Comparing Odysseys

Christopher Nolan's adaptation of The Odyssey hit theaters recently, and it's been the talk of the town! In fact, The Odyssey did so well that, after replacing showings with Spider-Man, theaters realized The Odyssey was making them more money and brought showings back in! There's been a lot of drama, too—like people being up in arms about a transgender actor (Elliot Page) and a Black actress (Lupita Nyong'o) being included —and getting literally 5 minutes of screentime. I'm not going to spend time discussing that. Transphobia and racism have no platform in my newsletter. They were both wonderful in their roles.

Nolan had a very intriguing and unique take on the classic story. I will, of course, be talking about this movie, but before I get too far I also want to bring in a competitor...

Epic: The Musical.

Epic is a series of concept albums written by Jorge Rivera-Herrans (and it's a FANTASTIC listen, if you want more Odyssey content). It's fun, it's sassy, it'll get stuck in your head, and it'll make you cry.

It's worth noting that every adaptation and interpretation is valid and interesting in its own way, and the opinions I share here are just that—my opinions! Expect some spoilers ahead.

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What's fascinating about Nolan's film is that he does not start out with a focus on Odysseus, nor on the Trojan War. Nolan instead starts in Ithaca, zeroing in on Penelope and her issues with the suitors, long before Odysseus's story ever gets told. This does a pretty solid job of setting the stakes right from the beginning—there's a reason why Odysseus needs to get home as quick as possible.

This is fairly on par with how Homer's epic starts, so far as I know (it's been a long, long time since I've read it, and even then, it was only ever excerpts)—in the middle of it all, with Odysseus trapped on Ogigya with Calypso. Nolan's film starts out with Penelope and Telemachus dealing with the suitors at their doorstep, and Odysseus is struggling to remember his journey and how he wound up with Calypso. Nolan creates an interesting bookended framing here.

By contrast, Epic tells the story in chronological order, opting to dive straight into the action and run with it. The first song, The Horse and the Infant, sets the stage at Troy as the Greeks make their final charge. It very rapidly glances through quite a few major players in the Trojan War:

These names don't come up again. On my first listen-through they didn't really mean anything to me, just names for the sake of building out a depth to the army and quickly summarizing the events of the Trojan War. While in Epic, due to the time constraints of the medium, they're glanced over and left untouched, Nolan's adaptation gives more weight especially to Agamemnon, taking the time to establish him and tell his tale parallel to Odysseus's, though to a simplified degree.

I literally have not gotten over Agamemnon's costume design in Nolan's adaptation. OMG. I've heard history buffs were up in arms about it, but historical accuracy aside, it looks metal as hell.

Once we get into Odysseus's actual, well, odyssey, some interesting diversions happen:

Epic focuses very heavily on the fantastical. Nolan's Odyssey decides to go a more practical, less mythological route. Both are very interesting approaches, but I have to be honest, I feel like there was a lot missing from Nolan's adaptation as a result.

The most striking example was the tale of Nobody being entirely removed.

The story goes something like this: Odysseus and his crew hunt the sheep on the cyclops's—Polyphemus's—island. Polyphemus, enraged that Odysseus harmed his sheep, threatens to kill the crew. Odysseus tries to bargain with him, telling him his name is Nobody. When negotiations fail and they take up arms, Odysseus orders his crew to blind the cyclops so they could escape. And when other cyclopes come to Polyphemus's aid, Polyphemus exclaims, "Nobody hurt me!"

The other cyclopes disregard him after that.

Odysseus, as he's escaping, pridefully gives Polyphemus his real name. And THIS SINGLE ENCOUNTER is why Odysseus then spends as long as he does at sea. Polyphemus is a son of Poseidon, and by giving his name to the cyclops, he invites Poseidon's ire.

So to remove that is to remove all of Odysseus's characterization. His cunning, but also his pride. And while Nolan's film was overall very engaging and captivating the whole way through, this, in my opinion, was a loss.

I'd highly recommend listening to Epic's handling of the tale (the Cyclops saga), but especially these final words in the song Remember Them:

Now THAT's a prideful line delivery. And THAT'S Odysseus's downfall.

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I have many thoughts about Circe, especially following my rather miserable read of Circe by Madeline Miller. I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about the book, because I have very few nice things to say about it. But let's just say this: that book was praised as being a "feminist retelling" of Circe's story. And I'm pretty sure this book was LESS feminist than the source material. Not only was the book entirely focused on the men in Circe's life, but it also depicted Circe as being vehemently AGAINST all the women in her life... Between this and The Song of Achilles (I have opinions on that one, too), I think Miller has a lot of internalized misogyny she needs to work through.

But that's a whole other conversation.

Circe's depiction in Nolan's adaptation FASCINATED me. Because in most other depictions (Epic included), Circe is depicted as this temptress, this seductive woman who invites men into her home and turns them into pigs. She tries to sleep with Odysseus—which in some adaptations result in Odysseus proclaiming his faithfulness to his wife, and in others results in Circe having Odysseus's child.

Nolan, however, depicts her instead as Just A Normal Woman Who's Trying To Live Her Life. How else is she supposed to react, then, when men burst into her home to take her supplies?

I was extremely struck by the scene where a soldier has her literally pinned to the ground and is yelling, "I'M NOT GOING TO HURT YOU!" Like, come on, the implication here couldn't be clearer if it smacked you right in the face.

I don't blame Circe one bit for turning them into pigs.

There’s something rather hilarious, in contrast, to the way Circe is depicted in Epic. It’s the feigned innocence from both parties:

The delivery is hilariously charming. And after that, we see Circe’s rage. She is fiercely protective of her nymphs. I like this depiction of her because it tells me she’s willing to do just about anything for the sake of those she cares for. By contrast, Madeline Miller’s Circe depicts her as vehemently hating the nymphs on her island, which is part of why I think her adaptation is not even remotely feminist. If she hates the nymphs under her charge, and she spends the entire time capitulating to men (the turning men to pigs scene was like, a few lines, in ONE chapter. Come on!!), that’s not feminism.

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While I’m focusing on individual characters, I want to touch on Telemachus, Odysseus's son. This is another character that got interpreted two significantly different ways!

Nolan's adaptation depicts him as a strong and capable young man, with all the ambition and strength to match. However, I do feel Nolan’s adaptation didn’t follow through with the promises he set. By the time we get to the finale, after the movie has spent a significant amount of time hammering home that fighting and killing suitors will damage his reputation, Nolan still gives him a LOT of light in the final battle. And to me, it almost felt like Nolan and his team sat back and said, "Well, we've cast Tom Holland, we can't NOT include Telemachus in the combat."

And sure, it was super cool, and I really enjoyed the final confrontation with the suitors. Well—except for the omission of the Odysseus leaving the armory unlocked part, which felt like another one of those pivotal characterization moments that went ignored. But the movie spent all that time setting up a particular expectation, that the suitors were Odysseus's responsibility and not Telemachus's, only to then say, well, we gotta have Telemachus Tom Holland in there!

Epic, by contrast, does pretty much the exact opposite. Telemachus is depicted as a bright-eyed boy with a lot of room to grow. He's got goals and dreams and a big heart, but he can't really fight to save his life—when he winds up in a fight with the suitor Antinous, Athena has to step in so Telemachus has even the slightest chance at succeeding. I think this depiction is very charming and I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I also feel like he comes across as younger than he really is in the source text. Like he's a teenager, and not a twenty-something year old.

It’s cool, though, seeing all the different ways a character can be interpreted, and it says a lot about the artistic direction of each adaptation!

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I will leave you on one final, rather unrelated thought.

I don't recognize most actors by their faces, by proxy of not following actors and actresses closely enough to recognize them on sight. This is great, because most movies I watch, I can sit back and just be immersed in the characters, without the thought of who's who lingering in the back of my brain.

That said, I did have the hilarious misfortune of recognizing the actor for Antinous. Robert Pattinson.

And literally every time Antinous was onscreen doing anything, there was a little worm in my brain that proclaimed, "That's Robert Pattinson!"

I just find it funny, more than anything. It didn't impact my ability to enjoy Antinous as a villain. My brain just felt compelled to remind me every single time. That's Robert Pattinson!

Anyhow. Thanks for listening to me yap about The Odyssey. Here’s a happy beach doggo to make up for all the words I just made you read.

Until next time,

Wren L. Rivers

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