Hey Elon Musk, The Odyssey doesn’t fail because it’s woke. It’s not woke enough

July 23, 2026 — 9:30am

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Elon Musk has been a busy man over the past couple of years, what with laying waste to essential US government programs and putting his overhyped SpaceX through an IPO which, aside from making him, briefly, a trillionaire, has cratered on the share market.

But he still has time to work as a part-time film critic. Most recently, his attention has been captured by The Odyssey, the latest epic creation of visionary filmmaker Christopher Nolan. Musk tweeted on his X platform: “Christopher Nolan desecrated blah-blah-blah woke blah-blah-blah what a worm.”

OK, I’m paraphrasing. This is Musk’s tweet in full: “Chris Nolan desecrated Homer and groveled on his knees just to meet the woke rules required to win an Oscar. What a worm.”

Not much there to trouble the legacy of Pauline Kael, the legendary New Yorker film critic, but it’s worth noting because, while Musk is wrong about most things, he’s outdone himself here. The trouble with Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey is not that it’s woke, but that it’s not woke enough. (Bear with me. I’ll come to it.)

I was a classics major long ago. I probably have more experience than most with Homer. I’ve read The Odyssey at least three times. That’s three times more, I’d wager, than Musk.

Musk and others in the far-right mediasphere are carping because Helen of Troy, whose face is said to have launched the thousand ships that besieged the famous citadel, is portrayed in the movie........

© WA Today