Meta Description: Join Ad Navseam Ep. 226 as Dr. David Noe and Dr. Jeff Winkle break down Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey in IMAX, reviewing the cast, visuals, and departures from Homer!
Welcome back, classical gourmands, to episode 226 of the Ad Navseam podcast! Prepare to get your fill with another delectable discussion of Greco-Roman civilization, stretching from the ancient Minoans and Mycenaeans through the Renaissance and right down to the present.
Broadcasting directly from Parnassus, Vomitorium Central, your devoted hosts return to the microphones. Dr. Jeffrey T. Winkle is gearing up for the start of the academic semester, armed with his trowel, lunchbox, and galoshes. Meanwhile, Dr. David C. Noe is preparing to teach high school Latin using the Cambridge Latin Course for the first time.
A Shout-Out to a Toga-Clad Teacher in Germany
Before diving into film criticism, the hosts share a massive listener shout-out to David Heath, a teacher at the Bavarian International School in Germany. Heath sent in enthusiastic correspondence, photographs of himself teaching in a full toga, and pictures of his classroom with Roman soldiers and Jason cartoons.
Heath listened while cycling to Regensburg (Castra Regina), home of the ancient Roman gate Porta Praetoria. He noted how much he enjoyed Oswaldo’s previous shout-out from Brazil regarding Father William Most’s Latin by the Natural Method and recommended Robert Harris’s Cicero novel Imperium. As Dave notes, Heath is truly keeping the flame of antiquitas burning bright across the globe!
Seeing Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey in IMAX
Courtesy of their patron, Dr. Joshua, Dave and Jeff recently attended a Tuesday night IMAX screening of Christopher Nolan’s brand-new cinematic adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey. Sitting in the front rows, the hosts experienced three hours of overwhelming visual and sonic spectacle.
The episode opens with an excerpt from The Economist outlining the pre-release controversies surrounding the film:
“Sir Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of the Odyssey was causing conniptions long before anyone had even seen the thing… there was harrumphing over everything from the actress playing Helen, too black, the color of the plume on Odysseus’ helmet, too red, the soldier’s armor, also too black and too Batman-like, and the vocabulary of Odysseus’ son, too American.”
Now that the hosts have experienced the film firsthand, they offer their thorough analysis.
What Worked: Landscapes and Practical Horror
On a visual and technical level, the film delivers moments of breathtaking scale:
- The Brutal Isolation of the Sea: Filmed on location across Morocco (Troy), Greece (Mycenae and the Acrocorinth), Sicily, Scotland (Circe’s island), and Iceland, the movie captures the sheer terror and vastness of the Mediterranean.
- Monstrous Shadows: Rather than relying heavily on CGI, Nolan utilized practical effects. Polyphemus the Cyclops is kept largely in dark shadows, evoking the unsettling tension of Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.
- Scylla’s Ambush: The six-headed monster Scylla is presented with quick, terrifying snatches from the dark, reminiscent of classic creature horror.
- The Transformation of Circe: The scene featuring Circe (Samantha Morton) turning men into pigs in a ramshackle (Scottish) cottage carries an eerie, atmospheric weight.
What Failed: A Depressed, Uncomplicated Hero
Despite the stunning cinematography, both hosts agreed that the film suffers from fundamental narrative and character flaws, giving the movie an overall rating of 4 out of 10:
1. Matt Damon’s One-Note Odysseus
In Homer’s original Greek, Odysseus is described as polytropos (versatile) and shows metis (cunning wisdom). In Nolan’s film, Matt Damon plays Odysseus as a gruff, shell-shocked WWII general suffering from modern PTSD and guilt.
There is zero joy, exuberance, or humor in his trickery. Rather than showing him outsmarting foes, characters simply tell the audience he is clever. Furthermore, his character is sanitized: his years-long romantic dalliances with Circe and Calypso are stripped of complexity, turning Calypso (Charlize Theron) into a couch therapist and drug pusher rather than a goddess in love.
2. Penelope Shortchanged
Anne Hathaway’s Penelope is reduced to a bitter, wallflower figure, completely stripping away the Homeric queen’s legendary cunning. The famous “trick of the olive-tree bed” is omitted entirely and replaced with a gold brooch and a number-two-pencil-like token!
3. Secularizing the Gods
Nolan attempts to keep the Greco-Roman gods ambiguous, portraying Athena (Zendaya) as a psychological hallucination born from Odysseus’s trauma during the sack of Troy. Yet, because the plot still features men transforming into swine and sea monsters, this secularized approach feels narratively incoherent.
4. Bizarre Departures from Homer
The film introduces strange historical and narrative choices:
- The Sea Peoples Dialogue: Characters absurdly discuss Bronze Age civilizational collapse in real-time, with Odysseus muttering, “It turns out that we’re the Sea Peoples”!
- Blind Sensei Eumaeus: John Leguizamo plays the loyal swineherd Eumaeus as a blind, Karate Kid-style martial arts master teaching Telemachus swordplay in the palace.
- A Solo Kung-Fu Slaughter: In the slaughter of the suitors, Odysseus fights entirely alone without Telemachus or Eumaeus, turning the epic climax into a standard martial arts action beat.
- The Couple’s Getaway Ending: Instead of the palace reunion and blood feud resolution, Odysseus and Penelope sail off together toward Spain like a modern couple heading to an Airbnb!
Sponsors and Support
Before wrapping up their cinematic review, the hosts extend a warm thank you to their dedicated sponsors:
- Ratio Coffee: Upgrade your countertop coffee game with the Ratio 4, Ratio 6, or flagship Ratio 8! Experience automated pour-over perfection with a Fibonacci showerhead that off-gasses CO2 into the biosphere without plastic scorch pads. Visit ratiocoffee.com/adnavseam and enter code ANRATIO2026 for $20 off.
- Hackett Publishing: If Nolan’s film left you craving the real epic, read the original texts! Find Stanley Lombardo’s translations of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, as well as Apollonius’s Argonautica, at hackettpublishing.com. Use code AN2026 for 20% off your entire order plus free shipping.
If you are eager to learn Latin or master Homeric and Attic Greek, visit latinperdiem.com! Explore Dr. Noe’s online courses, including MossMethod for Greek (use code 10PLUS for 10% off), the Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata series, the Calvin’s Latin Bible app, and the $1.99 MossMethod for Greek Reader app.
Credits & Gustatory Parting Shot
A special thanks goes out to audio engineer Mishka for her editing, and to guitarist Jeff Scheetz (jeffscheetz.com) for providing the rock tracks Thrill Seeker and Rush Hour.
Do not forget to write to the hosts at dave@adnavseam.com or jeff@adnavseam.com (remember the ‘v’ in Navseam!). Next week, the podcast will return to its multi-part series on Apollonius of Rhodes’ Argonautica!
We leave you today with our Gustatory Parting Shot from Book 20 of Homer’s Odyssey (translated by George Herbert Palmer), featuring the famous “sausage simile”:
“As when a man near a great glowing fire turns to and fro a sausage full of fat and blood, anxious to have it quickly roast, so to and fro Odysseus tossed and pondered how to lay hands upon the shameless suitors, he being alone and they so many.”
Thanks for listening, and we will catch you next week!
