In Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey,’ the Main Hero Feels Plucked From Exodus

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward’s free email newsletters delivered to your inbox.

While some scholars note the parallels between The Odyssey and the Book of Genesis, Christopher Nolan’s version of the epic seems to take its cue from Exodus.

The nearly three-hour long movie, staggering in its length and cinematic beauty, does not sing the praises of Homer’s ingenious inventor but depicts a reluctant and flawed leader, played by Matt Damon, whose struggles with the divine and his mutinous men resembles the arc of Moses.

Moses was chosen by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and centuries later (although a now infamous marquee in Oregon claimed otherwise) Odysseus was chosen by King Agamemnon to help the Greeks win the war by any means necessary. Both men were forced on years-long journeys and given the responsibility of guiding people home.

After the Trojan War, instead of taking a reliable route, Odysseus steers his three boats on a journey that he claims will allow them to see the world. Ignoring the warning of an old man to abandon their path, Odysseus repeatedly leads his men into danger.

On the island of the carnivorous cyclops Polyphemus, Odysseus comes up with a plan to escape, but can’t control his temper when the cyclops spits out a helmet of an eaten soldier. Enraged, Odysseus shoots Polyphemus with an arrow, causing the cyclops to charge the group and eat several more men just before they reach safety. Odysseus’ attack angers Poseidon, father of Polyphemus, and the crew must deal with rough waters. In Exodus, Moses, angry about being left without water in the desert, disobeys God and strikes a rock twice, an act that will complicate his arrival at the Holy Land.

While Moses struggles with self-doubt in his ability to be a leader, Odysseus is too sure of himself — although his bravado is likely an overcorrection for the guilt of his past mistakes. He forces his men to keep following him even when they challenge his rush to keep landing on unfamiliar shores.

After a nearly-disastrous encounter with the witch Circe, who disarms lost soldiers by turning them into animals, Odysseus starts to experience a Moses-like instance of doubt in the divine. In a move taken from the Passover liturgy’s Wicked Child, Odysseus tells his lieutenant Eurylochus to blame “your gods” for giving Circe the power and license to transform men into beasts.

When Moses lost faith, striking the rock rather than speaking it, his punishment was that he would never see the Promised Land. The punishment of Odysseus, who believes in himself above the entire Pantheon, is an inversion: He alone will make it home, a guilt that eats him up.

The prophet Tiresias tells Odysseus that he and his crew will land on an island where Apollo’s cattle graze and that the men will slaughter the cattle, leading to their deaths. Odysseus argues that he can deny the will of the gods, but, like Moses who came before him, learns divine will is inescapable.

Odysseus warns his men but, stranded and hungry and with no more faith in their leader, they disobey him. When a storm comes to sweep them away, they beg for Odysseus to pray for their safety, but to no avail. The Israelites’ betrayal of Moses also took a bovine form and after their idolatrous worship of the golden calf, Moses pleads to God to spare their lives — but he actually succeeds.

By the time Odysseus reaches home, the veneer of confidence he tried to maintain on his journey is gone. He initially cannot bring himself to face his wife, too disgusted with himself for failing his men and betraying his own values. Odysseus never hunts without sounding his bow first, to give the animal a warning. But he admits that by creating the horse to attack the Trojans under the cover of night, he “turned a fight into a hunt” and “violated all that’s ever sacred between people.”

Even though the war was not his idea and the gods were never going to allow his men to make it home, he carries the burden of all the death and destruction that has been wrought. For him, Moses’ fated death in exile may have seemed like a blessing.

This Odysseus may not be the traditional hero audiences were expecting, but that only makes the movie stronger, offering those familiar with The Odyssey a fresh telling that challenges the traditional glorious depictions of war. Nolan, who loves to explore themes of regret, time and the perils of being too smart for your own good, shares an understanding with the writers of Exodus: that “heroes” are more compelling when they are not perfect.

This story was originally published on the Forward.

—

Previous Published on Forward