Why I Won’t See The Odyssey

There was a time when I considered a new Christopher Nolan film “must-see” viewing. I’m a huge fan of Inception, Interstellar, and Dark Knight. Heck, I’m even one of the few people who didn’t think Tenet was awful. In an era in which most movies result in forgettable moments, Nolan films have lasting impact. 

But I won’t be watching Nolan’s most recent movie, The Odyssey, starring Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, and apparently every other star in Hollywood. Why? Because of two casting decisions: “Elliot” (formerly Ellen) Page as the warrior Sinon and Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy. 

While casting is important in any film, it might seem petty to refuse to see a movie—especially one by a favored director—just because of two casting decisions, particularly when they’re for characters whose on-screen time totals less than ten minutes. Yet those casting decisions were not made in a vacuum; by these two choices, Nolan thrust this movie into the heart of today’s culture wars. 

That makes the decision to see the movie not just a simple question of whether it’s entertaining, but whether it’s worth financially supporting the opposing side in this war.

The most egregious casting decision—and the one that alone makes the movie unwatchable—is Page as a Greek warrior. For those unaware, “Elliot” Page is the actress formerly known as Ellen Page, who was born female but “transitioned” to pretend to be a man in 2020. Page, who was a beautiful woman with a slight build, underwent significant surgery and hormone treatment, including removal of her breasts. The result is tragic and deeply sad. What Page couldn’t do is change her overall size: she’s 5’1” and weighs about 110 pounds. 

Yet Nolan—who’s known for his painstaking attention to detail in his movies—cast this waif as a Greek warrior. It’s clear this casting decision was not about making a good movie; it was about making a salvo in today’s culture wars. He’s throwing Page-as-man into our faces and saying, “I’m going to make you accept this woman as a man, and not only a man, but as a fierce and powerful warrior.” It’s an intentional attack against reality, and he’s daring opponents of his warped worldview to financially support his attack. I for one won’t do it.

The second highly-problematic casting decision was having Lupita Nyong’o, a woman of Kenyan-Mexican descent, play Helen of Troy, whose beauty is so great it’s said that she possessed “the face that launch’d a thousand ships.” Homer describes her as “lovely-haired” and “white-armed,” and points to her as the most beautiful woman in the world. Traditionally she has been portrayed as a beautiful white, blond-haired woman, as for example by Diane Kruger in 2004’s Troy. Nyong’o does not fit any of that description.

While I think race-swapping in casting is generally ridiculous and driven far more often by ideology than creativity, I’m not adamantly against it. I loved Denzel Washington as MacBeth (a Scottish King) in AppleTV’s 2021 production of The Tragedy of Macbeth (truth be told, I could watch Washington read from a Dictionary and enjoy it). I also don’t really care about Nolan’s casting of the mixed-race Zendaya as the Greek goddess Athena, who also has typically been depicted as white. 

But with the casting of Nyong’o as Helen, Nolan again asks us to reject reality, albeit not as extremely as in the case of Page. There’s been an anti-beauty movement in Hollywood for years now, which tries to make men in particular be ashamed of what they naturally find beautiful. Obese people are presented as attractive, and women with average looks are said to be stunning. It’s another attempt to say “up is down” and (somewhat literally) “black is white.” It’s part of the same inversion as the demand to say a woman is actually a man.

It’s not an insult to Nyong’o to state that she in no way—either in race or beauty—represents the classic representation of Helen (most women don’t), but for Nolan to force us to pretend otherwise is another slap in the face and salvo in the culture war.

I’ve seen some Nolan defenders argue that The Odyssey is fiction, so it’s not the case that Nolan is changing historical figures. It’s not the same as when Hollywood made both Anne Boleyn and Cleopatra black women. But this is a cope. The Odyssey isn’t some little-known recent book, with little cultural impact; it’s The Odyssey, the foundation of Western literature. In some ways, that’s more “real” than actual history, and it’s shaped actual cultures for thousands of years. 

Casting matters, for it’s a fundamental aspect of transporting the audience into the story. Casting Nyong’o as Helen is even more egregious than casting the brown-skinned Columbian-American actress Rachel Zegler as Snow White, because Helen is far more iconic and culturally important. And of course, we all know these Nolan defenders would be ferociously attacking the director if he were to cast an all-white cast for a remake of The Color Purple.

Again, why should I financially support someone who is quite literally trolling me? He’s shoving his unreality in my face and saying, “I’m going to make you pay for this.” Sorry, but I refuse. 

All movies require some suspension of disbelief; yet Nolan is abusing that fact to flood viewers’ minds with his dangerous ideological views. These casting decisions aren’t creative license; they’re propaganda, plain and simple. For me, at least, the casting of Page and Nyong’o requires too much: I simply couldn’t transport myself into the world of the movie because Nolan himself is transporting the story into today’s culture wars.

Sadly, this is the second straight Nolan movie I’ve refused to see. I wouldn’t see Oppenheimer even though I’m fascinated by the famous scientist because it contained an explicit sex scene that is objectively sinful to watch, a stand that was surprisingly controversial in Catholic circles. I don’t think it’s immoral to watch The Odyssey, but my prudential decision is to not financially support the opposing side of today’s battle for reality.

The Odyssey might be a great movie (I’ve seen mixed reviews), but there’s no requirement that I watch any given movie, even a Christopher Nolan movie. I’m always taken a bit aback when I see Catholics act as if missing this or that movie is some type of sin, as if it’s a duty of all citizens to watch something produced by Hollywood simply because everyone’s talking about it. I’ll survive missing out. 

But I do have an alternative, one that would allow me to be part of the cultural conversation and also immerse myself in the world of Homer and The Odyssey. It’s an obvious alternative, but one that seems to be lost in the battles surrounding the movie. That alternative, and the one I recommend, is:

Read the book.