THE ODYSSEY: Christopher Nolan Film Review | Defies the Gods, and Expectations
- Jul 22
- 7 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
The Odyssey has taken the world by storm since its release on 17 July, dominating the global box office with over US $264 million in the opening weekend alone. Christopher Nolan’s latest epic, The Odyssey is a complex narrative which explores themes of determination, perseverance, and justice. "The Odyssey: Christopher Nolan Film Review" evaluates the significant storytelling and practical techniques Christopher Nolan used to adapt Homer's ancient poem into a powerful on-screen epic with profound philosophy.
The Odyssey: Christopher Nolan Film Review
The Odyssey is originally an epic poem composed by the ancient Greek poet Homer, who is also credited for its precursor The Iliad, in about the 8th or 7th century BC. Originally developed for oral retelling, it is a lengthy tale of epic proportions telling the story of the Greek hero Odysseus on his return home after the Trojan War.
Odysseus faces multiple challenges and obstacles as he journeys back to his Greek island of Ithaca; his further ventures feature confronting a broad range of supernatural beings, most of which are intent on stopping his return. Meanwhile, Odysseus’s son Telemachus faces an uprising of suitors back home at Ithaca, all of whom want to take Odysseus’s wife Penelope as their own. Throughout the story, while many of the Greek deities are impartial or opposed to Odysseus’s return, the goddess Athena assures both father and son of a reunion.
With award-winning major auteur Christopher Nolan directing The Odyssey as a full-scale film adaptation, expectations are immense. Nolan is widely recognised as one of the most successful movie producers in the modern world, boasting a comprehensive portfolio of award-winning blockbusters such as The Dark Night (2008), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014), and the multi Oscar-winning historical thriller, Oppenheimer (2023).
The Odyssey Defies the Gods, and Film Expectations
Christopher Nolan has built a reputation for choosing practical visual effects over computer-generated imagery (CGI), and championing the IMAX film format. In storytelling, he is known for telling complex narratives through a nonlinear plot and for exploring themes such as grief, tragedy, loss, and the separation of protagonists from their families to develop a far more raw character arc, all of which works perfectly alongside a story such as The Odyssey.
The Odyssey is the first feature film in history to be shot entirely in IMAX 70mm film. IMAX 70mm is the world’s largest and highest resolution film format, and the 1:43:1 aspect ratio is much taller than standard widescreen cinemas, filling entire floor-to-ceiling cinema screens with an equivalent of around 16K resolution for fully immersive displays and battle scenes.
Christopher Nolan’s famous aversion to using CGI as a crutch, while shooting with IMAX film cameras, leads to tremendous use of original practical techniques to capture a true and realistic scene through the camera alone. Scenes were shot in real locations across six countries to capture a vast and historically grounded world, with Christopher Nolan making use of real extreme weather events for full authenticity. The Hades scene, for example, involved battling icy, sideways rain in Iceland, while other scenes entailed surviving actual rough storms on the open sea, utilising real ships (such as the Draken Harald Hårfagre, a traditionally-built Viking longship from Norway), thousands of casting extras for the full-scale battle scenes, and a real 18-metre animatronic for Polyphemus the cyclops.
“[Christopher Nolan] captures the beauty of the real world,” actress Lupita Nyong’o described in an interview. “There [are] very little special effects in this film, so what you’re seeing is places we were actually in.”
Traditional fantasy movie soundtracks feature sweeping scores with a heavy focus on grand orchestral tracks. The Odyssey, however, has defied those customs by providing a far more detailed and percussion-heavy soundtrack that becomes more of a foreboding ambiance than a traditional grand sweeping scale. Composed by Ludwig Göransson, the soundtrack makes strong use of traditional ancient Greek instruments like the lyre and aulos, alongside real sound effects, to further immerse the film into a world which—due to the camerawork and lack of CGI dependence—feels tangibly realistic.
One point of controversy following the trailer release for The Odyssey was that the actors spoke with American accents and used informal language, such as Telemachus referring to Odysseus as “Dad”. Most films of the fantasy and historical genres make standard use of formal, Received Pronunciation British English.
Christopher Nolan has defended his decisions, explaining that his intentions were to prioritise language with “emotional meaning” over traditional standards. He wanted to tell the story through a lens that would feel close and emotionally-connected to the audience, and a contemporary, modern approach to the language would help the audience to be deeper immersed. He used these same arguments when defending his choices of “casting it big”.
The Odyssey Turns Classical Heroes into Realistic, Conflict-Driven Individuals
Odysseus is a conflicted, weary war hero portrayed by Matt Damon. Having exploited Zeus’s law with the Trojan Horse, Odysseus’s guilt weighs heavy as he vows to return home with his men, even if it means defying the gods. He is flawed and human; he makes mistakes and decisions that cost the lives of countless men. These consequences, added to his guilt and trauma from the war, ensures that Odysseus suffers immense internal conflict on his journey.
Odysseus’s grieving wife is played by Anne Hathaway, who portrays Penelope as a woman of endurance who holds onto the tiny fragment of hope that her husband may some day return. Sheer determination is what keeps her waiting in grief for twenty years, but her sudden outbursts of anger towards Telemachus and the insolent suitors show Penelope’s deep inner turmoil.
Tom Holland plays Odysseus and Penelope’s son Telemachus, whose sense of justice forms him as a determined young man who will do anything to restore how Ithaca once was when Odysseus was still present, including establishing himself as king to rid their home of the suitors, which leads to conflict with his desperate mother. Holland's likeable, grounded portrayal of Telemachus invites the audience to feel his coming-of-age as he grows up in social isolation—a theme also powerfully explored in Tom Holland's other recent box office hit, Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Zendaya, Tom Holland’s wife, is Athena. In Homer’s epic, Athena is a mentor and guide to Odysseus and Telemachus. Christopher Nolan’s adaptation presents the Greek goddess not as a literal deity, but as a a quiet, psychological confidante in human form for Odysseus in his guilt. At the end of the film, we see her exact likeness in a Trojan priestess, slain by Odysseus’s men in another flashback. When this is realised, Athena vanishes from Odysseus, leaving her real identity entirely ambiguous. “She’s gone when the story tells you who she really was,” Matt Damon commented.
South African-American actress Charlize Theron is cast as the sea nymph Calypso, whose island holds Odysseus captive for seven years in Homer's tale, before she finally releases him to return home. The Odyssey film adaptation paints Calypso in a more positive and supportive light; as a wise and powerful figure who helped Odysseus regain strength rather than being a hindrance on his journey.
Antinous receives a far deeper and personal connection to the story of The Odyssey in the film than in Homer’s poem. The lead suitor and antagonist Antinous, played by Robert Pattinson, is displayed as a coward who bribed another boy, Sinon, to take his place many years ago in the Trojan War. When Odysseus returns to Ithaca, he avenges Sinon’s family, whom Atinous betrayed.
Though there was much controversy surrounding Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong’o being cast as both Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra (much like Nico Parker in How to Train Your Dragon), Nyong’o’s portrayal of the two women was masterful. Christopher Nolan’s choice to cast the same actress as two connected characters adds a deeper sense of paradox to the Homeric legend. Their husbands were brothers, the sons of King Atreus: the slighted Spartan King Menelaus (Jon Bernthal) and sovereign High King Agammemnon (Benny Safdie). It was Helen’s beauty which started the Trojan War, and Clytemnestra’s wickedness which was brought further tragedy in the aftermath. One actress playing two opposing roles carries both irony and a clever thematic symmetry. Additionally, the depiction of Helen as a grieved, guilt-heavy queen with deep internal—and physical—scars deepens the sense of tragedy caused by the Trojan War.
The Odyssey Is an Encouragement, and a Warning
The Odyssey is not presented as a chronological, linear story in the film. Again, this is a classic trademark for Christopher Nolan, who has a tendency to present plots in a non-linear manner while keeping the story itself clear. The sequence of events in the movie do not take place chronologically. Instead, they are shown through flashbacks and memories as Odysseus remembers and retells the story of his journey, which also echoes Homer’s style. Only once Odysseus arrives home in Ithaca does the story become linear. By using a character’s own memories to present the epic, the audience’s personal connection to him is deepened.
Christopher Nolan is undoubtedly a cinematic auteur whose works dive deep into profound philosophy and carry powerful messages. The Odyssey is no different. Throughout the film the theme of “Zeus’s Law” is repeated—also known as xenia, a moral obligation by which hosts are expected to welcome and be hospitable to strangers, for fear that a stranger might be a god in disguise. This is told through a Greek mythological lens, although it is a concept which morally can still be applied today. In fact, Anne Hathaway (as Penelope) went as far as quoting Biblical scripture when speaking to Telemachus, saying, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31). Odysseus’s primary guilt is that his exploits with the Trojan Horse abused this standard. Further along the way, Odysseus’s men pillage and burn towns on their voyage home. A rising group known as the “people from the sea” who have no regard for Zeus’s law is at the end revealed to be the Greeks.
In all of this, The Odyssey becomes a film that is no longer pure entertainment; rather, it is an epic: constructed through incredible, multi-faceted storytelling techniques which all work together to convey an idea, a thought, and a philosophy.
Odysseus ends the film with a profound statement: “A new dawn will break over the darkened world,” he declares. “And all our mistakes will once again be forgotten.” Alone, this quote is ambiguous; it serves as both an encouragement and a warning. The context of The Odyssey, however, reveals that it is a warning: those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it. In a world where cultural and historical amnesia is rapidly increasing, Christopher Nolan’s latest epic is a solemn reminder that civilisations, like the Bronze Age, may collapse, but the human heart remains the same. Perhaps this is why the film ends with a clear, intentional close-up of the Trojan Horse—it is a reflection of itself. Just like the horse, The Odyssey holds more to it than what meets the eye.
About the Author
Christopher J. Watt is an author, film critic, and cultural essayist. His writing explores the intersections of narrative architecture, cinematic scale, and moral philosophy. Read more of his work at ChristopherJWattAuthor.com.
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