“A war, a man, a trick.” This is how Christopher Nolan\u2019s *Odyssey* begins, with the words of Travis Scott in the unexpected role of a bard, a singer who recounts the deeds of great heroes and great men. In a sense, we could call it the counterpart to the famous \u201cTell me, O Muse,\u201d with which Book I of Homer\u2019s epic dedicated to the hero of \u201cmany-gifted\u201d begins: that Odysseus who, yesterday as today, continues to fascinate us with his profoundly heroic yet deeply human nature. And, let\u2019s say it right away, Nolan\u2019s epic masterfully reconciles both aspects in nearly three hours of film that, nevertheless, keep us glued to the screen not even for a second. One of the most anticipated films of the year\u2014despite pointless controversies and barroom gossip\u2014proves to live up to expectations: a monumental tale, capable of astonishing us with its visual grandeur without ever losing sight of the human dimension of its protagonist. <\/p>\n\n
Beyond the star-studded cast and the masterful cinematography\u2014shot entirely on 70-millimeter IMAX film in analog format\u2014the most interesting thing about the film is that it brings us face-to-face with one of the undisputed protagonists of epic literature that we\u2019ve all studied, forcing us to view him from a new perspective. It reconnects us not only to our school days but, above all, to universal values that\u2014from Homer to the present\u2014are more relevant than ever. And it is precisely this that surprises us, frightens us, and, perhaps, even comforts us. Who is Odysseus? The shrewdest and most intelligent of the Achaean warriors; someone whom some today would call \u201cthe smartest\u201d of the group. Not the strongest or the most invincible\u2014that was Achilles\u2014but the one who, fully aware that absolute strength does not exist, chose to rely on intellect. He is the mastermind behind the ruse of the horse that would lead to the fall of Troy; he is the man who, for twenty years, would remain far from his homeland, Ithaca, and from his wife Penelope: partly by the will of the gods, partly because\u2014let\u2019s face it\u2014the world exerts an irresistible pull on him. Odysseus wants to discover, explore, push himself further\u2014sometimes even beyond his own limits. And it is precisely this curiosity of his\u2014not without consequences, sometimes disastrous\u2014that makes him so contemporary in his complexity.
In fact, Nolan\u2019s film perfectly combines the two fundamental aspects of the *Odyssey*: on the one hand, the epic dimension, consisting of Ulysses\u2019 adventures at sea; on the other, the more intimate and painful dimension of his return, which constitutes the true heart of the work. Ulysses is not only the most intelligent and valiant hero to whom the Trojans\u2019 final defeat is owed\u2014he is also a man who has not set foot at home for twenty years. His return is, understandably, traumatic. It is the return of a man who no longer knows who he truly is, who no longer knows whom or what to trust, who has lost everything, and who has witnessed death, destruction, violence, and oppression. That same oppression is playing out in his own home, in Ithaca, where Penelope\u2019s suitors feast and camp out every evening in the hope that she will choose one of them. Among them stands out Antinous, played by Robert Pattinson, who is just the right mix of cruel and arrogant. The British actor delivers a textbook villain: insolent, manipulative, and just cowardly enough to make him unbearable in every shot. <\/p>\n\n
Behind her loom, Anne Hathaway\u2019s Penelope sews and unravels her tapestry. And it is precisely the female characters that are worth focusing on. Beyond the pointless controversies over Elena\u2019s skin color, Nolan delivers a grand epic in which women aren\u2019t simply relegated to the roles of the seductress on one hand and the pure, faithful wife on the other. These are characters endowed with a complexity that goes far beyond their outward appearances. Penelope is not merely a woman who waits. She is a determined woman, capable of loving and defending her right to solitude and fidelity. She is the worthy companion of the astute king of Ithaca: shrewd enough to keep the suitors in limbo for ten years, without ever compromising her honor as a woman, wife, and mother. Circe, commonly remembered as the seductress par excellence, is a far cry from the stereotype that genre cinema\u2014especially that of the 1950s\u2014had accustomed us to: that of the beautiful, voluptuous woman who bewitches men only to destroy them. Nolan\u2019s Circe, played by Samantha Morton, appears instead as a woman who is no longer young, lonely, marginalized, and somewhat adrift. In some ways, she brings to mind those women considered \u201cwitches\u201d precisely because they were different\u2014women persecuted for centuries throughout history. But she is also a valuable ally to Odysseus: it is thanks to her, in fact, that he will manage to find his way home. Charlize Theron plays Calypso, and here, too, forget about unnecessary embellishments or seductive excesses. Her outfits are simple, her gaze is clear. She, who fell in love with the hero and kept him with her on Ogygia for seven years, is also the woman who allows him to start living again, helping him above all to recover the memory of his past. Lupita Nyong\u2019o plays Helen and, in an interesting dual role, also her sister Clytemnestra. This is by no means a random choice; it evokes one of the most tragic female characters in Greek literature: a wounded mother who chooses to reclaim what was most precious and taken from her. The women in Nolan\u2019s film are not defined by their ability to seduce, and there is no erotic objectification in their portrayal. Like the men, they are characters who live and act through their own personalities, intelligence, and choices, without ever being reduced to mere \u201ctemptations\u201d for the hero. Athena, the goddess who protects Odysseus, played by Zendaya, is a presence as brief as it is decisive. She is the hero\u2019s conscience, his sense of duty, but also the one who reminds us of the fragile and complex boundary between the human and the divine: a fine line that sometimes unites and sometimes divides. <\/p>\n\n
In this sense, Ulysses embodies this perfectly: he possesses an almost divine intelligence, yet retains a disarming humanity\u2014one made up of contradictions, remorse, and an inexhaustible desire to explore the world, even when this ends up putting the lives of his loved ones at risk. Of course, the film doesn\u2019t shy away from some of the typical tropes of great Hollywood cinema. The war sequences are spectacular and fast-paced, constructed with a relentless rhythm and supported by a soundtrack that builds progressively alongside the narrative tension, accompanying each battle with a climax that amplifies its emotional impact. Nolan proves once again that he has a perfect command of scale: he alternates the din of war with the silence of the sea, the immensity of the landscapes with the fragility of his characters, without one dimension ever definitively prevailing over the other.