Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey masterfully reinterprets the legendary figure of Odysseus, presenting him as a multifaceted hero grappling with the horrors of war, the responsibilities of leadership, and an enduring longing for home.
Key Points
- The persona of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, as Christopher Nolan interprets it, comprises three intersecting arcs — a brilliant military commander and strategist, fully aware of horrors of war even when they are inevitable; a noble leader whose overwhelming concern is the safety and welfare of his troops; and a loving man aching to return home even when he has half lost his mind.
- With Dunkirk (2017) and Oppenheimer (2023) in his portfolio of masterworks, Christopher Nolan has given us now a most impressive antiwar trilogy with the release of The Odyssey.
Only those who have been lost for years, as the titular character of Homer’s epic Odyssey was, would not know how huge a success, critically and commercially, Christopher Nolan’s eponymous film has been.
Much has been written about its cinematic and technical brilliance.
Even more impressive is the auteur’s interpretation of Odysseus as the personification of everything that is heroic.
Nolan’s Interpretation of Odysseus
The persona of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, as Nolan interprets it, comprises three intersecting arcs — a brilliant military commander and strategist, fully aware of horrors of war even when they are inevitable; a noble leader whose overwhelming concern is the safety and welfare of his troops; and a loving man aching to return home even when he has half lost his mind.
Odysseus joins Agamemnon in laying siege to impregnably fortified Troy for 10 futile years.
He devises the stratagem of using an enormous wooden horse whose belly holds an expeditionary force.
The carnage that follows, spectacularly displayed on the screen, must surely be comparable to the nuclear holocaust of the 1945 imperial Japan.
And Odysseus is as grieved by it as J Robert Oppenheimer was in Nolan’s 2023 epic film, only he does not have the sangfroid of Oppenheimer, who quoted the Bhagavad Gita: ‘I am become death.’
Odysseus is haunted by the death and destruction in Troy all through his wanderings and questions whether the famous victory was worth the price the losers and winners alike had to pay.
The Caring General and His Perilous Journey
Odysseus, the caring general, worries about his troops even before they volunteer. He refuses to accept the very young or those with ailments.
He leads by example — he is in the belly of the Trojan Horse.
He suffers the nausea and the filth in that confined space and is the first to get out when the Horse is inside Troy.
He is also quick to want to leave Troy after the battle.
His return voyage is full of monsters and dangers — the man-eating giant cyclops Polyphemus, the wily sorceress Circe, the lure of the Siren’s songs, the narrow passage between the whirlpool of Charybdis and the monsters of Scylla, and the tempting but forbidden pastures where Apollo’s cattle graze.
Though he loses some men in these encounters, he puts his own life at risk to save many more, except in the last instance.
When the spirits in Hades foretell him what awaits them, he swears that he will ensure his men will overcome these perils.
They almost do so under his indomitable leadership, even as they grumble.
The Longing for Home and Final Return
He is washed ashore on Calypso’s island after losing his ships and men to Poseidon’s wrath, broken in body and without memory.
The nymph nurses him and holds him captive for seven years, ensuring his mind is in a fog by making him an avid lotus eater.
She promises him immortality, but he refuses, saying he is a mere man and starts building a raft for his return, clutching all the while to the ring his wife, Penelope, had given him before he left Ithaca, with a flicker at the back of his mind that he has a home with a loving wife and an infant son.
He returns to Ithaca disguised as a beggar and meets his swineherd.
The retainer thinks he is his old master but cannot be certain as he is now nearly blind.
The hunting dog Argus, now ancient and feeble, does recognise Odysseus before dying peacefully.
The palace has been host for some time to scores of suitors waiting for Penelope to choose a new husband.
She has put it off for long in the hope of Odysseus’ return.
Still disguised, Odysseus plans a final showdown with the greedy suitors, all of whom he slays, after showing that he alone could string the bow he had left behind.
He accepts exile with his beloved Penelope as his punishment for the carnage, leaving the Ithaca throne to his son Telemachus.
He walks into the sunset literally, hoping for the dark ages to lift.
Nolan’s Anti-War Trilogy
All these details are from the Homeric epic, just as the specifics in the film Oppenheimer were gleaned from the monumental biography of the scientist, American Prometheus, by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin.
The auteur Nolan’s genius in both these films is in presenting profiles of the protagonists of heroic proportions with utmost persuasion and sensitivity.
With Dunkirk (2017) and Oppenheimer (2023) in his portfolio of masterworks, Nolan has given us now a most impressive antiwar trilogy with the release of The Odyssey.
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
