This summer’s must-see-in-the-biggest-possible-theater star-studded much-hyped blockbuster is The Odyssey, a Christopher Nolan feature based on the ancient mythic epic by Homer.
The Odyssey (2026): The Importance of Individual Story-Telling
Matt Zoller Seitz, rogerebert.com: “…’The Odyssey’ begins with a man standing on a table in a banquet hall, telling a story. It’s a perfect way to start a movie that’s about the importance of stories and the manner of their telling, and how stories can deceive and liberate us, comfort and disturb us, split us apart and bind us together.”
Emma Gometz, Scientific American, notes that this is a “hero’s journey” type of narrative—the backbone of such modern stories as Star Wars and Barbie and many many more.
Hannah Strong, lwlies.com: “The Odyssey is a story about a lot of things – family, true love, war, faith, folly, revenge – but mostly it’s about enduring. This is what human beings do best: we endure, and we tell ourselves stories, as Joan Didion once wrote, in order to live.”
The Odyssey: Some of the Social and Psychological Themes
Molly Chebet, Standard Media: it’s “a grounded psychological drama” in which Matt Damon as Odysseus is “haunted by severe post-traumatic stress following the fall of Troy.”
John Podhoretz, Free Beacon: “Nolan’s Odyssey is a story of guilt and the awareness of guilt.”
Monica Castillo, AVClub: “…a morality play writ large, a game of politics and succession, a warning about temptation and greed, a plea for kindness in a harsh world.”
Wenlei Ma, The Nightly: “…could be read as Nolan’s urgent plea for a repairing of our own fractured social contract as rage, hatred and division tear through communities around the world.”
Glen Weldon, NPR: “It’s a film where sirens entice men to their deaths not by making them horny, but by getting them to reckon with long-buried subconscious truths that would otherwise take years of therapy to process.”
What Can The Odyssey, Homer’s and/or Nolan’s, Teach?
Sara Michelle Fetters, Movie Freak: “…Nolan still finds hope in unimaginable carnage. His retelling of The Odyssey sees a new dawn breaking on the horizon, and it is up to a fresh generation free of the shackles of their forefather’s mistakes, errors, and misconceptions to lead the way.”
Elaine Dundon, Psychology Today: “…(E)veryone’s journey is unique. With perseverance and courage, we can become more fully ourselves and truly know that our lives are meaningful, to ourselves and to others.”
Dr. Sam Akbar, psychologist, The Times: “Homer wasn’t a therapist but maybe he should have been.” Four ways to become happier by emulating Odysseus:
1. Have the courage to feel: “…He doesn’t numb himself to sadness and grief…”
2. Be specific about your feelings: “When Odysseus says ‘thanks but no thanks’ to Calypso, he doesn’t just say he feels a bit rubbish about staying. He identifies, with precision, that he wants his wife, his imperfect home, a life that has meaning precisely because it ends…”
3. Make space for difficult feelings: “Odysseus doesn’t fight his grief or let it overpower him. You can make those choices too…”
4. Take your fate into your own hands: “When Calypso releases him, Odysseus builds a raft. This is what psychologists call a behavioural experiment: doing things that restore your sense of mastery, shifting the mind from ‘nothing is possible’ to ‘I can do something’. Nobody builds your raft for you…”
