Some friends and I went to see Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey this past weekend. Lots of controversy has surrounded this film, some warranted, some not. So, I decided to do a review for my Christian brothers and sisters out there. Let’s dive in.

Nudity and Mature Content

For starters, I was happy to find out that I didn’t have to cover my eyes so that I didn’t see naked women. Nolan shocked the world when he included a nude scene in the movie Oppenheimer, and because of The Odyssey’s R rating, I thought there might be another nude scene.

Ladies had better watch out, though. There is at least one male butt that I can recall, to which a friend commented, “I think that guy used Nair.”

Don’t know what Nair is? Be proud. I didn’t until this comment either, and I wish I still didn’t. Anyway, back to the review.

The Casting Controversy

Some folks were pretty upset about the casting of Ellen Page because she’s a trans actor, and she was supposed to play a masculine dude in this movie. She played the role of Sinon, a Greek soldier. This character is important to the overall story of the movie, and it’s indicative of the progressive culture we live in.

You can’t beat biology. Instead of looking like a Greek soldier, Ellen looks like a teenager in the midst of puberty whose voice has not yet dropped, yet she’s 39 years old. It just doesn’t work, and it’s clear to everyone who isn’t looking at it through rainbow-colored glasses.

This casting was poor, but critics were upset at a few other casting options as well.

Zendaya Coleman, John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel, Will Yun Lee, and others faced criticism because they didn’t fit the Greek ethnicity that would have been prevalent in The Odyssey’s ancient Greek world. This wasn’t a distraction for me. Maybe it is for you if you’re a history buff and care greatly about the accuracy of the film—or, you know, if you’re racist.

It really didn’t matter to me. I do want to note that just because someone is frustrated about these castings doesn’t mean they are racist; they may truly care about the historical accuracy of the ethnicities portrayed in the film. If that is your concern, you are going to have further beef with it.

Nolan’s Reinterpretation of Odysseus

If we go back to Homer’s Odyssey, it’s commonly known that Odysseus is highly regarded because of his craftiness and his drive to get back home to Ithaca. Nolan took that and twisted it.

Odysseus is known for his idea to create the Trojan Horse to win the war against the Trojans. This craftiness was a virtue that both Odysseus and Penelope had. Nolan reinterprets military deception through the moral framework of hospitality, or xenia.

In the movie, Odysseus comes to the realization that he’s the bad guy for using the Trojan Horse to win the war and invade the Trojans. He’s the bad guy because he invaded their homes, where they should have felt safe, instead of practicing hospitality.

While hospitality was a great virtue of the time, and still should be, within the traditional story, the Trojan Horse during wartime would have been considered a war technique, not a violation of hospitality. You see an understanding of this in Nolan’s movie as onlookers shout to burn the horse as it’s pulled into Troy and as a soldier stabs a sword through the horse to make sure people aren’t in it.

Odysseus outwitted his enemy in war. He and Penelope would not have come to some modern realization that this was a bad thing. As they come to the realization, they highlight Zeus’s golden rule of hospitality, and a monologue is given to promote taking care of those who are among you. I can only assume this is an allusion to immigration because it’s a pivot from the original work.

Final Verdict

With all that being said, I think the movie was good overall. It doesn’t come without its faults, and it surprises no one that it had some liberal elements, but it was cool to see things like the Cyclops, Circe, and Helios come to life on the big screen.

If you like thrillers or action movies, this would be a good one to go watch. I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone under 18 years of age, and if you’re squeamish, stay home.