Real men

 

I was forced to read The Odyssey in freshman Honors English and that was a horrible experience. I hated it. It is a terrible book. At the time, I was glad Circe turned the crew into pigs which was an unpopular opinion in the 90s but I felt they were buffoons. Also, in the book, they were in her island for much longer than depicted in the movie. If memory serves me it was closer to a year Circe had Odysseus. And I thought Odysseus an idiot for being basically captured by Calypso. And Penelope was such a whiny waste of a woman, in my mind. I pretty much hated them all. 

As a young woman I couldn’t name what it was which bothered me so much about The Odyssey, now I can, misogyny. It is a misogynistic tale where the villains are mostly victims. That said, this was a decent movie and my son enjoyed it. I wish someone would explore Calypso as a rapist someday but I doubt men are ready for that. That was probably Nolan’s best troll of the movie, he made the hot white woman Odysseus biggest stumbling block. 

It was definitely made by a man for men and Matt Damon delivered that punch. Elliot Page delivers an outstanding performance. The casting was not off. What struck me was the sacking of Troy. Some bonehead mentioned Sinon was not in The Odyssey and while that is technically true I would direct them to both Virgil’s Aeneid and Dante’s Inferno, both of which draw directly from Homer. And if you’re taking issue with some artistic licensing and want to experiencing The Odyssey the way the Ancient Greeks intended, please, go find a lyre, get mad drunk, and recite it in poem form out loud- maybe stab someone and sacrifice them to the gods while you’re at it. Anyway…

 There was a scene that reminded me of an almost identical scene from John Woos The Killer 1989- which tells me  Christopher Nolan is a John Woo fan. Who isn’t ? 

If you’ve not seen either The Killer or The Odyssey you should see both. 

The Killer Church ShootOut 

Bar Scene