Posted on 07/21/2026 7:43:43 AM PDT by rlmorel
Nolan’s movie keeps the spectacle, but cuts the moral heart out of Homer’s timeless classic.
Christopher Nolan’s audacity to gut one of the greatest stories ever told of its themes, meaning, and essence is an unforgivable sin that can only have been perpetrated by Hades or Hollywood.
The only reason Nolan’s Odyssey is winning praise at the box office is that we stopped teaching the Classics a hundred years ago, and with it, education itself.
Homer’s most important lessons do not even make the screen. What he replaces them with is an assault on the heroic and divine world of the poem, amplifying everything in modern society that is weak, therapeutic, and self-loathing.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
And this opinion piece from the American Thinker has specific details of the literary bastardization carried out in the name of entertainment. It outlines various critical themes and lessons that made the work by Homer a great and classic one, and how the honorable and specific messages have been perverted to make the movie more palatable to "today's audiences".
I have been steadfast in saying I will not see this movie until I can see it for free, and even then… But my opposition does not necessarily have to do with whether the movie has the elements to make it popular movie, or even the elements to make money.
My opposition has been from the moment I began to learn about how they cast the movie, and the things that come out of the mouse of the actors that were cast indicated to me that the casting was done to optimize the chances of an Oscar nomination for one, and for two, the characters discussions of their interpretations of their roles indicated that they viewed it widely as a woke interpretation. On both counts, I was repulsed by both the pandering and the woke comments.
It was a great disappointment to me to reach this conclusion, as I have wanted to see a interpretation of the Odyssey on large screen for years as it is one of my favorite books…I have read it and listened to it somewhere between five and 10 times.
I have always hoped against who that someone would make a version of it that was worthy of watching, because CGI could really do it justice if done correctly. I never could stomach the old version that looked like the monsters were portrayed using claymation. Of course, I understand Christopher Nolan is famously against CGI to a degree, but had to use it in some ways for obvious purposes.
I stay away from anything with Matt Damon but the last time I went to the movies was 1982 ,LOL
There are limits beyond which an adaptation becomes a parody, a desecration, and an insult to the audience. Nolan has crossed that line."
https://counter-currents.com/2026/07/why-i-am-not-reviewing-christopher-nolans-the-odyssey/
A black Helen of Troy?
Hollywood just can’t quit committing suicide.
A black Helen of Troy?
Bialystock & Bloom was in charge of casting.
Need the proper quotas to qualify for awards.
This is a great book. One of the main reasons for reading the Classics is to learn moral lessons and to understand the values from the early days of Western Civilization. It's the foundation of everything, and young people used to be taught that foundation. But now we get Matt Damon and his weird friends.
...as a British pundit called her....”Helen of Detroit”....clever, that one.
Hollywood is pulling out all the stops for this insult. The execs are using every resource to prove woke BS can be successful. Every shill critic is behind this push. It is relentless they will not let it fail.
Last movie I saw at a theatre was Dunkirk
Kevin Sorbo loved it
Yep, without diversity, the Oscar’s would have claimed racism. Some things never change.
Don’t view Nolan making a “toxic assault on Western civilization”. Instead his is using his film making skills and special effects technology to make another comic book movie. He is using Homer’s classic and its characters as a framework but not its core themes to make a movie that will entertain his poorly educated and ignorant audience. It is not so much an assault on an already declining culture but a slick effort to make a few bucks.
There have been some movies I enjoyed but never read the book until after I watched the movie.
So, maybe the movie will motivate some to read the actual story.
Not entertainment, a hit piece. Some supposed historian, a FemNazi, of course, corrupted the Iliad to support her politics. Nolan, a hack, grabbed that ‘cause it gave him a shot at an Oscar. Oscar rules demand DEI affirmative action. With a corrupt translation to work from Nolan was able to jam in all sorts of woke crappola.
Of course, the low-IQ types will look at the photography and think that = quality movie. Of course.
Odyssey is a story of an heroic man attempting to return home no matter what. That is not acceptable to wokies. So, the “historian” and Nolan crippled the story and made him a bad person.
Combine shiny objects and woke crappola and you get better theater turnout.
"...The connection between Odysseus and Penelope is an intellectual union between two people of extraordinary cunning, patience, foresight, and self-command. Calypso could offer beauty, immortality, youth, safety, and paradise. What she could not offer was Penelope’s mind. Penelope is Odysseus’s equal..."
This was my impression from the numerous times I have read or listened to the book.
Penelope was the kind of woman that any Conservative man would be attracted to. It is an interesting conceit to see in Leftists, particularly females that label themselves as "Feminists", that they think Conservative males are somehow afraid and intimidated by strong females, and nothing could be further from the truth.
That is amply demonstrated by the "real" Penelope as characterized in Homer's work who, as a female, has no chance to overpower the Suitors who infest her home, but uses every stratagem as a female who, while physically weaker in every sense compared to the mass of men pursuing her, is an intellectually strong female, a perfect match to King Odysseus in intellect and temperament, and uses every available stratagem available to her to fight them off, hoping for her husband's return.
Contrast Homer's respectful and honorable portrayal of Penelope as an equal to Odysseus to the perception by this ignorant dimwit of Homer's treatment of women, particularly regarding a book she had never (by her own admission) ever read:
LUPITA NYONG'O: When you read The Iliad and The Odyssey, very little time is spent in the perspective of women. It’s told from a very masculine side of things. But this film takes time to really consider things from the female perspective. “I would be like, ‘So, Homer, how do you feel about the screen time given to these women considering how little you spent with them? Remember us?"
THIS is an object example of why I would not pay money to see this movie. A woman cast in this role, simply BECAUSE she is black (to improve the chances for an award selection) and is so ignorant that this would be her interpretation of a book she has (or perhaps now, HAD) never read.
And I fully admit I loved him in "Team America"...:)
I will check that out-Thank you!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.