Bonus Episode: The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan - 2026 Movie Review.

Please share widely with anyone who might be interested in hearing my perspective as a retired Christian Minister and Film Lover. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Hi, this week I went to see The Odyssey. Christopher Nolan's new retelling of Homer's Epic. When the credits rolled, my gut reaction was simple. Where was the thrill? Now there was plenty of spectacle, there was a witch turning soldiers into pigs, there was lotus flowers being fed, giving people years of forgetfulness, and then there was a portrayal, a disturbing, intensely and amazing portrayal of Circa the Witch, in which we can experience the hurt that might lie behind why a woman would turn to witchcraft. What lingered for me wasn't the sense of wonder, but a sort of weariness of the vision of the weakness of humanity, a humanity without a hope of true redemption, a humanity in which the poster itself declares no creature on earth is weaker than man. I really find myself missing the joy, the excitement I felt as a child watching Ray Harryhausen's Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans, or even the original King Kong on TV, a film made in 1933, and all the swashbuckling adventures that made my imagination soar. Now Homer's poem is an archetype of all stories. It's full of discovery and delight. Odysseus may slog through a sea of troubles, but his journey, as portrayed in the original book, in the poem, is one of courage and forward momentum, the sense of exploration that defines probably every great legend and fairy tale. Nolan's version, by contrast, is dark and brooding. His Cyclops is a sort of ghost of a man, disfigured even before his eye is lost. The Hydra has no face at all, and Agamemnon stalks the screen like a sort of ancient dark knight. No surprise there. Even Xerxes, the witch's transformation scene, when I read it as a child, is a sort of playful myth. Something suitable for retelling to children becomes a slow, horrific, painful metamorphosis. The joy of the adventure is replaced by something a little closer to the horror of existence. But let's be fair about this. Nolan does many things brilliantly in this film as he does in every film he's produced. It is important to acknowledge what this film does well. First of all, the performances are exceptional. The cast commits fully to Nolan's vision, delivering raw, visceral portrayals that feel grounded rather than in the theatrical but in pain and real life. Circus pain, Odysseus' exhaustion, the soldier's terror, all of it is acted on the screen with real conviction. And the lack of CGI as well, I find refreshing. In an age where everything is digitally smooth and polished, Nolan's insistence on using practical effects give the film a sort of physicality that I feel modern blockbusters often lacked. Gravity is not only physically present but also in an emotional sense. The action sequences really feel real, weighty, dangerous, tactile even. You can almost feel the grit under Eudysseus' fingernails. Yes, I noticed that tiny detail that you could see it, and that is an important thing, I think. I personally believe that the criticism of the film being woke misses the point entirely. I see little of woke ideology behind Nolan's approach. I see something very different. Please be aware that although I post on social media occasionally, I personally follow no one on social media myself. I never browse it in my downtown. It's an area of life that I stay clear of, and I believe for me personally that is the better choice to make. So sometimes I am aware of the culture wars of an up-to-date point of view are going on out there. So I knew nothing of the criticism of the casting, particularly of Elliot Page as Sinon. I have become aware of that since writing my Substack post. However, I think what is of more interesting to me in all of this is that Nolan simply chooses to take a particular artistic vision to interpret this poem. One that is bleak, serious, yes, but existential. It's not for me essentially a political film in any way. It's a philosophical approach he takes, which I find more interesting and maybe a little troubling. He asks through this film what heroism looks like when you strip it out of a world of wonder. Nolan is undeniably a serious filmmaker. His back catalogue proves it, from Memento to Dunkirk, from the prestige to his Oscar winning Oppenheimer. My own personal favourite, Interstellar, remains for me one of the most moving cinematic meditations on sacrifice that I've ever seen. Pooper, portrayed by Matthew McConaughey, decision to give up decades of his life, to lose his daughter's and his son's childhood, to lose his own place in time in order to save humanity, is one of the most Christ-like acts of self-giving love I think ever put on the screen. Certainly in recent years. A McConaughey's scene where he, years after the event, receives the video on the interstellar craft where his son tells him he's fallen in love, he's getting married, and he has a child, is one of the most powerful and powerfully acted in recent cinema history. Nolan knows how to explore the human condition with depth and with weight and with seriousness. But sometimes, and this is simply my personal view, I yearn for a little fun in my storytelling. A little wonder, a little sense of joy, a reminder that adventure can be thrilling as well as tragic. But what happens when hope is cut from our storytelling? And that's where my Christian reflection on this film begins. Noland has a gift for turning delight into despair, to finding coal among the gold. His Splatman films help lead and define the modern trend of transforming heroes into tortured anti-heroes. And in his artistic choices, I think he is simply reflecting that deeper cultural situation, the emptiness that descends when we cut out hope and wonder and we remove it from our stories, even our great stories. He is implicitly asking me and others, how can you enjoy a foundational tale like Homer's? I think the question this film actually creates is it asks us to ask ourselves, can we really enjoy a foundational tale like Homer's Odyssey, like Homer's Odyssey, if the universe is nothing but meaningless darkness? A story ultimately of progress, bravery requires its teller to believe that a better future is indeed possible. By casting Odysseus as another destroyer of worlds, Nolan shows how rare that hope has become. We really need in this day and age to recover the thrill of hope, friends, because in reality that bleakness, that worldview seen in this film, is the real bleakness that the real bleakness that many people around us are battling in their real lives. The quiet despair that is seeping into art, everyday conversation, the news, and daily life. It is a fear that the hope of Jesus is completely cast out from and removed. Christian faith restores the thrill that modern storytelling, it seems to me, has lost. It reminds us that courage is not futile, that discovery and journey and odyssey is not meaningless, that the world is not a closed system of tragedy. It tells us that light still can break through the storm, that redemption is possible, and that every journey, even through the darkness, can lead us home. Like Psalm 23 says, Ye will lead me through the shadow of the valley of death. So perhaps the real Odyssey isn't Christopher Nolan's grim retelling here, but the one that we are all living every day. A voyage through a world that has forgotten wonder towards God, and a God who speaks through beauty, grace, and adventure. So my prayer for all of us is for wonder in these times of beakness, that the Lord would restore us to the joy of discovery and lift our eyes from cynicism and see hope. Teach us to see the light of God in the world, a light that often feels dim these days, and help us carry that light into the lives of those around us who have forgotten how to hope. So, in seeing this film, perhaps you might reflect as I have these last few days and ask, where have I lost my sense of wonder in the creation? Where has cynicism replaced what should be just curiosity? And I would ask God to restore the thrill of hope in me and to everyone listening or watching this. The joy of discovery, the courage to believe that the light of God can still win.com. There's a link in the notes. Bye bye for now.