The Bow of Nolan's Odysseus

At this point I think I may have written about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey from just about every angle I can come up with—except for one really important one. I’m waiting to discuss a key issue, Nolan’s treatment of the Greek gods, until we can get into it on our next episode of Klavans on the Culture. If you want to know what I think about how Nolan deals with the divine, and how it compares to the original poem—and if you want to know what Klavan, Sr. thinks of the movie overall—make sure to tune in. If you’re a Daily Wire all-access subscriber you can watch live on Tuesday at 2pm ET.

Meanwhile, I think I found an easter egg in the movie that’s pretty cool and significant, and I haven’t seen anyone else talk about it. This is a very minor spoiler—interestingly, Nolan does so many unexpected things with his interpretation that it is in fact possible to spoil even if you already know the poem. If you’re an absolute stickler for not reading anything in advance, first of all, respect. Second of all, come back later. If you’re not a stickler (I’m not), feel free to read on. It might help you spot something interesting if and when you do watch the film.

There’s a famous scene in the poem where Odysseus reveals his identity by stringing a huge bow that nobody else can string. This involves forcing the ends of the weapon close enough together to stretch a piece of gut or twine across—a feat of strength, in other words. The suitors who have infested his palace try, and fail, then Odysseus succeeds.

When Nolan puts this scene on screen, it seems like he very briefly has one of the suitors come up with the bright idea to limber up the bow at the fire so it will be more pliable (if you go see it this week, check me on this and comment whether I’m right—it’s so quick you can blink and miss it).

The suitor’s idea doesn’t work, which is pretty close to what happens in the actual poem. But to understand why Nolan’s depiction matters so much, you have to have seen one of the worst Odyssey adaptations ever, from just two years ago: Uberto Pasolini’s incredibly depressing and stripped-down retelling of Odysseus’ homecoming.

I don’t recommend watching The Return. But if you do, you’ll see that in Pasolini’s version it’s Odysseus who warms the bow over the fire to make it easier to bend, and it does work, revealing in a twist that Odysseus is smarter than the other men, not stronger.

Like everything else in Pasolini’s insufferable movie, this twist far less clever than the director thinks it is. Because of course we already know Odysseus is smarter than everyone else. The point of the bow is that he’s also strong.

In other words, Homer’s Odyssey is not a parable of brains over brawn, about how the nerdy weakling beats all the big dumb bullies. It’s about what it takes to be a man in full, which means it’s important for the hero to be smart, brave, and tough. In the poem, Odysseus strings the bow “effortlessly,” the way a musician strings an instrument (Nolan does something very cool with that simile, which is also in Homer, by the way).

I have no way of knowing whether Nolan had The Return in mind when he made the suitors try out their cheat unsuccessfully. But it is the most recent film adaptation of the Odyssey before Nolan’s that I know of, and it could well have been something he watched as a reference point.

If this is an intentional rejection of Pasolini’s version of the story, it’s an exceptionally cool one: Nolan is saying that no, his Odysseus is powerful physically as well as mentally. Even if it’s not intentional, it’s revealing about Nolan’s and Pasolini’s different visions of heroism.

To my mind, Nolan’s more rounded Odysseus is closer to the one we need. There are plenty of modern parables about how bookish weaklings can be heroes in their own right—we all saw The Never-Ending Story. There’s a certain value to that narrative trope. But there’s more value in the idea that men should aspire to be both strong and sophisticated. It’s one of the things that makes Odysseus so impressive. I think it’s pretty cool that Nolan got that right.