The Odyssey embarrasses anti-woke crusaders

One of the troubling realities of living in a hyper-politicized world is that it sometimes feels impossible to escape politics, even at movie theaters. People increasingly complain that Hollywood embeds political agendas into its movies. Many viewers are so weary of the trend that they see politics even where no ulterior motive exists.

That was the situation my wife and I walked into when we recently went to see Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” in theaters — a movie that has been criticized for being too woke, far adrift from its original version and historically inaccurate. While I am no movie critic, I applaud Nolan for his recreation of the epic, but perhaps one of his greatest accomplishments was embarrassing anti-woke crusaders.

For those of you who slept through your literature classes, The Odyssey chronicles the storied journey of King Odysseus of Ithaca (located in modern-day Greece) home from the legendary Trojan War. In fact, it comes right after the events of the Iliad, which recounted the extended conflict between the Trojans and the Greeks. The poet Homer is credited with authoring both works.

Since The Odyssey is nearly 3,000 years old, spoiler alerts seem unnecessary, but be forewarned anyway. Within the epic, Odysseus braves many trials, stands against the gods and eventually returns to his homeland. There is nothing too controversial about this, but Nolan’s casting decisions caused an outcry.

It was announced months ago that Elliot Page — a transgender actor — was part of the movie. Casting Page made some commenters believe that “The Odyssey” would have some left-leaning ideology hidden within it, and that really got under the skin of some big names, especially when it was rumored that Page would play Achilles.

“Casting a +/- 95 pound former woman […] as the greatest warrior in Greek mythology is a [expletive] move […] Maybe one of theses days Hollywood will least to stop pushing this crap on us,” Donald Trump Jr. complained on Instagram, grammatical errors and all.

Trump Jr. was clearly trying to be offensive and get more social media reactions. Instead of waiting to see the movie, he unleashed his tirade, which was a dumb mistake. Page didn’t play Achilles, but rather a boy named Sinon. Moreover, Page enjoyed less than 6 minutes of screen time in the nearly 3-hour movie and was fatally wounded in the first scene.

So much for Page serving as a catalyst for some woke agenda, but maybe some folks simply did not want a trans man cast at all. If people are offended by Page’s voluntary transition that impeded nobody’s rights, then they would be shocked and appalled at the kind of activities the ancient Greeks were up to.

Another casting decision threw the same crowd into another rage. The character of Helen of Troy was played by Lupita Nyong’o, an award-winning Kenyan-Mexican actress, who enjoyed less than 4 minutes of screen time. In response to these casting decisions, Elon Musk whined, “Shame on Chris Nolan for desecrating Homer! He will never live it down.”

There’s a lot to untangle here. From a historical perspective, Helen was a Spartan princess, and probably would have looked like many of those in the Greek Peloponnese region. However, if you bristle at this potential historical inaccuracy, then you should be outraged by the existence of a cyclops, race of giants and a witch who turns men into animals in The Odyssey. What’s more, nobody seems at all worried about the myriad Americans of non-Greek descent cast in the movie, but I digress.

It is true that Homer spoke of Helen as “white-armed,” but that probably denoted her class rather than her race. Either way, let’s be honest about the Iliad and the Odyssey. As I noted in my second book “Romulus: The Legend of Rome’s Founding Father,” Homer’s work, at least the Iliad, has a grain of truth at the heart of it, but it is otherwise almost entirely fiction. Helen probably never existed. If Homer is permitted license to produce a fictional work, then why can’t Nolan?

I am not a fan of movies force-feeding me political propaganda, and I wouldn’t have been thrilled if Nolan had Odysseus deliver a 45-minute diatribe, for instance, on why the ancient Greeks need to buy carbon credits to offset their carbon footprint, why they should ban plastic bags or anything along those lines. And he didn’t.

At the end of the day, Nolan’s “The Odyssey” was an enjoyable movie with themes that centered around a man’s conflict with the gods and the importance of showing hospitality to strangers. Before you complain that the woke mob is at it again, maybe go see the movie. You might be surprised that it offers a pleasant escape from our over-politicized lives.

Marc Hyden is the senior director of state government affairs at the R Street Institute. You can follow him on X at @marc_hyden.