Beware of the people from the sea. Beware of the monster you could become.
The Men from the Sea, the Sea Peoples, spread terror across every coastline. Entire kingdoms rally their armies to face them. Some say they are the reason the Bronze Age is dying, that dark days await the generations to come. They recognize no sacred boundaries, not even the laws of the gods. And why should they? The sacred code of Zeus Xenios, the divine protector of hospitality, was broken twenty years earlier. Ever since, the shattered walls of Troy have stood as a monument to its ruin.
Nolan's The Odyssey may be anachronistic and tailored to the diversity of a modern American audience, something it has every right to be, just as others have every right to criticize it, but it is not simply another Americanized action story about heroic masculinity and glory, the very ideal Homer himself explores through kleos. Instead, it carries a deeply anti war spirit, telling the story of a man haunted by the guilt of his other self: the general and the soldier. The man who, on the shores of Troy, transformed a gift of peace into a weapon so the war could finally end and he could return home. He looted temples, killed, and allowed atrocities to unfold. Even if he did not commit every crime himself, his men certainly did. They poured from the belly of the beast into the streets of Troy and left nothing but death in their wake.
And once the divine law of Zeus, the sacred code that both Greeks and Trojans had accepted as inviolable, was broken, what else remained untouchable? What other rules could be shattered? What crimes could humanity justify in the pursuit of wealth, power, and everlasting glory?
That is where the film succeeds as a work of art. It raises these questions and many more. They are the very questions Odysseus wrestles with throughout his journey. And when he finally finds his answers, he is forced to confront the bitter truth he has spent so long trying to escape.
He is one of the Men from the Sea.
He helped stain the very principles upon which his civilization was built. He, together with the other so called heroes of the Trojan War, must ultimately accept the punishment they have earned.
In the end, this is a distinctive interpretation of The Odyssey. Its characters are driven by different motivations, Odysseus' defiance of the gods is reimagined as a betrayal of his own humanity and conscience, and its powerful anti war message strips away the illusion of war's glory. Together, these ideas weave a modern Odyssey that feels more relevant today than ever before.
