Hi,  Mary Herbert here to unapologetically deluge you with links to articles and podcasts that will help you dissect this summer’s blockbuster, The Odyssey. Because of my classics background—I studied Latin and Greek in college—I was eager to see this latest movie version of The Odyssey, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matt Damon and Ann Hathaway. Finally, after years of being told that my chosen major had no relevance to today’s world, Homer’s epic poem, set in the Bronze Age, has become the talk of the town!

In the last month, reviews of this movie have appeared in numerous magazines as well as online. We’d like to share some of our favorites. The first is by New York Times columnist Ezra Klein, who argues that Nolan presents a fundamentally different take on Odysseus. Homer’s Odysseus is a proud warrior and a clever man—a “trickster”—who, upon returning to the Greek city-state of Ithaca after 10 years of wandering the seas, assumes his rightful place as a strong ruler. But in Nolan’s hands [spoiler alert] Odysseus is full of remorse for having sacked Troy. In the movie, Odysseus returns, kills the suitors who have been plaguing his wife, puts his son on the throne, then, inexplicably, sails with Penelope into the sunset. Nolan, says Klein, is not Homer’s clever man and “trickster”; rather, “He is a soul in need of redemption.”

Klein suggests that his guilt tracks to a Judeo-Christian sense of morality, not the ancient Greek world view, which celebrates strength in gods and men. “This is Nolan’s finest trick” writes Klein, “to make one of our oldest moral rules sound new again. To turn the best of Judeo-Christianity into the law of Zeus, so we can see why it might matter and what it might still have to say to us.” (Later, Fareed Zakaria in a CNN editorial reinforces those points.)

Note that many, many  reviews have appeared since the movie was released. For links to more, including an interview with Nolan, scroll to the end of this piece.

But how have classicists reacted to the film? We are fortunate that two renowned classical scholars have recently translated the Odyssey: Emily Wilson (University of Pennsylvania) in 2017 and Daniel Mendelsohn (Bard College) in 2025. Wilson wrote her translation in blank verse, a meter with five accents per line, while Mendelsohn followed Homer’s original dactylic hexameter—six accents per line. (For the record, Mendelsohn suggests that Wilson’s use of a 5-line meter is problematic, since it’s hard to squeeze Homer’s long line into a shorter one—and keep to the same number of lines as the original— without making cuts. Ouch…!) His goals were to stick to Homer’s meter as well as straightforward “plain” diction.

Wilson offered what many regard as an insensitive, non-objective review in the London Review of Books. Read a synopsis here or her full review here . She calls the Odyssey a “family-friendly audio spectacle … [Nolan’s] usual combination of grandiosity and superficiality.”  And although she recognizes that adaptations are allowed to veer from the original, she laments what the movie left out, such as certain characters, details or sub-plots. In the end, she concludes that Nolan’s  Odyssey “… lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth. Its narrative structure is gimmicky.

Mendelsohn wrote a more balanced review in the New York Review in which he remarks: “The Odyssey demands a director who is not only capable of producing a visually engrossing spectacle but also adept at handling complexly embedded narratives.” He points out Nolan’s “densely braided narrative textures,” which succeed in replicating Homer’s artful weaving.” Like Wilson, Mendelsohn discusses parts of the story that diverge from Homer’s poem and, like Klein and Wilson, notes that guilt-ridden Odysseus resembles heroes in Nolan’s previous movies.

Our reaction? The movie could have been shorter, but it nonetheless held our interest. Nolan rejected the use of computer-generated effects, so the scenes feel raw and real, a refreshing change from most action movies today. Although Homer ‘s poem shows many more interactions between gods and men and emphasizes Odysseus’ near-godly strength and cunning, we can allow Nolan his own interpretation. Finally, we agree with Ezra Klein that, in this movie, Odysseus is clearly a tortured character, aware of the uselessness of war and absolute power. This is a theme that fits our times — and echoes the remorsefulness of a similarly war-weary Odysseus in The Return,  a beautifully photographed film starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliet Binoche, which limits itself to Odysseus’ return to Ithaca.

For more information:

If you’re a classics nerd, you might enjoy the following links.  Here’s Wilson in a London Review of Books podcast discussing the movie as well as her translation. And here she is on the podcast Instant Classics, being interviewed by the renowned British classicist Mary Beard and The Guardian’s chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins, where she reveals she’s working on yet another translation of The Odyssey!

At an April, 2025 lecture at New York City’s  92th Street Y, Mendelsohn discusses his approach to translating Homer’s Odyssey. Later in that year, he gives an informative, easy-to-understand lecture at the Charleston Library Society, a must-watch.

Other Articles:

Read this interview with Christopher Nolan in which he discusses why and how he made the movie, and his attitude toward taking risks.

Allisa Wilkinson, writing for the New York times, compares Nolan’s themes in the Odyssey to those of his other films.

Erica Gonzales’ review in Elle magazine discusses differences between the poem and the film.

New York Times critic Maya Phillips discusses how Nolan’s encounter with Circe differs from Homer’s.