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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

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It took The Odyssey for Christopher Nolan to finally get female characters right

The Odyssey still centres on Odysseus, played by Matt Damon, and his long road home after the Trojan War. But, the women around him are no longer just furniture.

Filmmaker Christopher Nolan has long faced criticism for how he writes women. His female characters, as per critics, are often simply assisting the male protagonist’s story, as if their presence is nothing more than a box being checked. The Odyssey may finally put that criticism to rest. 

The film still centres on Odysseus (Matt Damon) and his long road home after the Trojan War. But, the women around him are no longer just furniture. From Anne Hathaway’s Penelope to Samantha Morton’s Circe, and Zendaya’s Athena, they aren’t footnotes in The Odyssey. They are the ones doing the heavy lifting in the plot, especially Penelope. 

History remembers her as the loyal wife who waited, but Nolan portrays how waiting was never a passive act.

She’s politically sharp, quietly manipulative — given the way she handles Antinous’ advances — and holds the entire kingdom together through sheer intelligence rather than any grand spectacle of power. Her battle has no swords, but it’s every........

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