Classics Professors Split on Nolan's 98% 'The Odyssey' as Experts Praise Structure, Debate Softer Ending
Updated
Updated · TODAY · Jul 21
Classics Professors Split on Nolan's 98% 'The Odyssey' as Experts Praise Structure, Debate Softer Ending
1 articles · Updated · TODAY · Jul 21
Summary
Emily Austin and Joel Christensen diverged sharply after seeing Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” with Austin calling it “awesome” while Christensen argued the film smooths away the poem’s moral danger.
Matt Damon’s Odysseus sat at the center of that split: Christensen said he is too likable and conventionally good, while Austin said the film adds believable introspection about leadership, guilt and the deaths of his men.
Both professors praised Nolan’s structure for making a 3,000-year-old epic coherent for modern audiences, especially by emphasizing Odysseus’ difficult reintegration into Ithaca after Troy.
The biggest substantive dispute was the ending, where the film has Odysseus and Penelope choose self-exile and spare the suitors, replacing the poem’s darker finale of revenge, threatened civil war and divine intervention.
Emily Wilson, whose 2017 translation may have influenced the movie, also criticized the adaptation, saying it tried to pack in too much while shortchanging essential themes, especially Penelope and the marriage.