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I finally watched Nolan's Odyssey today. (Patreon)

Published:
2026-08-15 15:49:56
Edited:
2026-08-22 11:52:46
Imported:
2026-09
Tags:

Content

My friends keep telling me that Odyssey is really good, and they want to discuss the story with me. So I finally watched it today.

I know Odyssey has done very well at the box office, and many people would said that history enthusiasts are being too picky.

But you know this: if you know a lot about cars, then when you watch a film that portrays cars in a completely nonsensical way, it becomes very hard not to notice. That is the curse of knowledge.

I genuinely couldn't be satisfied with the film's interpretations, watch it with an open mind. If I had to pick one thing I disliked the most... Not the costume, or the casting. I never expected much from Hollywood in those anyway.

What bothered me most was Athena...

All that Athena should be there were absent. I mean she is the goddess of wisdom and strategy, the deity who guided Odysseus in direction. Yet everything that should have been Athena's role is instead given to other humans.

Herself becomes almost like a ghost of Troy, haunting Odysseus's regret. She represents Troy more than Helen did.

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Comments

ThatChristian-Metalhead

I dont one bit care about whatever actor drama twitter complained about, but that armor was hideous

bears photo and film

The costuming besides the crested helmets were great though. Nolan should do horror next because of this movie

Lou Papas

If I watch it, it’s going to be with the mentality of watching an action movie. If I try to take it seriously I’m going to get angry

Drizz

Yeah, mid at best and the pacing is ruined by weird cuts due to keeping it under 3hrs due to Imax limitations. 😔

ThePaleHorse

I thought it was a good movie more for how they made it. It's a movie that made me feel something again.

Callyxtus

As for the myth, they totally ignored it, I couldn't stop gesticulating in my seat throughout the film because of the number of mistakes there were. And as for Athena, I still don't know if she's still a real goddess (because no other gods appear) or if she's just Odysseus having PTSD

Philipp Kohl

Wasn't in cinema 🎥 yet. I'm perhaps of the same opinion as yours.

AJ Maneville

Having done Classics at university, from the first images and the first trailer I knew this was not a film for me. The odd minor historical inaccuracy is always forgivable in the context of the limitations and realities (often financial) of film production, but when there are so many and they are sometimes so major, no, these are poor choices that need not have happened. That is not to say I cannot enjoy flagrant liberties with historical fact, such as 300's clearly over-the-top choices of production and design which are there to reflect an exaggerated retelling with the intent of rallying the Spartans, but when a film positions itself as historically accurate when it is clearly not, then no, I'll find something else to do with my time.

Mex Mex

It’s interesting that you bring up Athena as an example, because you’re partly right. She was indeed largely insignificant, but the main reason for that was the way Odysseus’s character was misunderstood. In the original version, Odysseus tells the Cyclops that his name is Nobody. In Greek, this is a clever wordplay that Homer deliberately used. “Nobody” is mē tis, but there is another word, mētis, which means cunning, resourcefulness, and cleverness. It describes Odysseus’s character perfectly in the original. He constantly had to find his way out of difficult situations through some kind of trick, cunning, or ingenuity. That is precisely why Athena was his patron goddess, because she admired and respected his intelligence and resourcefulness. Unfortunately, Nolan’s version gives us very little of this, because many of the opponents were made into more impersonal characters, and the way Odysseus dealt with them was changed significantly compared to the original work. And because of that, it essentially tells a different story. That being said, I wouldn’t call it a bad movie. It’s just that some of the story’s central themes suffer from these changes, and as a result, a lot of other things end up feeling meaningless or somewhat illogical. I would give a 6,5/10

The Art of Pedantry

I honestly loved it, but since it was Christopher Nolan I went in expecting something very different than a standard retelling. So what I got from it was a really good medium depth character study of Odysseus and a medium depth character study of the audience intertwined with each other and building off of each other. In short, I thought it was brilliant. Maybe it shouldn't have been called The Odyssey, but I think that was part of the character study of the audience. Now do I believe Nolan planned such an interpretation? Not explicitly, but I also wouldn't be surprised. There were a number of potential subtexts left up to interpretation by the audience I think on purpose. And I don't think Nolan planned for the audience to all arrive at the same spot. But I do think he wanted the audience to ask themselves what their relationship with the "social contract" (the idea of Zeus' law or the golden rule) is and what they want it to be at least as a jumping off point. Part of my reasoning for these interpretations is that I believe Nolan was playing off of Odysseus being a trickster and a liar and teller of tall tales. And what we saw in terms of the gods was through Odysseus' eyes. But, at the same time, Odysseus is an untrustworthy narrator. Athena very well could have been a representation of part of Odysseus' psyche. And I think you pointing out the missing aspects of Athena is supposed to prompt us to ask questions too. Idk. I'm not gonna fight anyone over it. The story is far older than the alleged Homer (which I loved that Nolan paid homage to the oral traditions) and there are so many interpretations out there. I also thought that Nolan's artistic techniques were brilliant (the special effects instead of CGI, how he combined aspects from four islands into calypso's Island in a way that fit the goals I believe he had, his simple choice to make an untrustworthy narrator the primary narrator) and of course Ludwig Goransson knocked it out of the park again give him another award!

The Art of Pedantry

Oh yeah, and I cried while watching it more than I have for any movie since I was a little kid. It was surprisingly moving and touching.

Dakota

I feel like I'm in a psyop of people trying to make me watch shit movies and beat me into submission by constantly repeating about how good it is when it isnt.

Daniel King

It certainly is a different interpretation of the story. Personally, I was overjoyed to see that someone finally understood it as an anti-war story. This film is very much about America's experience of war in the Middle East during the 21st century. I'm an American born into a military family, so the film hit me hard. It's one of my all-time favorite movies now.

Kenny's Chronicles and Bob's Books

Two notes, one a friend noticed, one I read about. First - Nolan was deliberately downplaying the Gods, so them fading into the background isn't surprising. Second, (this one from a friend), for a movie trying for representation (again something Nolan said), it's odd that there's not a single Greek actor in it.

Jarl Seamus

I will never judge anyone who likes this film, but there is no amount of money you could give me to subject myself to it.

M

My only consolation when this kind of blockbusters appear is that they may attract more people to learn about history. Specially young people.

Doctor Atomic

If you want to see ugly armour look at the real armour of the period, I thought the armour they used in the film was fine.

Doctor Atomic

Given that we are speaking of a tale that was reinterpreted repeatedly as it was passed down orally for hundreds of years, then rewritten repeatedly through different translations over the last 2000 years until it reached us today I couldn't be bothered to worry about it's historical accuracy; I enjoyed the movie for what it was.

Daniel Meyer

As someone who is a car guy but knows only a smidge of the actual myths it was fine. Just as a comment on Athena though. Imto me it felt split between two ideas and came out as a soggy middle ground. On the one hand I thought it was weird that she was the only god personified, because it felt like they were going for more of a real life style rather than the gods actually exist kinda thing. On the other hand. If could be portrayed as the gods were being symbolized by nature and people. So Athenas guidance was through others instead of directly, just like Poseidon was the storm and Zeus was the thunder and lighting. It felt like they couldn't decide on the amount of interaction between gods and man.

Henry Walker

Yeah, only bit they missed in that part was there were more cyclops around, "Nobody has hurt me! Nobody has stolen my flock!" he yells to his neighbour.

Henry Walker

TL;DR version: The gods were missing from the telling of both Homer's books. I am a historian not a movie critic. As for the rest of it, "suspension of disbelief" so I can enjoy myself. So, yes, Athena was missing. Then again so was Poseidon, you know, the one who cursed Odysseus to have his long journey home. The again, if we take ourselves back, we could also say that the Greek gods have been pretty much absent from both Homer's works, both the latest version of "The Odyssey" and also the version of "The Iliad", i.e. Nolan's version for the former, and "Troy" by Wolfgang Petersen's version of the latter. The gods were characters in and of themselves, they stood as those who influenced the safety, or lack-there-of, to particular heroes under who's protection, or ire, they stood. I mean, let's go back to the beginning.... Why did the war for Troy start? Was it because Paris took Helen away? Indirectly (Agamemnon used the theft from his brother Menelaus as a pretext to invade). Helen was the bribe given to Aphrodite so she could receive the golden apple mysteriously placed on a table with "To the fairest" engraved upon it. Which Olympian placed the apple and started this argument between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite? Eris, goddess of chaos and discord. Why did Eris do such a thing? Because she was not invited to the wedding at which the golden apple appeared. The wedding of the Greek hero Peleus and the sea nymph Thetis (the parents of Achilles). The gods were discounted from both movies. Homer spends much of "The Iliad" saying "such and such", champion of [insert Olympian here], was saved/defended by said Olympian. Movies are short-form versions of stories. They *never* get everything in them. Even mini-series have to pick and choose which bits are removed and which bits remain. Even most plays shortened because there is too much in there for a single movie to cover. Have I read "The Iliad"? Yes. Have I read "The Odyssey"? Yes. Did I think both the previously-indicated movies did a successful "broad brush" interpretation (minus the influence of the gods), sure, why not. Am I going to comment on costume, direction or other things? No. I don't see the point; I am a historian, not a movie critic. As for the rest of it "suspension of disbelief" so I can enjoy myself.

CJ

I feel that with medicine or military elements in shows. Only a few ever get things right