Let’s be clear: The Odyssey of Homer is one, and Christopher Nolan’s version is another. There are points of contact but the departures are also visible. However, it is, as they say, the nature of the beasts. Homer’s Odyssey is an epic poem believed to be written not by a single man, i.e. Homer but various bards that contributed in the evolving development of the story some 3,000 years ago. It was only around the 7th century that a manuscript was finally developed into a composite text, along with its precursor The Iliad. Nolan’s The Odyssey, however, the film that everyone is talking about, is an adaptation, a re-imagination, a re-interpretation of Homer. Thus, to demand absolute fidelity to the former is an assault to poetic license, and seriously just quibbles to margins.
But yes, we are bound to compare, at least, to the larger comparative discourses: themes, plots, characterization, context, creative renditions, directions of the narrative, and why not, the renderings of meaning to our contemporary life.
Do we need to read Homer’s Odyssey before watching Nolan’s version? Reading a book and watching a movie are two different experiences. However, if you are not into passive viewing, and you want to deepen your appreciation and understanding of the movie, it helps to familiarize yourself to Homer’s and then to Nolan’s oeuvre, in that order.
Chrsitopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is a tour de force.
There is the that undeniably breathtaking cinematography. Nolan takes the audience to six stunning location sights and generated jaw-dropping visual poetry that stay with you long after you leave the theater. The incorporation of sound or the absence of it is equally spellbinding. You are both thrilled and at times jarred to your core by the massive sound of angry waves, frightening whirlpool, man-eating monsters, stone-throwing giants, a city in desolation as much as the silent drips of water, or the visual feel of absolute silence before a tragedy. Nolan also heavily exploited the cinematic device of splicing time and space more like a nightmarish collage that initially confuses the naïve viewer, but then he eventually weaves these seemingly disjointed parts enough to glue the audience’s attention to the screen for almost three-long hours without noticing.
There is also so much to say about the brilliant yet subversive casting of actors as well as the re-appropriation of Homer’s characters. Nolan’s Helen is the actress, Lupita Nyong’o. Yes, Lupita’s resplendent skin color is immaterial to her short but strong performance. It is as if Nolan is doubling down on his premise that a film is a work of fiction and not a historical narrative. Besides, Homer, the originator of the narrative, is a poet and not a historian. The Latino actor John Leguizamo essaying the role of the blind servant Eumaeus gave an Oscar-worthy performance.
Moreover, Nolan successfully transformed the actress-Zendaya into the goddess-Athena. But here, compared to Homer, Nolan’s Athena was stripped of all fierceness and defiance traditionally associated with her. Instead, Nolan re-modelled Athena/Zendaya into a deep meditative persona somehow suggesting that she is a product of Odysseus’ imagination.
The not-so-looking-Greek-enough-Jason-Bourne-actor Matt Damon is Odysseus. Homer’s Odysseus is crafty, clever, full of hubris and a definitive liar. This is not Nolan’s Odysseus. Instead, Nolan devised Odysseus/Damon into a reflective, fatherly material and highly accountable leader. Nolan somehow lost the complexity of Homer’s Odysseus. The loss is specifically highlighted on Odysseus encounter with the one-eyed monster, Polyphemus. However, Matt Damon successfully delivers Nolan’s Odysseus. For certain, popular culture’s Odysseus will be Matt Damon just as Achilles is Brad Pitt for a long time.
That being said, we are still faced with a dilemma. Although Pinoys are always in haste to conclude that we are the most “Westernized” group of Asians this side of heaven, can Pinoys truly and essentially relate to this Western story, this Western movie that ultimately offers Western sensibility and sensitivity without sounding “plastik” or inauthentic?
Oddly enough, Homer’s and Nolan’s Odyssey tackle a similar if not familiar themes and values that Pinoys face, struggle and live with in their everyday existence. Central to Homer’s story, which Nolan also imbued in the movie, is the concept of “xenia” or loosely translated as kind hospitality afforded to strangers. The Greek god Zeus’s unwritten law is to be constantly hospitable to strangers because you never know when a god is on your doorstep disguised as a needy beggar. This sacred value was heavily desecrated; thus, the eventual cause of violence and downfall that followed and became the fate of many. Odysseus and his men, Polyphemus and Penelope’s insolent suitors are some of the glaring samples.
Pinoys version of xenia is deeper and much more complex: kapwa. Kapwa is not limited only to strangers, it even permeates to levels of relationship and identity. Kapwa is not bound by consequences, but by the recognition of the existence of other beings other than oneself. Do we not wonder why visitors had an easy time colonizing our shores?
Most certainly, Odysseus desire of going home and the attendant transformations are the ones that many if not all Pinoys can relate with easily in this movie. In our Alex-Ealamania era, the Pinoy diaspora is its very own Odyssey. The Pinoy odyssey will always find connections, expressions wherever, whenever, and whatever medium is available because the journey-back-home, to be with the familiar, to protect the ones that were left behind, to find peace in the bosom of loved ones are existential issues that are both collective and personal to a/the Filipino.
Perhaps the most endearing, most poignant and certainly most heart-braking scene in the movie that Nolan captured is the death of Argos, Odysseus’s loyal dog. The scene underscores Nolan’s genius. Nolan delivered and brought us to the fantastic, massive and big scenes yet he is equally adept to bring us down to those soft, small and very personal.
Yes Kiko, we still have time to discuss at length the “desperate try to fit modern Hollywood trends” to Nolan’s Oddysey. In the meantime, let us scout out TJ’s recommendation for any Imax cinema to ‘properly’ appreciate this movie (you can share your thoughts on my e-mail: ricardoaclores@gmail.com)
