the odyssey pretty fun movie actually and is not deserving of half the discourse it’s inspired but it is insane to see a movie where every woman’s actions are motivated by fear of or in response to rape and yet the act is never committed, threatened, or even alluded to by any of the male characters except the occasional denial of their intentions to do so. the movie’s big reveal is that the violation of a young woman during the fall of troy is the core point of trauma for odysseus and the tipping point that has led to the downfall of their entire civilization; the entire plot hinges upon this moment. but the movie cannot explicitly present this violation as rape (what it is obviously standing in for, especially within the context of the myth of the trojan women) and instead “softens” it to murder. and why is this? what’s the purpose of not just saying what it is and what this part of the story is about? it’s so obvious to the audience, so intrinsic to the fabric of the legend, that at a point its absence overwhelms its presence. rape exists in nolan’s odyssey, it’s a fundamental part of the story and a textual lived reality for all of the women but it can never be made explicit that the men themselves -even the most heinous- are committing it. it’s truly bizarre. he can’t tell the story without rape but is too offended and overwhelmed by it to know how to sensitively keep it in.
Loading...
