The Odyssey

The Odyssey starts as the story of a great hero trying to return home, but slowly turns into the story of a man realizing what kind of "hero" he actually was. I really liked the way the film is structured. At first we experience the story through the people who were left behind, always looking towards Odysseus and waiting for his return. Then the perspective shifts and we follow him on his journey, only briefly returning to Ithaca from time to time. It gives his absence more weight and makes his return feel like something larger than simply reaching a destination. Odysseus is introduced as a clever and rather noble man who is seen as the secret weapon that finally wins the war in Troy. But while the soldiers storm the city, kill innocent people, and burn everything in their way, he slowly starts to understand what he has actually done. Troy is not just the beginning of his journey home, it is the moment where the balance of his world doenst only get shifted but completely destroyed. What should have been a two week long short journey turns into ten years of suffering, with every member of his crew dying along the way. At first the things that happen to them seem cruel, but the further the film goes, the more they feel like unstoppable consequences. They enter the Cyclops home, steal from him, and even after escaping Odysseus cannot stop himself from provoking him again. His cleverness lets them escape but his ego extens their punishment. They constantly demand protection under the law of Zeus while breaking those same rules whenever it benefits them. Circe turning the men into pigs is also no random punishment and more like her showing them what they have already become. A nice touch was her telling the men "put back on your disguises" while turning them into human again... Every stop on the journey forces Odysseus to look at himself again. The sirens do not only tempt him, they remind him of the destruction he has caused and the years he has lost. Calypso keeps him away from home for seven years, but by that point it almost feels like he is also keeping himself away. He is ashamed of what happened in Troy and perhaps does not believe he deserves to return. That is what I think the main theme of the film is. It is about guilt, realizing what you have done, and understanding that reaching your goal does not make the way you reached it right. There is a clear connection to Oppenheimer here. Both men use their intelligence to accomplish something that once seemed impossible, only to fully understand the consequences after it can no longer be stopped. You can also read Odysseus as a soldier suffering from war trauma. He returns physically, but the war never really leaves him. His isolation, his guilt, and his inability to simply go home all work with that interpretation. The film is also a brutal journey of self discovery as Odysseus learns who he is, tries to deny it, and eventually has to face it. This reaches its peak when he returns in disguise and hears what his actions looked like from another perspective. To his own people he is the hero who defeated Troy. To others, he and his men are the people from the sea who arrived, destroyed their homes, and then justified themselves with laws they never followed. The hero of one story can easily be the monster in another. I also found the ending interesting because it refuses to completely restore the old order. In the original story Athena eventually creates peace, but Nolan didn't take that route. He decided that the showdown should be a bloody and gruesome fight. This ending does fit the story better, because it underlines again, that Troy started something that cannot just be undone. Odysseus can return home, but neither he nor the world can return to what they were before and Athenas wont just come down and restore peace. Whats done is done... Visually the movie was incredible. The wide shots make Odysseus look completely alone and lost, especially during his time with Calypso an in contrast, the scenes inside the Trojan horse are extremely tight and uncomfortable. The men are trapped inside the weapon they created, already sitting inside the violence that will later follow them home. The film is also incredibly loud. Sometimes the sound makes the scale and danger feel overwhelming, but during a few conversations it becomes genuinely difficult to understand what is being said. Maybe that immersion is intentional, but intention does not automatically make every choice work. My biggest criticism of this film is the lack of depth given to some of the characters. In my opinion the emotional development pretty much only belongs to Odysseus and maybe Eurylochus, and even there it can feel a little stiff. Penelope gains a lot through Anne Hathaway’s performance, and Robert Pattinson also does a great job, but for a film dealing with so many human weaknesses and emotions, I would have liked some of the characters to feel more complete. Still, I really enjoyed it. It is visually impressive, thematically interesting, and much more than a simple adaptation of a mythological adventure. It is a story about a man trying to get home, while slowly realizing that the hardest part is not crossing the sea, but living with the person who returns.