‘Nolan’s Odyssey is not historically accurate, but neither was Homer’s,’ says UB researcher

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Need a primer before seeing the Christopher Nolan film “The Odyssey?” The University at Buffalo Department of Classics can help. Jackie Murray, PhD, is an associate professor of classics at UB, and an expert in ancient Greek language and literature. She has some tips for viewers that will help their appreciation of the blockbuster.

• Let’s not be so obsessed with “historical accuracy.”

Nolan’s Odyssey is not historically accurate, but neither was Homer’s. It is important to bear in mind that the ancient Greek Odyssey is set in a fantastical world with demi-gods, monsters and witches, and it is about a clever and oftentimes unscrupulous trickster hero trying to get home with as much plunder as possible after he and the other Greek heroes destroyed the Trojan civilization. Yes, Troy was a real city, but it suffered several devastations over its long existence. So far, there is no archeological evidence to prove it was ultimately destroyed by Greeks in the Trojan War. The very war itself is still considered more a matter of ancient fiction than fact by most archaeologists.

• How has Nolan translated Homer’s world into our world?

Come to Nolan’s Odyssey expecting a fresh and plausible interpretation of the ancient myth that embraces the epic poem’s touted universality. Earlier film treatments populated Odysseus’ world with heroes and heroines who looked more like Vikings and Norsemen than the Mediterranean and Africa peoples who populate Homer’s Odyssey. Nolan’s Odyssey remedies this distorted image by having a diverse cast with faces and bodies that would be perfectly at home in the ancient and modern Mediterranean. Predictably, though, in the current political climate, this innovation that makes the story more universal has been attacked. A coordinated online rage-baiting campaign described in the Pittsburgh Review of Books designed to use the movie’s connection to classical antiquity to promote white nationalism tried to tank the movie before it even reached the theatres by stoking political and racist divisions. It is best not to get caught up in these debates, which might ruin your experience of the movie.

• Casting “The Odyssey”

Don’t bite the rage-bait that was intended to whip everyone into a racist, misogynist, and anti-LGBTQ frenzy. “The Odyssey” is often seen as a universal story, but in the past that universality had a very particular color and gender. Nolan’s casting choices bring the “The Odyssey” closer to this claim of universality and expose more about the forces making our times increasingly intolerant than they disrespect Homer.

• Meditations on war and the cycle of revenge.

Nolan makes his Odyssey more relatable to today’s audience by shifting the moral emphasis of the story away from revenge and glory to the accountability and psychological impact of waging an essentially unjust war. Look for the ways Nolan merges the fantastical elements with his treatment of Odysseus trying to cope with the devastating consequences that his trick caused. He also brings out a new dimension of Odysseus’ relationship with Telemachus that no other version to date has.

• (Spoiler alert) Nolan actually saves “The Odyssey” from itself.

If you have read the entire Odyssey, you might feel that the ending, Book 24, is a mess. Even in antiquity, people had their criticisms and doubts about the seemingly rushed and chaotic way the themes are wrapped up. You will not come away from Nolan’s Odyssey with that feeling. Nolan’s ending brings a great sense of closure to all the themes that he highlights in his Odyssey.