In Christopher Nolan’s ‘Odyssey,’ the Fall of Troy Is a Warning to Us All

Christopher Nolan’s overall excellent adaptation of The Odyssey is many things, yet despite online rumors to the contrary, it is most certainly not “woke.”

Anyone adapting a foundational text of all of Western literature risks rebuke; Homer’s epic poem is too essential, the story perfectly crafted over centuries in an oral tradition before being written down. But the online mob’s reactionary response to this film, led by the richest man in the world, before its release is ludicrous. Yes, the director surely knew he’d get some heat for casting Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and the trans actor Elliot Page as one of Odysseus’ faithful soldiers. Let’s put inane culture wars about mythological figures aside — for indeed, where was the outcry over all-American Opie Matt Damon as the wily Greek mariner? Instead, let’s talk about the fact that Nolan has crafted an anti-war epic and a powerful warning about the dangers of civilizational collapse for our time. Taken with Oppenheimer, Nolan clearly has Armageddon on his mind.

The story should be well known to all: Odysseus, after 10 years fighting at Troy, must return to his wife and son, besieged in their own home by marauding guests. Unfortunately for Odysseus and his men, along the way he pokes out the eye of Cyclops, the monstrous son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and earns the wrath of the gods. Over 10 more long years he voyages home, facing monsters, witches, and demi-gods, hopelessly lost on the wine-dark sea. 

Nolan tells this first adventure story vividly, like the great director of action that he has always been, but it is the chilling flashback to the fall of Troy that comes toward the end of the film where Nolan’s true theme suddenly appears in stark relief: the horrific cost of violence both personally and to society. As Damon’s Odysseus warns after the fall of Troy, the “age of Bronze” they all live in is coming to an end, an end of civilization as these people know it.

Despite the mythological nature of The Odyssey, this aspect of the story does seem to be based in fact. After the fall of the historic Troy around 1200 B.C., all the civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean collapsed. The mysterious Sea Peoples began to raid and mass destruction followed, an arc of fire and blood sweeping across Greece, Turkey, and Syria, all the way to Egypt. Following in the wake of that carnage was a dark age that lasted hundreds of years. Author Eric H. Cline’s brilliant book 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed runs through all the various theories as to why the cataclysm occurred. Cline dives into the Sea Peoples wars, the effects of climate change, disastrous trade wars, an influx of new peoples, and internal revolt all destabilizing the entire region.

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All these issues are sadly too relevant today. I would bet money Nolan read Cline’s book; he certainly was familiar with the colliding factors that brought the Bronze Age to a crashing halt.  

The scenes of violent havoc and slaughter during the sack of the city are some of the most harrowing displays of mass bloodlust and conflagration put to film. Not because they are particularly graphic, but because the horror in Damon’s eyes leaves the viewer with no doubt of the terrible toll. Odysseus knows that what the Greeks have done can never be undone. And in due course, we discover that what he witnessed and did in the burning of the city haunts him. It was, after all, Odysseus who conceived of and built the horse — the ultimate betrayal, a gift sent to destroy. Odysseus’ guilt and horror manifest throughout the film and physically haunt him during his long voyage home. Divine visions of the dead trailing the living across the world.  

Homer’s two great epics, The Odyssey and The Iliad, have inspired us for over two millennia. They have been interpreted, translated, and re-spun time and again, and always will be. Nolan’s version is the one we need right now. It’s a stark reminder of the consequences of our choices and where duty ultimately lies. If that’s not small-c conservative, and the antithesis of namby-pamby identity politics, I don’t know what is. 
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Nolan’s unexpected ending for the film brought to mind another great work that grew from Homer’s deep roots, the Irish poet Seamus Heaney’s classic The Cure at Troy. The passages below, in particular, convey a crucial message during this time of upheaval at home and abroad: 

Human beings suffer,
They torture one another,
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured
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History says, don’t hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracle
And cures and healing wells.