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Home – Faith & Culture News – Christopher Nolan Tries Making a Blockbuster Worthy of Homer

Christopher Nolan Tries Making a Blockbuster Worthy of Homer

“Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways, who was driven far journeys … longing for his wife and his homecoming.”

So begins Homer’s “Odyssey” (in Richard Lattimore’s translation), the poet recounting Odysseus’ travels back to wife, kin, and homeland after 10 years’ battle in Troy.

The epic is, above all, a story of homecoming, both in the literal sense of the king’s reunion with his kingdom and spiritually: Odysseus is a “man of many ways.” It is not enough that he should triumph over tempests, sea monsters, and vengeful gods. To achieve true greatness, Odysseus must also overcome temptation, distraction, and his own disordered character and priorities.

Many times over the years, I have had the privilege of teaching “The Odyssey” to college freshmen. At first, all they can see is the violence, the intrigue, the gods’ petty squabbles. Yet as their discussion and the narrative unfold, they are stirred by the movement of Odysseus’ soul; they discern truths especially relevant at their stage in life: the false promises of vanity, greed, glory, lust—and the enduring value of home and family.

Whether Christopher Nolan’s big-screen adaptation of “The Odyssey” can preserve these timeless themes, or whether it loses them amid the spectacle, remains to be seen. Credit the director for an ambitious undertaking: Odysseus’s journey is epic in every sense of the word.

Homer’s opening paean notwithstanding, the king’s heart is not always longing for his suffering wife, Penelope; their beloved Ithaca; or even their effectively fatherless........

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