The Odyssey

“Fantasies and dreams… A nightmare of thought. A face, a fleet, a war…” Add to it a human being who towers above all with fierce courage and a beating heart. Odysseus’ epic story, as told by Greek poet Homer some 3,000 years ago, comes alive in Academy Award-winner Christopher Nolan’s fantastical ‘The Odyssey’. Those clued into Greek mythology know all too well who Odysseus was: King of Ithaca, a true blue war hero, the man behind the treacherous Trojan Horse, instrumental in making the invincible Troy fall. Unlike Achilles, he did not die on the battlefield, but lost his way back home. And it’s his odyssey — full of travails, encounters with monsters, sirens, the dead and gods — which gives wings to Nolan’s extraordinary cinematic vision.

The journey back home means something in every era. Whether it’s a war hero undertaking an obstacle-ridden voyage of over ten years or his wife refusing to concede that her husband will never return, the passage of time means something to everyone. That’s exactly why Homer’s Greek epic The Odyssey is such a good fit for Christopher Nolan, because he has a whole filmography around fractured timelines, memory, identity, homecoming, closures, and so on. Rather than bending the poem to suit his filmmaking, he discovers that its DNA has always mirrored his own. The result is perhaps the most naturally auteurist film of his career.

All the ado about Homerian characters saying “Mom”, “Dad” and “F..k” can be laid to rest. Those are but minor updates to the late 8th or early 7th century BC epic The Odyssey (emerging from oral traditions going back even further) by writer-director Christopher Nolan. In the film, the gods are largely inconsequential (barring a scowling, floating in-and-out Athena), real heroes are decided by free will, women are firmly – and sometimes fiercely – feminist, and the shifty, cunning Odysseus of the epic is a man defined almost entirely by guilt that befits a quintessential Nolan lead.

Trust Christopher Nolan to deliver a strong message on the futility of war through an age-old story based on Greek mythology. Nolan, one of the greatest auteurs of our time, weaves the most beautiful and poignant story of homecoming and redemption in his latest, The Odyssey. Based on Homer’s age-old poem, the Odyssey, which is set after the Trojan War as King Odysseus and his men make their way back home, Nolan’s film looks beyond the mythology and delivers a story that astounds you from the word go. It is a story that may have its origin in Greek mythology, but its relevance to the present times is hard to miss. The release of the film feels timely as the world is engulfed in one war or the other. The Odyssey is not just about Odysseus’ long journey back home but of realisation, of coming of age, of being just and fair - qualities that make a true leader stand out from the herd. The story is also about men and their lofty egos and ambition, which lead to mayhem and blind them to reality.

In Interstellar, a mission to save humanity encompasses the universe, but the emotional core is a deeply moving father and daughter bond. In Inception, the grand, gravity-defying action may be a high-stakes blockbuster spectacle, but it is the deeply personal trauma of the protagonist that drives the narrative. A gritty beach evacuation in Dunkirk is held together by his silent, brooding moments. The backdrop of atomic fission in Oppenheimer is balanced with the psychological turmoil that plays within the man who catalyses it. In The Dark Knight, Gotham is refashioned as a sprawling, worldly canvas overrun with mobsters, corrupt law enforcers and vigilantes.

Arete. This simple Greek word holds the key to understanding why thinkers think, engineers build marvels, writers write magnum opuses, and filmmakers want to make great films. Arete is the realisation of one’s potential on the path to excellence. With The Odyssey, director Christopher Nolan has embarked on one such path. In fact, it is like almost everything he has done so far in his career has built to this moment. The Odyssey has every theme that has become synonymous with Nolan. There’s the concept of time, the promise of a father, the wait of a child, the fate of a wife, the betrayal of your faith, society’s descent into madness, sacrifice for the greater good, questioning the status quo, the idea of home, and flawed humans who don’t know what to do with the consequences of their ‘heroic’ actions.