Apparently tumblr is not the place to have enjoyed the new Odyssey movie lol
I will say, I personally did not like that they cut out the Nobody scene from the movie, but I also don’t expect every retelling of the odyssey to be a one to one. And this was a movie, not a miniseries or five hour long documentary. Its storytelling had to be straightforward, and it had to be accessible to audiences. Nolan had a story to tell, as all directors do, and unfortunately Nobody did not fit the themes of the story he was telling.
That HE was telling.
This will not be the last adaptation of the Odyssey. It will probably not even be considered the best. We have a fucking banger of a musical ffs, but it is a Christopher Nolan movie and for what it is, it’s pretty damn good.
Odysseus was clever, a liar, and made mistake after mistake. He was sympathetic and (unfortunately) Nolan wanted him to stay sympathetic. We did not see him murder an infant. We didn’t see him harm anyone before he could be harmed, not really. This was an Odysseus who didn’t cheat on his wife, at least not knowingly. This Odysseus is a victim more than a perpetrator.
Is that the true Odysseus? Fuck no! But he is still an Odysseus who lied and cheated his way home. We didn’t have a Nobody scene, but we did have one where he shot a final arrow into the Cyclops’ eye despite already having escaped him, costing him a few more men that didn’t deserve their deaths.
This movie is great. It’s not a perfect adaptation, but I’ve yet to see an actual perfect adaptation of something. Elliot Page acted his fucking heart out and it was amazing. Anne Hathaway performed her grief with grace and rage. Lupita N’yongo stole the spotlight with her few scenes as both Helen and Clytemnestra.
And truly they kept enough that made me happy to have read one of the many translations. We got the scar on his leg, we got him stringing the bow and shooting through the axes when no one else could, we got the goat herder who was so fucking important to the story and is always forgotten, and the dog who lived just long enough to see his master’s return. We got Penelope weaving her shroud, Penelope refusing to hear the bard speak of her husband, we got Circe turning men into pigs (in a fucking AWESOME scene btw), we got Clytemnestra murdering her husband, and Scylla eating men from her cliff.
We got the Odyssey.
Maybe not THE Odyssey, but if you’ve seen a perfect adaptation I would love for you to point me to it.
No one owns this story and you can feel whatever way you like about any version of it, but these stories were never meant to be one to one. They were passed and changed and probably emphasized differently with each person who told the story, as all stories are. I don’t think anyone tells the same exact story someone else has, and I wouldn’t want them to anyway. I think a big reason Greek Mythology has such staying power is because it has so many stories than can be read in so many, many different ways.
I went in expecting a Christopher Nolan movie and I got it. I enjoyed it! Just like I enjoyed Inception, Memento, Oppenheimer, and the Dark Knight. I went in expecting a version of the Odyssey and I got that, too!
If you haven’t seen it and have a problem with it, maybe go see it first. Wait to bootleg it if you want, since I doubt they’ll be hurting for your viewership anyway.
