My quick take on Chistopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, now that I’ve finally seen it:

The movie is a thoroughly modern take on the ancient epic, and that’s a good thing. Homer’s poem, which I love and have taught, is steeped in Iron Age values, looking back nostalgically towards mythical Bronze Age values. Nolan takes much about what is timeless about the story—the iron law of hospitality, the value of craft, the primacy of solving problems with the mind—and leavens it with a modern acceptance of trade-offs, with our struggle with unintended consequences.

I can see why some (especially those who would prefer to return to a Bronze Age world of rapine and plunder and tribalism) would dislike the casting choices or the ending of the movie, which is a significant departure from the poem. But to me, Nolan’s movie is as successful a remix of this ancient cultural touchstone as Madeline Miller’s Circe or the Coens’ Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?