The Odyssey Hullabaloo

American Greatness ^ | 16 Jul, 2026 | Victor Davis Hanson

[MtnClimber]

Lupita Nyong’o calls Homer’s 'The Odyssey' sexist, but the ancient epic’s women tell a far different story.

Acclaimed British filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s (The Dark Knight, Oppenheimer) newest film, The Odyssey, opens this week in the United States.

But controversy has already surrounded Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s 2,700-year-old epic poem about Odysseus’s 10-year struggle to return home after the Achaian victory in the decade-long Trojan War.

Some of the film’s actresses have suggested that Nolan is offering a more feminist—and long-overdue—take on the ancient poem. Actress Lupita Nyong’o, in particular, has criticized Homer’s purported sexism.

Perhaps her misreading of Homer stems from her admission that, despite receiving degrees from elite Hampshire College and Yale, the 42-year-old actress had never even read the Odyssey until she was cast in the minor dual roles of Helen and her sister Clytemnestra.

The Odyssey was composed orally sometime around 750–700 B.C., contemporaneously with the rise of the Greek city-state. Along with Homer’s other epic, The Iliad, The Odyssey marks the inauguration of Western literature. Over the next three millennia, it came to be recognized as not only the earliest but also one of the most profound works of Western civilization.

Far from being sexist, Homer’s Odyssey offers a timeless and diverse panorama of powerful, independent, and savvy women.

Take Penelope, the wife of Odysseus and queen of Ithaca. Unquestionably loyal to her missing husband, she outsmarts the bloodthirsty suitors who seek to force her into marriage and seize the kingdom through her steadfast courage and cunning.

She confounds them through a series of brilliant ruses, ultimately enabling her husband’s revenge.

Far different, but equally independent and crafty, are the immortal sorceress Circe and the divine nymph Calypso, who both shelter, seduce, and eventually bond with Odysseus. Both ultimately release him to continue his tragic journey

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TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: christophernolan; hampshirecollege; leftism; lupitanyongo; vdh; victordavishanson; yale

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

I am wondering how many people will watch this movie just to see for themselves how truly bad it is.

Don’t pay for it. Wait to see it for free on streaming.

[MinorityRepublican]

I am wondering how many people will watch this movie just to see for themselves how truly bad it is.

There are already some paid reviews out which is funny because theyre full of BS

[9422WMR]

“ and I am squirming in frustration at trying to hear the low dialogue”
So many of these actors think talking in a low tone gives the parts gravitas. Look at the mumbling idiot matthew mconaHEY. That whispering idiot needs to learn to SPEAK UP. Mumbling ads nothing to a part.

[Mr Rogers]

The review I saw said Matt Damon played Matt Damon. Anne Hathaway plays Anne Hathaway. Tom Holland plays Tom Holland. Zendaya pouts. That Nolen got some visuals very right, but that he forgot to direct the actors or get them to step outside their own persona.

[Bon of Babble]

Instead of watching this "reimagined" retelling of the Odyssey through a "feminist/non-gender conforming/progressive lens" - I plan to re-read The Odyssey - either Robert Fitzgerald and Robert Fagles' translation.

I figure that is time better spent, enjoying one of The classics of Western literature - instead of being told that THIS creature is the "most beautiful woman in the world" with a "face that launched a thousand ships," fair-haired and light-eyed.

I do not think either Homer or Odysseus would approve.

[stanne]

“ disappointment was Matt Damon as Odysseus. That’s horrible casting to me. So are Tom Holland and Zendaya. None of them are right for a Greek epic.”

Did you see the movie?

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Those are Nolan shills.

[MinorityRepublican]

💯

[MtnClimber]

The squabbles have been epic. Sir Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of “The Odyssey” was causing conniptions long before anyone had even seen the thing. Ahead of its release on July 17th, there was harrumphing over everything from the actress playing Helen (too black); the colour of the plume on Odysseus’s helmet (too red); the soldiers’ armour (also too black, and too Batman-like) and the vocabulary of Odysseus’s son (too American: at one point he says “Dad”). On YouTube the film’s trailer was met with criticism. “If I saw this on a plane, I’d still walk out,” reads one disgruntled comment. - The Economist - "A very silly adaptation of “The Odyssey”"

[stanne]

“ I had this book as a child. Must of read it dozens of times.”

You must have read it a lot. Yes

The kids around here read it. I should have

They knew everything about the Greek myths before studying it in high school, where the boys’ enthusiasm over it, given the violent descriptions of the fighting, helped fuel the discussions

I’ve since read Fitzgerald’s interpretation and read by Derek Jacobi.

Am looking forward to seeing the movie.

DAulaires Greek myths original copies, are going for a lot on Amazon

[rlmorel]

I am a big fan of Nolan's style, and have enjoyed his movies. But this is where I part ways with him. I have been hoping against hope for years to get a good adaptation of the Odyssey onto the big screen, but not this.

The thing I find most offensive in this film has nothing to do with the content, because I have not seen it yet. Few or none of us have.

It is wholly in the casting of it, which was done from two different perspectives that grate on me:

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The First Perspective is to tell this story from a feminist point of view (indicative simply from the casting and the roles) which I abhor as wokeness and reject out of hand. VDH explains brilliantly why this perspective is not only stupid and woke, but is wholly unnecessary.

I have read or listened to the Odyssey between five and ten times, and I love it. What an amazing story, and I admit that I have been longing for a good movie to be made from it, just as I have been longing to see someone make a good movie of "The Battle of Leyte Gulf".

But the women in the Odyssey don't need any modern feminist help. Conservatives appreciate strong, resourceful, dedicated women who aren't afraid to battle with men on their own terms, and the example of Penelope and The Suitors is a prime example of that.

She could never take them on in a battle of arms and eject them from her house, as so many execrable Hollywood productions would have her do it today, strapping on the dusty armor of Odysseus and picking up one of his rusty swords to go out and do the deed herself.

In today's Hollywood mentality, in the spirit of Tomb Raider, Penelope would overcome the armed and muscled men one-by-one as they surrounded and rushed at her, using her refined martial arts skills to kill the dozens of faster, stronger, and more physically imposing suitors who surrounded her, running one through with the sword, doing a chop to the neck of another to break his larynx, jumping out of the way as two of the suitors try to stab her, only to stab each other as she pauses with satisfaction to observe, before breaking the arm of the next one...

All the while, Telemachus is a wimpy, feminized young man, cowering in a corner, depending on his mother to protect him.

You get the idea.

But in Homer's Odyssey, Penelope fights back in the best, most tactically effective way she can by undoing the tapestry each night, delaying the day of reckoning, hoping against hope her beloved can return in time and rain death and destruction on them when the time is right...which he does. That is strength. Penelope fights as she can, with the tools she has at her disposal and with the intellect (and love for Odysseus) she possesses, she plays her part intelligently and with resolve that will win the battle in the end.

And Telemachus grows up by necessity when Odysseus returns and joins him as a man (as young men thrust into manhood by necessity must often do) and does his part in slaying the trespassers.

In the end, Penelope is not some stupid Amazon like Wonder Woman with super powers and a special lasso, but a woman any real Conservative man would have as an equal partner in life, not a husband to her in the fashion of a curly headed cuck playing video games and avoiding responsibility while a shrill harpy feminist Penelope lords over him and degrades him because he deserves it.

And the Second Perspective that this this abhorrent task of casting displays is that it was done simply as a form of obeisance to political correctness and a slavering subservience to the Oscar committee in a craven and lazy attempt to ensure all the appropriate checkboxes are ticked off to be eligible for an Oscar nomination.

I can't stand it. They might as well throw in references to Climate Change and the evils of Capitalism in there to cement it.

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I have been longing for years to see a good movie adaptation of the Odyssey.

My wife wants to see it, but I absolutely will refuse to see it until I can get it for free on streaming or from a local library, and even then, only if I have a free Saturday night where all the rust has been removed from my bike chain and there is no more organizing of my tool bin to do.

[rlmorel]

Grr. That makes me crazy!

[xp38]

The next few weeks will tell the tale starting tomorrow.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

No. I’m just going off of the casting and the fact that I saw Damon in The Duel (a prior historic period drama). I just don’t think he’s good in historic dramas. He’s a unique actor and I see Damon when he’s in a movie. He does not turn himself into the character the way a Daniel Day Lewis does. I like Damon in modern movies but not in historic period dramas. So that’s what I’m basing my skepticism on. Maybe I’m wrong but so far that’s my biggest fear about the movie. Frankly, I thought the criticism over Lupita Nyong’o and Elliot Page was overblown because I suspected they were not going to get much screen time and that apparently turned out to be true. But Damon is the main character and I don’t think I’m going to be able to see anything but him as the actor.

[MinorityRepublican]

I have been longing for years to see a good movie adaptation of the Odyssey.

I liked the one from 1997.

[stanne]

“ I’m just not going to be able to get over Matt Damon as Odysseus. He is just not right for historical period dramas or epics”

People that wouldn’t dream of putting a movie together are so happy to criticize this.

With emotion. With hate. I’m getting slammed by a cousin for unfortunately mentioning I will see the movie

It’s like TDS hatred from people who have not even seen it

Have you seen the Dark Knight?

Do you think the Joker was a well-played villain?

The screeches that Nolan miscast Heath Ledger were deafening before its release.

This anti odyssey thing is sick

[stanne]

“ Nolan movies always make money. Even when you think they shouldn’t. And millions of dollars worth of free advertising from whiny babies is definitely going help.”

Period

[discostu]

Sounds like a you problem.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“ There must be a reason for putting out this trash but box-office receipts ain’t it.”

Slow, incapable learners, aren’t they? Why don’t the boards of these companies sack the execs that turn out such money losing drek?

[stanne]

“ A very hard pass for me.”

They should have a secretion in Rotten Tomatoes for reviews by people who won’t, haven’t seen it but still must comment on it.

Rotten Tomato’s has this film at 98% today -by people seen it of course