In “Apocalypto,” Mel Gibson transports you into the mind of a Mayan 500 years ago. In “The Northman,” Robert Eggers transports you into the mind of a Viking a thousand years ago. In “The Odyssey,” Christopher Nolan transports you into the mind of a liberal woman in 2017.
I'm really shocked to see how many people are defending Nolan's "Odyssey." Don't let the visuals fool you. It's very much a left-wing, ideological work.
Sinon (played by a trans actor) and Clytemnestra/Helen (played by an African actress) are innocent victims of men like Agamemnon, who use religion as a pretense for war, when what they really want is money. When we finally see Agamemnon without his flashy armor, he seems small and weak.
The worst: with Circe, we learn the truth of these men—they're pigs. I nearly groaned at how cheesy this moment was.
For Nolan, the only redeemable "hero" is the guilt-ridden Odysseus, atoning for winning the war. He fears coming home for what he himself unleashed in Ithaca. "Oh no, I'm the bad guy!" The film encourages self-flagellation over partaking in Agamemnon's imperial and capitalist system, murderous of trans people and people of color. It's that bad.
The key moment? Nolan has Odysseus caress Eurycleia on the chin, when we expect him to strangle her. Nolan effectively says: "I'm making this complex, angry, captivating hero gentler, sweeter." No more ὀδύσσομαι in Odysseus.
It's so shockingly on the nose and unsubtle. A deep work totally gutted of its meaning and turned into banal slop. Again, don't let the visuals fool you—nothing of the captivating meaning of Homer's Odyssey is to be found here.