declared he is so opposed to, that he plans to make his own cinematic adaptation using Grok, with AI images.

It appears that what upsets him so much about the magnificent film directed by Christopher Nolan is ‘historical accuracy’, an interesting take on what is a mythological story – namely, he takes issue with the casting; Lupita Nyong’o, a Black actress, as both Helen and Clytemnestra, as well as the casting of Elliot Page, a trans male actor, as Sinon. Both, he claims, indicate that Nolan has “lost his integrity”.

So, I bought a ticket to see it for myself on the big screen at the Ashford cinema, now owned by the borough council.

Warning, spoilers ahead – though it is, by this point, an ancient text.

The original epic poem penned by Homer

Now although I have never read the entire epic; I used to own a paperback translation. I am familiar with its ancient plotline. The warrior, Odysseus, fighting on the Greek side of the Trojan war, was the wily one who suggested, after 10 years of siege, the trick of putting soldiers in a huge wooden horse, to present as a gift that the Trojans would take inside their city walls.

Thus, the Greeks got inside Troy, sacked it, and took back the beautiful Helen, whose capture (or departure) had caused the war. The victorious Greeks then climbed into their ships to sail home, by various routes. Odysseus headed west, but did not arrive back in his island home of Ithaca for many years.

The ancient poem describes the various episodes that delayed his return – a sojourn with the nymph Calypso and lone escape by raft, then near-betrothal on Nausicaa’s island, released with the offer of new crew and boats; then this crew disobediently stole and ate some cattle belonging to the sun god Helios, with the result that the god Poseidon cursed their sea-faring.

There is then a series of adventures of mythic horrors: the one-eyed giant Polyphemus; the song of the sirens who lure sailors on to the rocks; Circe the witch who transforms the crew to pigs; the visit to the shades (souls of the dead) to consult Teresias about future voyages; the perilous steering between the Scylla (a whirl-pool) and Charybdis (monsters on the cliffs), a fight with well-armed giants, and then the drowning of all the crew except Odysseus. He gets found on a beach by a woman-witch-nymph who soothes his pain with the Lotus, whereupon he continues to live with her for years, in a drugged state.

Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, his wife Penelope is beset by suitors determined to seize power. Penelope famously keeps weaving to ward off the suitors. Her son, Telemachus, still a teenager, then sets off on a voyage to find out from other Greek leaders such as Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon, and husband of Helen, to find out what happened to his father after the Trojan war.

Eventually, Odysseus lands back at Ithaca, disguised as a beggar, and is able to seize back the palace and his wife, after a brawl. So, an apparent happy ending, which interestingly deviates from the actual ending of the poem where the aged king retired to his farm, after slaughtering all of the suitors!

The ambitious adaption produced by Nolan

Nolan’s film covers most of the incidents in the original epic, with some reordering and omissions at the start. So how does the film so infuriate the outspoken Elon Musk? Aside from the aforementioned diverse casting, that is, including the fact that the racial diversity of the male crew is commendable – all types of faces are rowing the boats.

There is a political explanation given for the Greek allies attacking Troy: they wanted to destroy its trading monopoly. Destroy meaning knocking out the enemies’ infrastructure and grabbing its wealth, rather like some world leaders’ forays today. But the film makes constant reference to ‘the law of Zeus’ (xenia), which seems like some proto-international law aka ICC, which forbids fights between strangers, or hosts and guests. Late Bronze Age Greece did indeed have a law of xenia to fix relations between hosts and guests, residents and travellers/strangers/migrants.

Additionally, there is a noticeable anti-war theme in this film which also depicts some spectacular violence (which is why it is classified for over 15s only). Ulysses chooses to ‘go West’ which was the motto of expansionist white colonists across North America that pushed the indigenous inhabitants into reserves or slaughtered them. Some of the scenes in the film seem to echo settler violence: arriving from the sea starving, threatening inhabitants with their weapons, a child alerting parents to fight, a woman flung on her back. Heroes who survive the war are veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress. Odysseus’ lotus-eating years are to blot out the painful scenes at the sacking of Troy and the aftermath.

My personal takeaway

I recall doing Caesar’s Gallic Wars in Latin O level and glibly translating ‘Vastare’ (which is what Caesar did to Celtic settlements in Gaul) as ‘sacking’, without really picturing the burning, raping, and bloodshed. I do recall a teacher’s surprisingly fumbled reply when I asked, aged 14, what ‘camp followers’ were.

Hollywood films, of course, thrive on sex and violence. Sex is not so overt in this film, perhaps it is derived from the original Greek which lets a couple (like the hero and a nymph) withdraw to the boudoir but no details thereafter. Penelope is very much the wife in purdah, behind a screen.

In contrast, violence is frequent and shocking both in the film and the Homeric source, the gouging out of Polyphemus’s one eye a notable horror. I do recall in my teen years dipping into the Iliad and being so sickened by the frequent violence that I never read further and avoided the Odyssey. I suppose, like football (which I have also never followed!) I sensed that this is a male physique obsession with the muscles, the skill with weaponry (or the ball), the ability to win a fight, and tribal passion for ‘our’ side.

However, unlike the battle-dominated Iliad, the Odyssey has more female interest. Circe the sorceress is an intriguing character, and the subject of a recent novel by feminist author Madeleine Miller. The nymph, Calypso, is both nurse and mistress of the war-damaged hero, rather like in the film ‘The English Patient’. Penelope is the mother of a teenage son, while also being a war-widow, as well as being a queen with political crisis in her island palace. Athena, the goddess of wisdom, acted by Zendaya, is very much the voice of sane reassuring advice, regularly appearing, a bit like a faithful wife at the hero’s crisis points.

A film like this, with its voyages, battle-scenes and varied landscapes, is not cheap to make, with a production budget of $250m, the most expensive film of his career. Christopher Nolan goes for epic scale – the shots of the ship, with its oars, and then a billowing square sail are magnificent. Did they expensively make a replica of a Greek ship of 2000 years ago? No – they borrowed a full-size Viking replica from Sweden. The locations for filming were Sicily, Morocco, the Peloponnese region of Greece, Iceland, Scotland, and studios in Los Angeles. The Trojan horse was a rearing wooden structure placed in the sea!

The sound was turned up to full volume in the cinema which was somewhat over-powering at times. The music, mostly brass playing a restricted range of notes, was somewhat disappointing, as I had expected something more memorable for the siren song (at least voices as well as instruments).

The verdict

This film grossed over £196 million (at the time of writing) in the first few days of showing and received a highly favourable rating on ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ – as of this month, it has grossed $922 million worldwide. I predict it is THE film of this decade.

Go and see it. Also go and see Elon Musk’s Grok-made version if ever it appears. How could AI possibly match the acting skill, the choice of landscapes, the superb sets, the manoeuvring of replica ships, the battle scenes, etc. of this brilliant film of the decade?