The Odyssey gives us the hero we deserve
Christopher Nolan’s heroes are often exceptional men who cause problems, then agonise over how to make amends.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Halfway heroes seem to be the heroes we want, because certainly they are the ones we think we need right now.
PHOTO: UIP
B.D. McClay
Some people are going to tell you that the problem with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is that it’s about modern people, not ancient people. Not me. It is about modern people, but so is everything else made by modern people. If you want to encounter the ancient world, you have to open a book. (Homer is available in several translations; I like Richmond Lattimore’s.)
Other people are going to tell you that the problem with Nolan’s The Odyssey is that he’s using an ancient text to revisit his own preoccupations: heroism, guilt, memory and the nature of time. Not me. I like an artist who’s not afraid to keep gnawing at the same bone.
