{"id":5235,"date":"2026-07-24T09:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T09:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5235"},"modified":"2026-07-24T09:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T09:07:18","slug":"sorry-haters-christopher-nolans-odysseus-is-no-wimp-but-a-hero-for-our-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5235","title":{"rendered":"Sorry, haters, Christopher Nolan’s Odysseus is no wimp \u2014 but a hero for our times"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Was Odysseus, the legendary Greek warrior, actually a wimp?<\/p>\n

The most trenchant criticisms of Christopher Nolan\u2019s new blockbuster movie \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d involve how he portrays the hero of the tale. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Hundreds of Howard University freshmen unenrolled over unpaid bills weeks before fall semester<\/a><\/p>\n

In the original, Odysseus is a clever, multifaceted hero who comes up with the idea for the Trojan horse and then, after the Greeks win the decade-long war with Troy, embarks on his arduous journey home to Ithaca and his waiting wife Penelope.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s true that Nolan modernizes Odysseus for a contemporary audience, but what was he supposed to do?<\/p>\n

If he\u2019d given us the 100% Homeric Odysseus \u2014 abducting women, slaughtering unarmed people, sleeping around with nymphs, ordering the execution of housemaids \u2014 there\u2019d be little chance that movie-goers would be interested in shelling out to see a 3-hour movie about his adventures and travails.<\/p>\n

The values of Bronze Age Greece, when Odysseus was supposedly fighting and maneuvering his way home, were emphatically not our own.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, Nolan had to soften him.<\/p>\n

But he went too far in this direction, giving us an Odysseus who is wracked by war guilt and suffering from PTSD.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the Homeric version, his long stay with the beautiful nymph Calypso underlines how desperate he is to get home \u2014 she offers him a life of endless pleasure, and still he pines for Ithaca.<\/p>\n

In the Nolan version, Calypso serves as the hero\u2019s therapist, and it emerges that he truly doesn\u2019t want to go home until he works through all his dark memories.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If this is a bit much, there\u2019s no doubt that Nolan is drawing on elements of the original.<\/p>\n

Homer has Odysseus weeping when he hears songs of the Trojan war, a wrenching depiction of his sense of grief and loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t all: Nolan leaves it out of the movie, but in Homer\u2019s telling Achilles, the Greeks\u2019 greatest warrior, meets Odysseus in Hades and tells him he regrets having chosen a short life full of glory.<\/p>\n

After all the obsession with military fame, it would have been better to sell insurance!<\/p>\n

Read more Mamdani and Ms. Rachel built their brands on war \u2014 and business is booming<\/a><\/p>\n

There have been many different literary depictions of Odysseus over the years.<\/p>\n

Since he wasn\u2019t a real person, none of them should be binding.<\/p>\n

The likes of Sophocles and Euripides gave us negative portrayals, and Dante put him in the Eighth Circle of Hell for his deceptive tactic with the Trojan Horse \u2014 a major source of his guilt in the Nolan version, as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the director renders a Christianized version of the pagan epic.<\/p>\n

Having sinned, Odysseus needs to repent and seek forgiveness.<\/p>\n

The movie is more evidence for the proposition that, even in our secular age, our notions of what constitute morality \u2014 and admirable conduct \u2014 rest on a Christian edifice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I found the Nolan movie gripping, despite some of its flaws, and at the very end, even inspiring.<\/p>\n

For the finale, Nolan seems to draw on the depiction of\u00a0Odysseus in the Alfred Tennyson poem \u201cUlysses\u201d (another name for Odysseus).<\/p>\n

The British poet renders an Odysseus who feels compelled always to learn and experience more, as he sets out on another journey after his return to Ithaca.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Odysseus and Penelope in the movie almost directly quote Tennyson when Ulysses speaks of following \u201cknowledge like a sinking star, \/ Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this, Odysseus is the very embodiment of the questing, endlessly curious spirit of Western culture that has forged so many new discoveries and transformed the human condition.<\/p>\n

Tennyson\u2019s Ulysses believes, \u201c\u2019tis not too late to seek a newer world,\u201d and\u00a0\u201cto sail beyond the sunset.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

He ends with a ringing commitment \u201cto strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most fevered critics of the movie on the right suggest that Christopher Nolan seeks to subvert the Western tradition.<\/p>\n

If so, the director \u2014 who has renewed interest in a Western classic and ends with a paean to the Western zest for exploration \u2014 has a funny way of going about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Bomb threat from the Trump admin will force Iran to the negotiating table<\/a><\/p>\n

X: @RichLowry<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nolan’s Odysseus is the very embodiment of the questing, endlessly curious spirit of Western culture that has forged so many new discoveries and transformed the human condition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-rich-lowry"],"yoast_head":"\nSorry, haters, Christopher Nolan's Odysseus is no wimp \u2014 but a hero for our times - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5235\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sorry, haters, Christopher Nolan's Odysseus is no wimp \u2014 but a hero for our times - 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