Garrett Exner
For months, speculation surrounding Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey has been inescapable. In conservative circles—a demographic instinctively protective of Western literature’s foundational texts—anxiety was high going into this weekend’s release. While this version is a modern take on Homer and does not seek strict historical accuracy, the movie succeeds at its main goal: highlighting the preeminence and precariousness of the Western tradition, something conservatives should celebrate.
Nolan took part of the Western canon and created a story that warns about the end of a civilization. He incorporated Western concepts of virtue, Christian themes, and set them all against a backdrop meant to inspire all the descendants of European civilization.
Nolan strays from historical accuracy in armor and attire as well as geography. But he makes these choices because he never sought to make a film straightforwardly depicting Odysseus’s Late Bronze Age journey around the Mediterranean. To critique stylistic choices is to miss what Nolan really seeks to depict: the West.
Throughout the film, Odysseus and his men land in places that resemble Northern Europe more than North Africa or the Mediterranean. The land of the Laestrygonians, for example, is clearly a European forest in winter. In fact, much of the film was shot in Great Britain, Italy, and Greece, a subtle through line connecting three nations at the heart of the West.
Nolan is a master of both epic visuals and evocative sound designs, a skill set he uses to drop Western “Easter eggs” throughout the film. As Odysseus escapes the cyclops, every detail of the cave and the wild yell of the monster aim to elicit discomfort in the viewer. As Poseidon’s son devours several men, it is a clear nod to Spanish painter Fransisco Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son (1823), another take on Greek mythology. Goya is one of the most influential painters in Western art and is often referred to as one of the last of the “Old Masters” before the arrival of modern art towards the end of the nineteenth century.
Nolan highlights these connections against the theme of civilizational collapse to call attention to the decline of Western civilization. It is the film’s most prominent theme. Penelope declares as much in one of the final monologues stating that if the Greeks fail to honor the law of the gods, civilization will fall. For modern Christians, the sentiment also rings true: we deny God’s will in Scripture and natural law at our own peril.
Penelope’s statement comes as she realizes Odysseus and his men are the “People of the Sea” she has feared for years. Odysseus allowed himself to become corrupt and violent—denying the gods (God)—pillaging and looting not only in Troy, but also along his route home.
In the Homeric epic, Odysseus is not troubled by the sack of Troy. He understands it as a glorious victory. Yet Nolan chooses to show the sack of Troy as a descent into violence and hate, culminating in the desecration of Athena’s temple and even the beheading of Athena herself. Instead of being proud of sacking Troy, these acts inspire severe post-traumatic stress and moral injury in Odysseus. This is not a bastardization of The Odyssey, but a thoughtful update in light of the Christian morality that has come to define the West.
Through the film Nolan clarifies this through the use of Christian themes, particularly in concepts of sacrifice. In Nolan’s version, one father is unwilling to sacrifice his son’s life, while a King offers himself as a sacrifice for his people. The same King comes back to his kingdom disguised in the poorest form, a beggar.
Nolan also reminds viewers that the wages of sin is death. He graphically depicts a number of deadly sins—lust, gluttony, sloth, wrath and pride—and does so with a unique command of cinematography. Just as in the Cyclops’ cave, the scene with the witch Circe provokes visceral discomfort. The gluttony of the men is insatiable as they eat a soup of tripe while being molded, one by one, into swine.
The Odyssey is beautifully represented, expertly directed, and well-acted, with perhaps one exception: the character of Sinon. Yet, even in Sinon, Nolan winks at his conservative fans. The young boy in the story is not a man and Sinon should not be in the war with Troy. He is only there because an elitist coward lied in an attempt to appear noble. The man who forced Sinon’s participation in the war, Antinous, also happens to be the villain seeking to take power in the kingdom of Ithaca.
Overall, Nolan’s film is a call to defend the West, to maintain virtue, and to honor God. There are many forces competing for our attention and affection, some that distract us, some that corrupt us, and some that pull us into violence and anger, even as we are called to seek first the kingdom of God. If we can only remember our traditions and be guided by the wisdom of our past, we may finally make it home. And when we return to God, it will not be as conquering heroes, but as a beggars. We are called to come home as one in desperate need of mercy and forgiveness much more than praise and adoration.
Western civilization needs virtue now more than ever, and Nolan’s film should remind us of that. We will become that which we hate if we turn our backs on God’s Word and the traditions that made us great.
Source: https://providencemag.com/2026/07/nolans-odyssey-is-a-defense-of-western-civilization/
