Christopher Nolan’s films are always talked about. His take on Batman in the Dark Knight trilogy inspired endless debate before the films’ success silenced naysayers. The filmmaker was able to follow suit with successes like Interstellar and Oppenheimer. The British director would hope his new film, The Odyssey, could do something similar. The adaptation of Homer’s epic has been met with a lot of criticism and questions about casting and ‘historical accuracy’. In a new interview, Nolan has defended taking creative liberties on the film.
Nolan defends creative liberties in The Odyssey
In an interview with Reuters, the Oscar-winning filmmaker admitted he enjoys adaptation ‘very much’, but admitted that it is ‘challenging’ with a Homer creation. “When you look at the text of the poem, it has really incredible payoffs. But the set-ups that a movie requires aren’t there in an epic poem because its audience is familiar with the elements. So when Odysseus encounters Argos near the end of the poem, you know, his faithful hunting dog … his audience knows it’s coming. For us, we have to set that up. Once I sort of started to figure out that, okay, you have to take some liberties with it, you’ve got to move some things around in order to try and get across the impression that you had from experiencing the poem, you know, that’s when things started to gain momentum,” Nolan said.
When asked if he wanted to ‘educate’ the audience with this film, Nolan said his aim was to ‘entertain’. He added, “For me, we’re making the film for people who know nothing about Homer and this epic poem, and we make it for people who are very interested in that world and love it. You have to make it work for everybody.”
About The Odyssey
The Odyssey is an ancient Greek epic composed by Homer over 2000 years ago. One of the most widely read works of literature worldwide, its new adaptation is helmed by Christopher Nolan and stars Matt Damon as Odysseus. The film also stars Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, and Robert Pattinson.
The criticism the film has received is for not casting any Greek actors and particularly for choosing Lupita N’yongo as Helen of Troy. The film has also received criticism for not being ‘historically accurate’ in its choice of armour and weapons for many of the characters.