Inside ‘The Odyssey,’ Christopher Nolan’s Most Epic Movie Yet

That, Nolan thought, was excellent for Odysseus. The Homeric hero most of us keep in mind from highschool is the artful man behind the Trojan Horse. But he is additionally conceited and duplicitous. A line in Emily Wilson’s translation sums him up: “Lying Odysseus replied, ‘I will tell you the truth completely.’” For Nolan, one of many hardest issues about adapting The Odyssey is that in The Iliad, Odysseus has a comparatively minor position. “A lot of the characteristics of Odysseus that can be really admirable in a supporting character, like being a bit clever, being a bit slick, when your hero is like that, it doesn’t always work,” he says. “There’s a reason that in Star Wars, you’ve got Han Solo, but you’ve also got Luke Skywalker, a heroic figure that’s a little more pure and transparent. So the challenge was to be true to the complexity of Odysseus but make him relatable for the audience.”