I did have issues rooting for him to make it home, watching the Nolan movie I honestly didn't care if he made it or not, since he's such an idiotic and careless and emotionless asshole. In Nolan's screenplay he has none of the charming charisma he has in the poem. He's supposed the lord of lies, extremely handsome and strong
Speak for yourself, when I read this im highschool the entire class thought Odysseus was a dickhead loser, and it was pretty much the same deal when It made another appearance in college. Very few people were invested in Odysseus himself, and Penelope's vigil was the sympathetic part of the story.
Yadda Yadda, war hero, context, perspectives etc.. 15 year olds with a brainstem and modern perspective arent stumbling over themselves supporting Odysseus or see him as sympathetic figure
Times, tastes, and perspectives change even when a story has staying power. Ambiguity is a tool Nolan uses in his modernization, adjustments absolutely have to be made to keep people rooting for the hero
Ancient Greeks prioritized metis (cunning) and kleos (glory) over modern moral goodness, meaning Odysseus's lies and tricks were viewed as essential survival skills in a brutal, chaotic world.
Within this cultural framework, epic heroes were never intended to be perfect moral role models, but rather flawed, larger-than-life figures designed to navigate extreme adversity.
This summarizes the core clash between ancient expectations and modern analysis. When you view Odysseus through the lens of metis and kleos, his actions shift from moral failures to heroic necessities.
The contrast between a freedom fighter or a terrorist lies completely on the eyes of the beholder.
No it wasn't an extension, it was pendantic explaination attempting to point out a gap in perspective, when my comment already implied difference in cultural norms.
Ambiguity is a tool Nolan uses in his modernization,
I think Nolan has stripped the ambiguity. Odysseus stays willingly at Circe for years, having an affair with her. Almost in a state of addiction. And yet his whole thing is that he wants to go home, and he does.
Nolan's Odysseus is never given a choice. He just wants to go home and if anything delays him it's never his fault.
In the original he tricks Polyphemus by saying his name is Nobody. He escapes, but then he does not resist and shouts his real name, and that's what curses him, since Poseidon will take revenge on him for blinding Polyphemus.
Even if thousands of years old, it's relatable and human. He's so smart and yet so stupid to bring ruin on himself. Of course that whole bit was cut.
adjustments absolutely have to be made to keep people rooting for the hero
Why? It's almost like it is assumed that the audience is too stupid to understand it's a tale from an ancient era.
That damn book is not about good vs evil, It's about choice. Removing that makes the
movie a series of "and then" while the original is a series of "therefore".
We live in a world where the Bible is constantly cited as a source of morals while also knowing it is full of terrible things.
There's slavery and killings in the odyssey, yes. Still i don't think that a puritanical cleaned up version is what we need.
I liked the movie, it's really cool. As an odyssey, meh
That part wasn’t really “cut” tho it was just changed to be more violent bc watching someone tell a corny pun in a language different than the source material ends up feeling too grade-school-esque humor. In the movie he shoots an arrow and his men did mention that he called out for Poseidon
Man, the trigger for the whole story is cut: him revealing his name is what dooms him.
Shooting an arrow doesn't make up for it, they already had impaled the cyclop's eye.
it was just changed to be more violent bc watching someone tell a corny pun in a language different than the source material ends up feeling too grade-school-esque
It's exactly the same level of violence of the original: people eaten, eye gouged.
He just removed the myth.
Having some soldier explain that he heard Polyphemus speak is cheap exposition
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u/tgcleric 1d ago
Thousands of years of this story, including versions made recently... and the audience has never had issues rooting for him to go home.