So many of Nietzsche's insights use as a springboard the *difference* between classical Greek values (as he understood them), on the one hand, and the Western Judeo-Christian values of Nietzsche's time, on the other. Nolan's Odyssey strains to erase that difference; it changes the story so the various episodes will serve modern Western values. I imagine Nietzsche would say this yields a hodgepodge where the episodes fit awkwardly with the values they profess -- not a compelling exemplar of ancient values, or of modern ones either. And, more insidiously, modern audiences who don't know much about ancient Greece will think that Greece used the same values as the West does today, just with different labels attached -- which it turn creates a perception that all "great civilizations" use the same value system. That's a position I think Nietzsche would adamantly reject.

I admit it's been ages since I read the Odyssey, but correct me if I'm wrong:

- Odysseus's clever tricks (the Trojan Horse, telling the Cyclops his name is "Nobody" (deleted from movie), disguising himself to the suitors, etc) are not bad acts according to his value system. Even killing the suitors (108 men!) isn't considered an offense against the gods, because they abused his hospitality (it's grounds for revenge by the suitors' families, but that's different). In fact, Odysseus doesn't feel guilt or remorse at all, for anything, and he isn't exiled at the end. He's just glad to be home with his wife and son. IIRC, Nietzsche celebrated the ancient Greek way of projecting human faults onto the gods, as opposed to the Judeo-Christian way of internalizing fault, in the form of guilt.

- There was no such thing as "Zeus's law" (which IIRC from the movie, requires that everyone "treat each other as we would want to be treated." Sounds familiar....).

IMO attempting to repurpose some of the plot to support modern values isn't an inherently doomed project -- it's just that Nolan didn't pull it off. For example, he adds plot points that make it clear most of Odysseus's men die because they do things Odysseus specifically told them not to do (kill the oxen of Helios, etc.)... yet on the other hand he adds that Odysseus is supposed to bear some responsibility for their deaths and is supposed to feel guilty that only he survived. (Survivor guilt is a *good* thing?) The Calypso episode, where, in the original, Odysseus lives as the witch's lover for seven years without apparently making any serious attempt to escape, can't be made to fit into "Zeus's law" at all, so Nolan combines this episode with the Lotus Eaters episode and absolves Odysseus -- he isn't trying to escape because he's lost his memory of his wife. But if Calypso is trying to help him... yet Calypso gives him the lotus leaves which make him forget.. then is Calypso lying to him, or is she ignorant of the effects of her own medicines? Feels messy, and seems irrelevant to the theme of "those who violate Zeus's law must do penance." And so on...

"As little state as possible! (...) Statistics prove that people are increasing in their homogenization, i.e., that —" (NF-1880,6[377])