The Odyssey Was Turned Into an Anti-Hero Guilt Trip

[00:00:00]I saw the Odyssey in opening weekend and I'm here to tell you my honest take and I promise I went in with an open mind even though I did have fun bashing the PR campaign. I did go in with an open mind. I wanted to like it. Both my husband and I really wanted to like it because there are quite a few Christopher Nolan movies that I have enjoyed and still do enjoy. But I'm sorry to tell you guys that overall I was disappointed. And I'm sure if you have landed on my channel I am not the first person to say this. So yes, some of it was very visually cool. Um there were some cool scenes, some exciting parts, but I think there was just more more disappointment than than excitement, especially from a cultural perspective and the reflection that it gives us on where we are in the postmodern world right now. So I could start with how bad the script is because the script is bad. Pacing issues, some really bad acting, obviously the bad casting. I could talk about how even the sound mixing was bad. It was just really loud. just just too loud. The score was also very underwhelming. As a musician and as somebody who has really enjoyed the score in a lot of Christopher Nolan movies in the past, I was very underwhelmed by the score in this film and it was too loud. It was just boom boom boom boom boom and you couldn't hear a lot of the dialogue. But that's not what we're going to talk about today. In this particular video, what I want to talk about is arguably the most important part, which is that this was a completely subversive rewriting of Homer's text. And not surprisingly, it is positively dripping with egalitarian Marxist ideologies that completely rewrite the Trojan war story and of course make the Greeks out to be the aggressors and the oppressors. And Odysius, played by Matt Damon, of course, spends the last large chunk of the movie just really sad and remorseful and regretful and he like needs therapy.

[00:01:49]He's not some hero that makes a victorious homecoming. I mean, in a way he does, but it's mostly it's mostly embodied through this regret and remorse. So much so, and I forgot to say in the beginning, there going to be spoilers. I mean, if you're on my channel already, you probably know most of this. you know, the end of the text, but you probably have already heard the end of the movie is different because this guilt that he is riddled with essentially makes him exile himself with his wife Penelopey, and then he doesn't reclaim the throne that he has a a that his rightful throne that he should claim when he comes home. So, that's where that's where the chronic guilt comes from. That's that's what it leads to.

[00:02:30]And that was a massive rewriting of the character which is really important because of course instead of the Greeks being upheld as the heroes and as the ones who are trying to dis restore divine order because in this text in this culture it is so much about divine order the type of order that we will never fully understand in the era that we live in today. But instead of being the heroes and the upholders of divine order, the Greeks are now made out to be the bad guys, the oppressors who need to be punished. Odysius, Matt Damon's Odysius is the oppressor that needs to be punished so much. And even when he is punished, it's not enough. So he exiles himself. Of course, I know there's never going to be a perfect adaptation of the Odyssey. And I'm fine with certain liberties being taken, but it becomes different when it's a complete overturning of the whole moral and ideological core of the story to fit to fit another political agenda basically.

[00:03:26]And I will say it is a little bit irritating when people are like, why are you politicizing this film? Just watch it and enjoy the movie. Okay, yeah, it's fine to enjoy the movie, but we're not the ones who politicized it. Okay, simply observing is we're not the ones politicizing it. This is a very particular political message that Nolan is sending and you would be either obtuse, intentionally obtuse to ignore that or deny it or you just might not be fully there to really see it and accept it. Because here's the thing about the original text. Okay, so Homer writes the Odyssey in a way that is almost meant to be confusing to readers, like almost even a little bit disorienting because there's this divine cosmic orders that human beings are trying to live in.

[00:04:11]They're trying to figure out and and the way that Homer writes, he's he's constantly displaying human beings, human beings being pulled back and forth with multiple obligations that they're trying to juggle and they're trying to figure out in this cosmic order. and they have competing interests. So, it actually makes for a disorienting read as a reader. Um, but what Nolan does basically is he kind of erases all that and he simplifies it down to this teeny tiny little individual level of I feel guilty because I brought in the Trojan horse and people got hurt. And it's very reductive. And it's the same type of almost childish hindsight that you see today thrown around when we talk about when we see accusations of oppressors in Western society. And it really felt like it was reduced down to Matt Damon feel feeling bad, feeling sorry, like I need to talk to a therapist about it because we we did a bad thing. And it could all be summed up in that one image of him seeing the girl being beheaded in Troy.

[00:05:17]And it was it was the image of Athena, right? And of course of course that girl's black. Of course it was Zenaia playing that part. That is like the perfect summation of what Nolan was trying to to show us here is that it's like the big mean white man kills the young pretty black girl and that's just wrong and that's what we're gonna reduce this down to. And Nolan's version focused heavily on the concept that Odysius violated the basic Greek law of hospitality, Zenia, Zeus's law, Zenia, um, by bringing in the Trojan horse. And this is a heavy focus of Odysius's introspection and why he feels so bad and not recognizing this as an act, a wartime act, like a a a war move, but rather like a wartime deception, but rather this is some mean violation of Greek hospitality. And this is actually what changes the whole trajectory of the story. And it's a huge departure from the text. It also, this is what makes Odic Odicius's homecoming riddled with guilt rather than the fullness of revenge, the fullness of the hero's journey. In the movie, Nolan basically portrayed Odysius as this this man who was making some bad choices that hurt his men and he was almost, you know, enjoying the violence in some ways. But in the text, Odysius is not a soldier who loved violence and warfare. He is not somebody that enjoyed this. He is someone that was kind of just placed in the chaos. And he actually made a lot of strategic decisions that removed them from vi from further violence and prevented other men from more men from dying. And unlike other men around him, he made these decisions to help end the violence faster. So that's the sort of Odicius that we see in the text. But that's not what Nolan portrays with Matt Damon's Odysius. It's like it's almost like you want they want you to feel like Matt Damon should feel really really guilty. And he's this self-defeating man that keeps beating himself up over these offenses. And the way that it is all told, the story is told, it's like these are the the offenses that are imposed on the other. And that is a very important component of this rewriting of the story, which again perfectly summarized in the fact that the young girl being beheaded in Troy that Odysius keeps thinking about was like a vision of Athena. It's a young black girl. And of course, we got to talk about Helen of Troy. Paul Hill says Nolan didn't just cast a black actress to portray Helen.

[00:07:53]He also chose to portray her as an abused woman. These are not separate choices. These changes were deliberate and connected. Helen is now a beautiful black woman abused by her white Greek husband. These Hollywood types can only tell one story where the oppressed and the oppressors have already been tone cast before casting even began. And he's he's quote tweeting the patriotic dog who says Homer Helen of Troy spent the war in isolation weaving the history of the Trojan War into fabric. She's physically unharmed. Christopher Nolan f her face right up as if she was partaking in knife battles the entire war.

[00:08:28]>> [laughter] >> make her look like Debo from the movie Friday. Um, I don't know that movie.

[00:08:33]Don't laugh at me, but I don't know that reference that he's making from Morgoth.

[00:08:36]They had to destroy the Odyssey because they didn't want European men identifying with a man who gets lost, then overcomes adversity and slaughters the graping tricksters and parasites who took over his home. According to Christopher Nolan, Odysius is a man ravaged with guilt and in need of therapy because he destroyed the environment. Also, his wife is smarter than him. So, it's basically an autobio projection on behalf of the average male Democrat voter.

[00:08:59]>> Can you tell me about it? I mean, and how you see it because it's sort of it's articulated very clearly in the film.

[00:09:04]>> Well, thank you. Uh, yeah, as I was really going back to the poem and looking at, okay, what what fuels all this? What what's sort of there behind it? You you have this concept of Zenia.

[00:09:15]We don't refer to as Zenia in the film because I think that would be confusing.

[00:09:17]So we we just refer to it as useless law, but it's the idea that, you know, you might look like a humble beggar, but you could be a god in disguise. And that becomes the theological underpinning for a society that saw gods everywhere. Gods walked amongst us back then in in everybody's estimation. It becomes the theological underpinning of the golden rule of the idea that, you know, treat others as you would be treated. And that being the the glue that that binds society together. The more I thought about it, the more that became important to [music] to the project because the more you realize that yeah, back then leaving the house for more than, you know, a day or two, you're by definition throwing yourself at the mercy of strangers and society can only function with respect for strangers. Uh the more you look at it, the more we talked about it, the more we started bringing the project together, the more you realize nothing's changed. We are just as dependent on that. Nothing's changed in that regard. So, it's a point of connection with this text of 3,000 years ago that isn't just a great adventure story, but it's also a kind of ethical and moral foundation that connects us to a very different time.

[00:10:21]>> Christopher Nolan says the Odyssey is ultimately about the idea that a society can only function through respect for strangers. He believes that despite 3,000 years passing since Homer, that fundamental truth about human nature hasn't changed. And the and the quote tweet is, "The Odyssey is about the need for more immigrants. Who could have predicted this?" This is one of the the really nice overviews of of the film.

[00:10:42]This is from Divorce Stone. I I just found his his ex um page the other day.

[00:10:48]So, I'll read through some of this. He says, "The Odyssey is not a universal story. It is not a detachable hero's journey that can be stripped of its cultural origins and modernized for contemporary audiences. Its power lies in its particularity. The audience must do the work of closing the gap. The text does not come to us. The values that animate it. Xenia, reciprocal guest friendship. So this is like the Greek concept of hospital hospitality, excuse me. OOS, the household and its obligations. Matei, cunning intelligence. Cleos glory and te ti. I'm not sure about the Greek pronunciation of this one. Sorry, my Greek's not good.

[00:11:25]Honor are not interchangeable with modern liberal abstractions. They are embedded in a specific ancient Greek moral and social world. They are not timeless human themes floating free of context. This is why the Odyssey functions today primarily as an educational text rather than popular entertainment as it once did. It belonged to the moral universe of ancient Greece. It does not belong to ours. Its value lies precisely in its alieness. It forces us to encounter a distinct way of thinking about justice, loyalty, hospitality, and human excellence. There's a lot more in there that's really good. And you know I do understand this concept of like we're the the adaptations today are never going to really fully portray what the text was saying but it is it is important to point there that the Greek culture and that time is it is the core of the text and the story and you can't there it's not it's not uh separable.

[00:12:12]You can't separate them. Which is one of the reasons why this movie sucked because the modern language, the modern use of words just completely pulled you out of any any chance for immersion in the story. Um, and yes, of course, the race swapping matters. The only the only line of Greek that we heard in the whole film was said by an Indian dude. I mean, that's like that's such a joke. It's, and this is why people are like, "Oh, but Elliot Paige was only in there for a few minutes. Helen of Troy, the black Helen of Troy was only in there for a few minutes." Yeah, but these are all little tiny parts. Short though, they are. They're just meant to demoralize you. They're just meant to demean any anything that was once classic and traditional about the Odyssey. Like you got Asians.

[00:13:04]This is meant to be a Greek warrior.

[00:13:06]Like the actually the very first scene, this is obviously not the very first scene, but the very first scene of the whole film is Travis Scott like doing some little rap and then the camera pans out to all of these men in the banquet room and only like one of them is white.

[00:13:21]You see a black dude, you see a Hispanic dude, you see an Asian dude. It's just it's like a it's just a joke. And yeah, I obviously can't play this clip that was that's kind of like pirated from the film, but the quote is maybe you've heard of our victory at Troy to some random villager they're about to kill.

[00:13:34]Everything about this is garbage. Yeah.

[00:13:35]again and I tweeted, "The only Greek spoken at a Greek epic is uttered by an Indian dude." And of course, when the language is modern and casual and it's not elevated or dignified or heroic in any way, it really just takes you out of the setting and it takes you out of course there's basically no Greek culture in it. I mean, what the last scene, the the last fight scene, which by the way was really not that great. I mean, I think what Nolan was going for is Matt Damon was supposed to be really exhausted, so he couldn't really fight at his best capacity. But it just it just was not it didn't it just wasn't great. But in the end, there's a scene where Tom Holland Tmicus is on the floor above and he finally ended up killing the guy up there who was passing weapons to the suitors.

[00:14:22]And Matt Damon is cornered. Odysius is basically cornered by all the the remaining suitors and he looks up and then Tmicus goes, "Dad." And he throws down a sword and then he kills the remaining suitors. Dad, it was so lame. Like even from the beginning, Tmicus was saying, "Dad, mom." One of the first words you heard uttered in the opening scene is Anne Hathaway Penelope tells the, you know, the singer, the rapper to stop. Don't sing that song. And then Tmicus Tom Holland runs over to her and is like, "Oh, are you okay?" Whatever. And the men are like, "Haha, mommy's boy. You're a mommy's boy." It it takes you immediately out of the setting and the culture. And it it it does not allow you to be immersed at all. The gaslighting is real. Look at this. A progressive director, Christopher Nolan. He makes a film set in ancient Greece. He doesn't cast a single Greek. The cast is as diverse as downtown LA, but he's the progressive one. And then you have your racist director. You have Mel Gibson who filmed uh directed Apocalyptto. He makes a film set in pre-colonial Mexico. Only hires indigenous actors and has them all speak Mayan. But he's the racist one.

[00:15:37]Okay, that's the story that we're going with. One of the greatest films ever made is Apocalyptto. Filmed with 100% Native American cast and spoken entirely in the Mayan language. It's a masterpiece because it respects the region and the time period. Had it been made with English-speaking actors from all over the world, it wouldn't have worked at all. Also, it's just way too on the nose. Nolan's Odyssey was there was nothing subtle or smooth or cunning about it. And to be honest, there was nothing really soulful about it. But first, I want to talk about how on the nose it is because this is this is part of this is going to just show you how terrible the script was. Real line. I'm not kidding. This is not a joke. I think it's time we go on an odyssey. I mean, I guess we could This one we could pass.

[00:16:19]Let this one pass, but it gets worse.

[00:16:21]Another actual line. Our age of bronze is collapsing. This is at the end when Odysius is speaking to Penelope as the beggar. She doesn't yet know it's her husband. And he's saying, "Our age of bronze is collapsing." Yeah. Okay.

[00:16:34]Someone says, "I'm certain now this film isn't is an elaborate joke." And that's what it felt like. It felt like a joke.

[00:16:39]You're telling me that we're supposed to believe that Odysius would know in that moment that it's the age of bronze and it's collapsing there. There is nothing worse than film making that is way too on the nose. It's one of my pet peeves.

[00:16:51]The golden rule is show don't tell. And Nolan usually he does a pretty good job at showing rather than telling, but this this one he was way too on the nose. I mean, kind of as a side note, this is one of the reasons why I think a lot of like right-wingers who try to make movies, like the conservative films, they're so bad because they're so on the nose. They're like, "We're going to teach you that um we you should be pro-life. We're going to teach you that marriage is good. We're going to teach you that um women are young women can be strong in their own way, but then value marriage and and having children." And it's like, okay, but when you make movies that are really on the nose, they don't instead of making a moving heartfelt story, like they don't captivate audiences. And this is one of the reasons why I think it's really hard for a lot of conservatives to make good films because they're more concerned with, okay, we're going to push this political agenda, which a lot of it I agree with. Yeah, I yeah, I would like to see more family- centered movies and and movies that uh discourage women from getting abortions, but when you're making these movies to like sell this particular message, it just it doesn't land. I I mean like things like that what the Run Fight Hide movie that Daily Wire did. I mean this is why their movies just don't land because they're too on the nose. And I always refer if you guys ever listen to my podcast with my buddy Mike one of my favorite movies in the world is Arrival. I love Arrival and it is not at all meant to be this.

[00:18:19]But let me tell you, it is the most prolife movie probably ever made.

[00:18:24]Spoiler alert if you haven't seen it. If you haven't seen even if I spoil it, you got to see this movie. It's based on a short story, but the the the small tiny and I got to use the term red pill. The small tiny red pill that is buried deep in this film is that this woman sees her future that she is going to have a child who has some rare form of cancer and will die at a young age and she chooses to give her child life anyway. She chooses to do it even though she knows that her future husband will get so upset at her when he found when he finds out that she knew it was going to happen. But that's not what the movie's about. It's about aliens arriving on Earth. And deep in the story is this is this moving heartfelt plot about how this mother chose to go forward and have a baby and have a daughter and experience the the life with her even though it was it was a shortened life.

[00:19:19]And this is what I think rightwingers need to be better at when it comes to making films. But anyway, back to the Odyssey. My husband and I both agreed that there was kind of nothing in the first like 50 to 70% of the movie that made you invested. Like it was so hard to feel invested in Odysius. I [snorts] wanted to like Annaway in this role because I think she looked good in some of the stills that I saw, but she was just annoying. I'm going to talk about this in another video, but there were no compelling female storylines, which makes the whole Lupita Niongo PR campaign. She was like, "Homer, how would you feel about all the screen time that women get?" Girlfriend, you were on the screen for like 120 seconds and your storyline was so freaking boring. And all Penelopey did was weave and cry and wait around. Like, she didn't even do anything exciting.

[00:20:10]And especially considering the fact that the way that Homer writes Penelopey is so much more useful and exciting than that. But again, I'll talk I'll I'll talk about that more in my next video.

[00:20:20]But in other in other films by Nolan like Inception, the Dark Knight series, you are just invested in the very beginning into the main character, into the protagonist. Like I think and I know some of you may not like Inception, but I think from the beginning you're invested in Leo DiCaprio. Like you want that guy to get home. You want him to make it home to his kids. You want him to heal from the the shame and the guilt he feels for essentially planting an idea in his wife that makes her herself.

[00:20:49]But with Odysius, there's just something soulful that's missing from the very beginning. It's really hard to find the why. My husband and I talked about it on the way home from the movie theater.

[00:20:59]Like it was so hard to feel the why. To be honest, the first time I ever felt slightly interested in Odysius getting home and restoring order and killing the suitors was when he interacted with the blind guy for the first time in his return. John Leguamo, which by the way, I was shocked to say this to my husband.

[00:21:20]I [snorts] was like, that character may have been one of my favorites. I actually liked John Leguzamu in that in that role. But when he when Odysius returned to the blind guy and he The blind man didn't yet know that it was Odysius, but you heard him talking about how loyal he was to Odysius. And it was the master that he always listened to and followed for the last 20 years even though he was gone. That was a first twinge of like, oh, okay, man. I want him to get home. I want him to get there. But it was like the end of the movie by then. And I think part of that is because he just there was no there's there's nothing cultural to really set you in that time. And the modern language made you feel disconnected. And obviously too, the script was just not good. You know, it's definitely not the movie that we wanted, but in a weird way, this is going to sound strange, it's the movie that we kind of deserve.

[00:22:06]There's just so much ealitarian liberalism that has permeated politics and culture. So, of course, you're going to see these classic western texts just completely rewritten to reflect these ideas. You know, the whole concept that in retrospect, in hindsight, the heroes are not actually the heroes. They are the oppressors. They're the aggressors.

[00:22:24]They're the mean guys and they should always be punished and punished and punished for it without allowing for the complexities and the compete competing obligations and all of that which exists within this need and the desire to return order to return divine order. And all of that was just missing and there were no layers to that in this depiction of the Odyssey. So you'll hear from me in a couple other videos. We'll talk more about the casting choices and the lack of good female story lines, but let me know what you think. I would love to know if you saw the movie, even if you haven't, I would love to hear from you guys. Maybe you really enjoyed it. Maybe you don't agree with my take on it and how the rewriting rewriting the ending of it was just it kind of like fell flat. I don't know. Let me know what you think. We'll see you in the next one because we'll definitely talk more about the Odyssey. Bye. Don't forget to like and subscribe. Bye.