The Real Issue with Odyssey’s Casting Decision (Spoilers)

[00:00:00]I've just watched the Odyssey movie and I'm here to share with you guys a first thoughts with some mini spoiler review especially when you compare Nolan's adaptation to Homer's Odyssey which I've been reading for the last 3 weeks in Ithaca Greece actually. The long story short is that I think you should go and watch it. I think it's a very good movie. I don't think it's a great movie but I'll cover what's good about it first. The visuals, the way it looks and feels is stunning and the greatest achievement I think by Nolan is the pacing. Now if you listen to the Odyssey on audiobook it takes something like a dozen to to two dozen almost 20 plus hours but being able to preserve most of the in media res structure the Odyssey is told while keeping most of the big episodes that you expect to be there I think is a fantastic achievement and I think the specific way that Nolan combines certain episodes like Calypso, the Phaeacians and the Lotus Eaters into one I think is also it really works, okay. Now the issue the the reason I don't think it's it's a great movie is because I left the the the theater not feeling a sense of mystery about this world.

[00:01:13]And I've been spending the last day trying to figure out why and I've broken it down to three parts of why this world which that's what you go to the Odyssey for adventure, mystery, wandering why this world feels has a lack of mystery.

[00:01:25]Um the first is that Odysseus is over moralized, okay. The second one is that deception is under utilized and the third is because of the race swapping done in the movie. But just to be clear on that third point it's actually not black Helen of Troy that is causing a lot of the break of immersion, the lack of mystery. It's actually Odysseus's crew that's a mix of people who are white, black, Chinese, East Asian and and Indian.

[00:01:54]That's what breaks immersion. So I'm going to spend this video covering each of these three points um systematically.

[00:02:00]But first, I'll introduce one scene that I think is a microcosm of what this movie could have been, okay? What's lacking compared to the the book. And that's one of the most important scenes, I think, in the book, which is the Cyclops Cyclops scene. And I'll cover the third point very quickly first.

[00:02:16]In the Cyclops scene, you can see the the Chinese, the Indian, the black, and the white kind of crew member together.

[00:02:23]It really breaks immersion. I'm not going to be able to fully explain why until the end of the movie, but I'll so I'll just leave that third point and talk about the other two.

[00:02:30]Um in the book, the Cyclops is civilized. It can speak, as it can in the movie, but there is a fantastic dialogue between Odysseus and the Cyclops that is unfortunately omitted, okay? So, after Odysseus before Odysseus blinds the Cyclops in the book, they have a conversation. And Odysseus tells the Cyclops that his name in ancient Greek is Outis, okay? Outis means nobody in ancient Greek. Now, this displays Odysseus's one of his defining features, which is his metis. That's the ancient Greek word for cunning.

[00:03:05]Um and it is cunning because after Odysseus blinds the Cyclops, um the Cyclops screams in pain, and the Cyclops' friends come. And, you know, if they come, his entire crew would be screwed. But they ask the Cyclops, when they get within earshot, "Well, who has caused you so much pain?" And of course, the Cyclops answers, "Outis is causing me so much pain." Um and, you know, in in both the ancient English and the Greek, it sounds like nobody is causing me pain. And so, that is a brilliant act of deception. It's a It's a the ability of Odysseus to conceal his identity that is able to protect his crew. But it gets even better in the ancient Greek, okay? Because then the Cyclops' friends respond, "If nobody is killing you or slaying you, then it must come from Zeus, from the gods, then just say your uh prayers to Poseidon.

[00:03:54]There, in the conditional sentence, the ancient Greek word is no not used Outis, but Metis. What does that sound like? That sounds like the word for cunning, right? So, in in that second sentence, in that second response by the friends, when they say if nobody is slaying you, to the ancient Greek listener, it sounds like if cunning is slaying you. Which cunning would be slaying him because Odysseus is the embodiment of cunning. Now, this is not only incredibly incredibly clever wordplay, double wordplay, that is missed, um but there's actually a much deeper meaning to this that is also missed.

[00:04:31]Which is that um to be able to conceal one's identity, to be nobody, right? To suspend your heroic identity, that's no longer cunning.

[00:04:40]That's that's not defining of who Odysseus is.

[00:04:43]But being able to take on any identity, Metis, the poten- the the potential, right? In the conditional sentence. That is what cunning truly is. And so, I think there's also a deep commentary about who Odysseus is, about what cunning resides in, um that is also missed. So, that's an example of the second point that we're going to address much more systematically about how deception is underutilized. Um and the first point, I think, is that Odysseus is over moralized, okay?

[00:05:11]Because in the book, the story continues, this Outis episode set sets up a very uh interesting dilemma for uh the Cyclops, because the Cyclops without a name for Odysseus, he can't address a curse, right? In the film, the Cyclops just does it in any way, he addresses the curse to Poseidon.

[00:05:29]But in the book, Odysseus and his crew, they escape. They get on safely in the boat, and Odysseus starts taunting the Cyclops, including telling him his name. He says to the Cyclops, "If anyone asks you who blinded you, tell him it was Odysseus, raider of cities, whose home is in Ithaca, whose father is Laertes. Okay, he effectively gives the Cyclops a mailing address of where to send a curse.

[00:05:56]And it is because that act of hubris that um the Cyclops prays to Poseidon. I believe it's something like either kill them all or if if if Odysseus is fated to go back, kill all of his crew and delay his homecoming.

[00:06:12]What this does is that in the book, it makes the um most important cause of his crew's death Odysseus's responsibility.

[00:06:21]It was because Odysseus felt a need to embody his heroic identity, which is also a very interesting commentary that is missed, between a trickster, someone who can conceal his identity, and a hero who needs to claim his glory, right?

[00:06:34]That that kind of commentary intention is totally missed without this exchange.

[00:06:37]But it also alleviates Odysseus from the blame because, you know, in the book, there's also effective causes of the crew's deaths, a much much more effective much more immediate causes of the crew's deaths, like eating the sacred cows. But um in uh uh in the film, it's made to seem like that that is the end all be all, that it is the crew's own inability to control their appetites that cause them to die.

[00:07:01]But in the book, I think it's much more clear that the uh ultimate cause or or the thing that sealed the crew's fate is actually um maybe not Odysseus's hubris, but his need to claim his heroic kleos.

[00:07:14]So, hopefully you can see how by removing this interaction um with the the Cyclops, this civilized interaction, um so much depth is is lost uh both in the underutilization of deception as well as the overmoralization of Odysseus. So, there's actually one more overmoralization this episode. Um in the book, they didn't need to go into this cave, okay? In the book, so not only is the crew's death because of his ability, his desire to claim, his tragic desire to to to claim his heroic identity, they're there in the first place because of his curiosity. Okay? So, in the book, they land land nearby in Goat Island, and Odysseus is like, "Oh, I want to explore what's going on in this other island." He So, he takes one boat there.

[00:08:02]They go into the cave, and his crew is already sees the proportion of things, and they're like, "This is not This is not going to end up well."

[00:08:09]And Odysseus says, "No, no, no. I want to stay because I want to test I want to see my curiosity desires to see who resides here." And that is also, I think, uh if I remember correctly, lost in the film. So, that's another way Odysseus is over moralized. Okay? So, I hope you can see just through this one episode how much is lost between the film um and the book.

[00:08:31]And now we're going to go through uh each of these claims much more systematically, um and show you why I think this movie could have been a lot better.

[00:08:41]Okay, so the first uh systematic issue with the movie is the over moralization of Odysseus. And let me just give you a few more examples beyond the Cyclops episode. Um another good example in a different domain is probably Circe and Calypso. So, in the movie, Odysseus is a great modern family man, just wants to get home, who's monogamous, who loves his wife.

[00:09:02]Um and the only reason that he that he was with Calypso for 7 years was because Calypso drugged him with the lotus fruit, uh which does not happen, I believe, in the book. Um Circe is even greater of a difference, right? In the book, Odysseus mates sleeps with Circe willingly, happily, for a year, and it's his crew after he rescues rescues them that have to pull him out of it. And in the book, yes, we are told that Calypso takes Odysseus prisoner, but there's a subtle line that Homer inserts in that episode where uh he says that the nymph was no longer pleasing to Odysseus, which implies that the nymph was originally pleasing with Odysseus.

[00:09:45]Okay, so in both episodes, Odysseus, in a sober fashion, willingly uh commits infidelity against Penelope.

[00:09:53]And that, again, is over-moralized.

[00:09:54]Here's another example. Um in the movie, we are shown that not only does Telemachus barely take in on the fighting. He I think he only kills one suitor upstairs. Um Odysseus spares many of the suitors who kneel down. Okay, he shows them mercy.

[00:10:11]But this is not at all what happens in the books. Not only does he spare, I believe, none of the suitors. I mean, some of them are shown clasping his knees, and he just impales him with his spear, I believe, in the book.

[00:10:22]But he also kills many of the serving women. Okay? So Odysseus, uh in the book, after he rounds after he kills the suitors, he rounds up the serving women who have who were sleeping with the suitors, have betrayed him.

[00:10:38]He makes the serving women clean up the bodies. Okay, clean up the limbs of their dead lovers. Okay, that's grotesque enough.

[00:10:48]And then he hangs them, I believe. Okay?

[00:10:50]And so, again, that is another way in which Odysseus and his family is is over-moralized.

[00:10:57]Um the Trojan War account is another important account where in the movie, we are shown that Odysseus has PTSD. He has grief over it because he sees others commit war crimes. But in Homer, this this might be the Epic Cycle, but I think it's Homer.

[00:11:13]I think it's implied that he commits war crimes. Because Odysseus kills a kid. He kills the son of Hector and Andromache.

[00:11:21]But in the book, not only is his damage, okay, his his hurt and his pain unleashed on his enemies, like the Cyclops, like the Trojans, it's actually unleashed on um his own side, okay? So, two great examples here.

[00:11:36]One is well, we have already talked about the Cyclops episode.

[00:11:42]Another one is when he goes into the underworld in the movie.

[00:11:48]And he talks with he does not talk get to speak with his mother. In the book, he does. And his mother says, "I died of grief waiting for you." Okay?

[00:11:59]Another detail is that that shows how Odysseus hurts kind of everyone around him. But, the most striking detail must be the episode of the Phaeacians, which is completely omitted from the movie.

[00:12:09]So, in the books, before he goes to Ithaca, Odysseus lands in in with among the Phaeacians. They take him in, they give him many great gifts, and they send a boat to put him back to Ithaca.

[00:12:23]And Odysseus, when he returns to Ithaca, Poseidon punishes the Phaeacians for helping Odysseus, okay?

[00:12:30]And the boat, the people who so kindly helped him back home, is turned to stone, everyone dies.

[00:12:37]And Odysseus says he wants to level an entire mountain on top of the Phaeacians. We're we're not told if he actually does this, but the implication could be that entire beautiful, innocent civilization is wiped out because of Odysseus, right? So, okay, so those are examples of over-moralization in the the movie. Now, I have to argue for why this is bad, what what this takes away. I think this is bad because this overly moralized goody-two-shoes Odysseus is not who a classical hero is.

[00:13:08]The classical hero, to use Nietzschean language, is beyond good and evil, right? This is Nietzsche's famous distinction that he draws in the Genealogy of Morality, is that good, in the classical Homeric era of heroes, simply means powerful, with little consideration of where that power is exerted to, whether that's to help your enemies, help your friends, hurt your enemies, hurt your friends, or hurt yourself. A hero is someone who is simply has great power, whether that's expressed through might or through cunning, and is a whirlwind of pain. The classical hero is someone who infects pain, who suffers a great deal of pain.

[00:13:46]Odysseus, we're told in the book, literally comes from Odussomai.

[00:13:50]So, his grandfather names him Mr. Hatred. And the non-Ionic pronunciation of Odysseus, where we get Ulysses from, you hear the word oule, which means scar, okay? Same thing with Achilles.

[00:14:03]Um, a professor Homer has interviewed claims that you can read it as Achilles as akos and laos, grief of the fighting men, right? Think about how the first line of the Iliad begins.

[00:14:14]Sing to me, Muse, wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus, that caused thousandfold suffering upon the Achaeans on his own side, right? That's how the Iliad begins, about how this ideal hero causes great suffering on his own side. So, the classical hero, and by the way, those etymologies etymologies are folk etymologies, not necessarily real, but as a Greek listener and speaker, that's what you're going to hear. So, the big issue is that we're fundamentally given a non-Greek Odysseus through this over-moralization.

[00:14:50]And this also relates to how the message of the film and how Odysseus views his past exploits. So, the film Odysseus basically shows grief at what he has done. He shows almost regret, and he has suffers from PTSD.

[00:15:05]All of those things are there, okay, in in Homer, but that's not the extent of the Homeric Odysseus' relationship with his past. So, in the Phaeacian episode, Odysseus is shown to be crying when he's when he hears of the Trojan Horse story.

[00:15:21]So, that grief, that PTSD, that regret is certainly there. But, again, you also have things like the Cyclops episode, where he's very proud of his cunning.

[00:15:29]And I think even in the Phaeacian episode, where he cries, he's glad that his kleos, his glory, lives on. And so, the message, because of the over-moralization, the message of the film has completely changed. Not only is this link between kleos, glory, and and varieties of pain and power disjointed, whatever relationship is still left there is disavowed. Okay? So, so we are given a not just a non-Greek Odysseus, but an anti-Greek Odysseus in his uh moral frame. And so, that contributes to part of the lack of mystery that I felt, because I was getting someone who's too similar to our morals, who's uh too moral, too modern, uh too moral in the modern sense, of course.

[00:16:17]And again, I don't think this has to be a limitation of film. Um I think uh a great example that I think it does this well, I think the film is called Northmen. Uh it's about a Nordic uh epic, and that just gives you straight-up non-modern values presented in that film, right? And I'm not saying those values are better, but I'm saying that contributes to the immersion of the film, as well as the mystery of the world. Okay? So, that's the the first systematic issue of the film.

[00:16:47]Now, uh the second major flaw of the movie, I think, is the underutilization of deception. Um and I would say that the moments of deception, when identity is being played around with, are my favorites in Odyssey. I actually much more prefer, I think I'm in the minority here, the second half of the book, when he's in Ithaca, when he's taking on all these interesting identities, testing different people, uh than the first part, which when he's narrating about his adventures.

[00:17:14]Um and the reason is because deception and this play on identity is able to set up these incredibly charged emotional encounters. I'll just give you two. Um when Odysseus first meets the swineherd uh and he stays in his hut and then he first meets Telemachus, um there's a reverse epic simile that is used.

[00:17:35]Homer says something like, "Just as how a uh long-lost son greets his father, so does Telemachus greet the swineherd in front of Odysseus." So, you must be thinking about what Odysseus was going through there, seeing his long-lost son for the first time greet another man as if he were his father, right? And it just such such a beautifully charged uh emotional encounter. Um here here's another kind of reversal moment when Penelope and Odysseus are discussing um this is when he still disguised as a beggar, she doesn't know who he is.

[00:18:05]Um Odysseus says to Penelope, uh "You are as as if you are a just king whose reputation is renowned through the realms and whose subjects benefits uh because of him." And of course, this is who Odysseus is. So, there's another kind of reversal going on. And there are these beautifully charged scenes where Penelope and Odysseus are talking and Odysseus makes Penelope cry. He's disguised as a beggar still because of his descriptions of Odysseus.

[00:18:31]And we are told by Homer that Odysseus cannot cry because he'll give it all away, but he he is able to turn that suffering uh inwards as he's learned to on his travels. And so, um some of these scenes they're a lot of these scenes are there, um but they're much more truncated in the movie. And you can see this by the length dedicated to to each thing. So, in the book, half the books are about um Odysseus in Ithaca and the testing scenes, whereas in the movie, that only begins in the third act, right? So, the adventure sequence, for obvious reasons because it's a blockbuster, uh is kind of lengthened. Um but that I think is a real shame, because not only is Odysseus' cunning and his testing, I think, underutilized and these emotionally charged moments lost, but what these scenes really show is who the characters really are. How do the suitors um uh deal with a lowly beggar instead of who he actually is as a king? These things that really reveal the depth, um I think are also lost through this truncation.

[00:19:38]And not only is Odysseus' uh metis, his cunning, I think, underutilized, so is, I think, everyone else's deception and cunning. Um so, we are told, for example, in the book that Penelope does not recognize, or it's implied that Penelope does not recognize Odysseus before he kills the suitors. In the movie, it's pretty clear she does.

[00:19:58]Okay? So, so that moment when identity is suspended is much truncated. And what is lost here is this amazingly beautiful scene where Odysseus is shown to be beat at his own game by his wife. So, um Penelope, uh after Odysseus kills the suitors, um Telemachus is introduces his dad to his mom and says, "Why are you so stone cold of heart? Why can't you recognize uh the love of your life that's been gone for 20 years?" And she says, "No, I must test him." Okay? This is his re- reserve. And she lets off a offhanded comment about uh to one of the the the serving woman to move the bed their marriage bed.

[00:20:36]Odysseus is furious, because this marriage bed is built on this olive tree trunk and it's immovable. And the fact that it's moved means that some man, strong enough, virile enough, must have went there, which have would have violated the sanctity of their bedroom, right?

[00:20:51]Um that scene is no longer there, because Nolan would not suspend um identity for that long.

[00:20:58]Um and again, I think this is a really big shame, because in the books, Penelope is shown to be an equal of Odysseus in his faculty, his cunning and his intelligence, because precisely she's able to best him, to to to win in this contest.

[00:21:14]Um there are other moments where Odysseus, even after his victory, even though he has no functional reason to, he tests his father, um and this causes his father to cry.

[00:21:25]That's all That's also omitted. Um but the other big loss, I think, is the loss of Theoxeny. Um so Theoxeny is uh when a god takes on a human form uh and uses it to test um how good, for example, the host people are. This happens in the beginning when uh Athena just disguises Mentes and tests Telemachus.

[00:21:46]Um and all of that is gone. Athena does not inhabit any of the humans um human form in this movie. In fact, it's not even clear to me whether Athena in this movie is merely like a psychological hallucination of Odysseus, cuz other people don't seem to see her. Um and so the she also takes on a much more truncated role, and that removes so many great scenes where Athena, disguised as a human, is testing Odysseus, tricking Odysseus, and Odysseus tricking her back. And this kind of cunning is um it's not as bad as over-moralization, where where just a completely different message is given, but it's, I think, heavily heavily uh truncated in favor of the adventure. And I think that is a great loss, and that's also what contributes to um the world feeling not as mysterious.

[00:22:35]Now, the third and final major systematic flaw is the race swapping in The Odyssey.

[00:22:41]Um I I generally think, in general, race swapping, like a black Helen of Troy, a black Severus Snape, is simply not helpful for its stated goals of representation, because it's usually such minor characters that are swapped.

[00:22:53]Like we saw a black Helen of Troy on screen for probably less than 5 minutes.

[00:22:58]Um I think if you want to truly accomplish representation, you should pick racially appropriate IP, right?

[00:23:04]Whether it's Black Panther or I would love to see Hollywood uh make some of the Chinese classics, whether it's you know, Shui Hu Zhuan, Xi You Ji, Journey to the West, San Guo Yan Yi, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. These stories that I grew up with, I would love to see them as on the big screen.

[00:23:19]Um so, in most cases, I simply think um race swapping is not helpful, but it's not that harmful, either. A black Severus Snape does not really take that much away from the movie. In this movie, it does. In Nolan's Odyssey, the race swapping is the thing that breaks immersion for me every time I see it.

[00:23:40]And it's funny how he spent hundreds of million dollars filming on location, refusing to use CGI, building a 60-ft Cyclops for total immersion. And then he makes this terrible casting, mixed-race casting decision that I think pulls you out of the immersion every single time you see it. Um And And let me just be clear here. The biggest issue I actually don't think is what everyone is upset about, which is the black Helen of Troy. It's the mixed-race crew of Odysseus and the Ithacans.

[00:24:09]And the Ithacans were shown uh that they're white, of course. Uh they're Some of them are black, some of them Indian, some of them are Chinese or or at least East Asian. And so, let me explain to you why race mixing here does completely, I think, break the immersion and subvert one of the fundamental pillars of the story. So, the logic and institution that drives the Odyssey is something called xenia. Xenia is um uh an institutional ritual pattern that governs the relationship in ancient Greek between guest and host, between uh in-group and out-group, and how you should treat foreigners. So, it is the reason, for example, why Penelope still feels obliged to feed the suitors and to welcome them in in the first place. Um it prescribes things to the guest, for example, that the guest has to bring gifts, or the guest has to uh not run away with their wife, the host's wife, right? That's why the Paris case was so insulting. But it also prescribes uh standards for the host as well. For example, as a host, you're you're not really supposed to ask who the other person is before you allow them to eat, because then you could you could be be it could be seen as you not extending xenia, but you giving people food just because of their station. Okay, so why does the race swapping I I think really destroy this institution and and subvert this fundamental logic that drives the film. Because this film is driven by xenia, right? Um each peoples that we are met with is one example of how to or how not to do xenia. Uh Cyclops, eating your guests, no good, right? In fact, when Odysseus uh tests when he's interested about a foreign people, and he wants to test and know more about them, the two options he gives is do they observe xenia, or are they uncivilized? That's how important this institution is. It's governed literally by Zeus. That literally this is uh the fact that those are the two options means that xenia is civilization itself.

[00:26:05]Um Calypso and Circe, not as bad as eating your guests, but still not great.

[00:26:11]Phaeacians, uh probably over enthusiastic, but much better at xenia.

[00:26:16]Uh Penelope and Telemachus, great, right? Even though their resources have been uh uh abused for so long, they're still so welcoming to beggars. Okay.

[00:26:24]And okay, why is the race swapping harmful to this?

[00:26:28]The fact this institution exists in their time, it doesn't exist in our time. Why I don't have to welcome any stranger that happens to knock on my door.

[00:26:38]Because this is a boundary institution.

[00:26:41]It is an institution, it is a ritual form that governs an in-group and a foreigner.

[00:26:47]The assumption there is that there is a very strong in-group identity with a lot of mores and codes and moral laws of how you're supposed to behave with your in-group that is not extended to humanity at large, that is not extended in the way that today is in our cosmopolitan cities. That's why there has to be a special code for xenia.

[00:27:09]There also has to be a special code for xenia because the foreigner, xenos is the Greek term, it means guest, it means host, it can mean stranger, it can mean friendly stranger, it can mean hostile stranger.

[00:27:22]The foreigner is mysterious and the foreign world is mysterious, okay?

[00:27:28]When you have a stranger, a non-in-group come to your door, the reason these ritual practices are so important is because they could be hostile.

[00:27:37]They could be a raider, they could even be a god, that's what a theoxeny is, or they could be a long-lost father, a long-lost friend.

[00:27:45]And what xenia preserves is the mystery of the out-group, the mystery of the world inhabited by people whom we know nothing about. So in Homer's Odyssey there are actually black people or we can speculate, it's the Ethiopians, but Homer places them on the edge of the world and I think he says something like the gods go to the edge of the world to dine with those magnificent magnificent people.

[00:28:09]And what that does is it is that it adds mystery to the world. This is why Odysseus, everywhere he goes, even among the Mediterranean islands, he wants to test people. Who are these people? Who who are those people?

[00:28:24]But a a mixed-race in again, if they can in-group just totally destroys the mystery of that world.

[00:28:32]When you have an Indian guy, okay, when you have a Chinese guy, think about how it's on the other side of the world, that's already accepted as an in-group not only it is I have no idea why xenia would still exist in such a world, but even stronger it destroys the mystery.

[00:28:51]If you're so well explored and so well traveled that a Chinese guy is in your Ithacan in-group, right? He's uh born and raised in Ithaca, then the world kind of loses that kind of mystery. Okay, so these are the three reasons why uh the three systematic reasons why um I think this movie is good, but not great, and and why the world does not seem as mysterious as it should be. That's the uh the the the the casting decisions, the third point, the underutilization of deception, identity, and over-moralization of Odysseus. Um thank you for listening to my very early thoughts. I've just been digesting this for a few hours. Um if you're interested in more about the Odyssey, I have done many lectures in Ithaca, Greece, actually about the Odyssey that I'm going to release soon, uh as well as interviews with some of the top Homers alive, and I'll link all of those in the description below. Thank you.