This isn’t just a film review
On a Wednesday afternoon, I walked into the Music Box Theater, ready to watch Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey in 70mm. Nolan’s film is carried by an ensemble cast, beautiful cinematography, and of course, the use of IMAX cameras, a first for a blockbuster film. Yet after leaving the showing, Nolan’s interpretation of Homer’s iconic work wasn’t the first thing that came to my mind. Instead, I concluded that the film was a response to the United States’ war and invasion of Iraq.
Warning: the following contains spoilers ahead for Nolan’s The Odyssey
Baghdad is Troy, Troy is Baghdad
Nolan’s film opens on Odysseus’s flashback, like Homer’s epic, to the Trojan War. This opening scene depicts Greek soldiers hiding in the Trojan Horse, a ‘gift’ to the Trojans and their gods. Sinon, played by Elliot Page, sacrifices himself before the Trojans to ensure that the horse makes it through Troy’s walls. At night, after being dragged in, the Greek soldiers descend from the wooden horse and unleash chaos throughout the city of Troy.
This is the first direct comparison to the invasion of Iraq, specifically to the fall of Baghdad. The looting and arson besieging Troy is a direct link to how the United States and its allies (most notably the United Kingdom) besieged Baghdad in April of 2003. The Greek soldiers created chaos while panicked Trojan civilians tried to escape, with statues of the gods themselves beheaded or broken during the siege. One might recall how U.S. soldiers helped Iraqi civilians destroy statues of Saddam Hussein. It is clear Nolan is connecting the Greeks’ savagery to the United States and its actions in Iraq.
As with the fall of Troy, with the capture of Baghdad, all of Iraq fell under U.S. occupation. The Bush administration’s Trojan horse was the promise that they would bring about democracy for the Iraqi people after Saddam Hussein’s rule. However, after two decades (which is how long it takes for Odysseus to get home), the U.S. occupation decimated the Iraqi population and left puppet leaders throughout the region, not to mention human rights violations committed by the U.S. and its allies (see Abu Ghraib).
The final part of the film, similar to the original epic, reflects on the hero’s journey – specifically Odysseus’s regret for his actions against Troy and the fate of the men under his command. It mirrors that of veterans of the Iraq War who regret their actions in Iraq, how they were just ‘following orders’ (Agemmon and Odysseus play the roles of the Bush administration and the U.S. military). They bear the scars of war both for themselves and the people they have killed or hurt along the way. In the end, just like the fall of Baghdad, the fall of Troy reflects on how decades of bloodshed and the mad decline of human civilization have unfolded amid promises of so-called democracy.
“…To burn the walls of Troy was to burn the world entirely, including his home…”
— Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, talking to Penelope (The Odyssey, 2026)
Trump’s “Golden Age” of America
While this film is more or less a direct analog to the Iraq War, Nolan takes a slight jab at the current Trump regime near the end. Odysseus mentions the ending of the Bronze Age to his wife Penelope. Trump, in his second term, has boasted that he is bringing a “Golden Age” to America. But as we know, it has been the opposite, with blowback from Iraq and Afghanistan, the continuation of the genocide in Palestine, his Gestapo (ICE) running around and rounding up our immigrant neighbors, and a failing economy. Just like the Bronze Age, Trump’s “Golden Age” and the American Empire will fall.
