The Odyssey Movie and How the Culture War Broke Everybody's Brain - Konstantin Kisin

**Konstantin Kisin** (0:00)
The Odyssey and How the Culture War Broke Everyone's Brain.
For the last few days, I've been watching an unfolding debate about Christopher Nolan's movie adaptation of The Odyssey on social media. I say debate, but in reality, it's mainly people delivering fairly predictable takes based on their pre-existing views and culture war affiliations, rather than engaging with each other's arguments. Those who opposed DEI were outraged by the woke casting decisions, whereby Elliot Page, formerly known as Ellen Page, was chosen to play Sinon, an Ithacan warrior, while the roles of Helen and her sister Clytemnestra are both played by Lupita Nyong'o, who is black. In response to this news, Elon Musk declared that Nolan had desecrated the epic long before the movie was even released. Others who think representation in entertainment is the most important thing since Gaza, about which most of them are now conveniently forgotten, obviously thought the casting was a triumph. It is pride season after all, and as we all know, the ancient Greeks did have an affinity for at least some sections of the LGBTQ community. Much of the response to the movie has been expressed in explicitly political terms, which seems to me to say a lot more about the times we live in than the movie itself. Sure, having a small friend looking trans man play the role of a warrior doesn't look credible on paper, but this is negated by both the role in the story and the fact that we are mercifully spared a violation of our voluntary suspension of disbelief by the fact that Page's character does not go around destroying Trojan warriors by the dozen with the viciousness only artificial testosterone can deliver.
Nor are we taken out of the story to be educated about how the ancient Greeks really were that dogmatic about the idea that trans men are men. Page just plays a minor male part well, and that's it. The same is not quite true of Nyong'o because rather than playing the roles with respect to the source material, the casting of a black actress as Helen is undeniably evidence of the modern fashion for sacrificing historic immersion for the sake of diversity. Pointing this out is widely regarded as evidence of some sort of prejudice, whereas in my humble opinion, if you're remotely historically educated about the periods of time and civilizations in question, it's impossible not to be distracted by it. I can well remember going to see the Olimpica musical in New York, which I loved and wrote about, and finding it difficult to immerse myself in scenes about the Russian Revolution, through which my ancestors lived, performed by what looked like the cast of NWA. I shouldn't complain really, as my local friend pointed out, you should be grateful that Lenin's murdering, raping and pillaging communist goons weren't portrayed as the good guys. But while the characters of Helen and Clytemnestra are important, they're also minor, and they stand out precisely because the rest of the film looks like ancient Greece. It feels more like a creative quirk than yet another example of diversity being rammed down your throat. It helps that, as with Paige, Njongo's performance is solid and convincing. The one criticism that can be made here is that Clytemnestra is for some reason portrayed as Helen's twin, as big a travesty as Peter Jackson's inexcusable decision to ruin the character of Faramir in the Lord of the Rings movie adaptation. The entire premise of the Trojan War is that it was for because of Helen, who was the most beautiful woman in the world.
Giving her a twin is an odd decision, but since the underlying motivations of the Trojan War are tangential to the story, this change is not significantly detrimental. Overall, the idea that this movie should be seen through the political lens seems rather absurd to me. Nolan's reimagination of The Odyssey is about many things, but the online culture war is not one of them.
Instead, he delivers a solid 7 out of 10, which explores the great themes of the human condition. Love, leadership, war, loss, revenge and regret. The Odyssey benefits from the fact that, as with Oppenheimer before it, Nolan successfully resists his natural inclination to overcomplicate things, but does so without sacrificing the style that has made him one of the greatest directors in Hollywood history. Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway are excellent in their lead roles, as is the supporting cast. The movie is entertaining and the story powerful. If that sounds like a cup of tea, go and enjoy it without worrying about what it says about Britain and America in 2026
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