Nolan, Odyssey podcast
My friends at Ricochet invited me the other day to talk about Nolan & the Odyssey movie, the blockbuster of the year, on the flagship podcast. Listen below—it was a good conversation & the guys took it down a bunch of different paths: Charlie Cooke talked about Dante, Shakespeare, Virgil — Steve Hayward brought up the optimistic side, the run on Homer books & the new popularity of a classic — James Lileks talked about Hollywood & what it would take to earn public trust. I tried to agree with all of them. But when Charlie said, Nolan’s movie isn’t Prog atheism toying with nihilism, there I took my stand!
Ricochet@Ricochet
Don't know what to make of Christopher Nolan's Odyssey?
Tune in to the Ricochet Podcast for a lively discussion on Homer, American movies & ancient, Christian & post-Christian morality with our old friend @titusfilm!
ricochet.com/podcast/ricoch…
9:16 PM · Jul 24, 2026 · 218 Views
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Here is Ricochet & here’s the podcast.
Glad you appreciate the intelligence of Helen, and convey some sense of the weightiness of book IV. I'll remind your readers that I explored both of these topics at pomocon: https://pomocon.substack.com/p/eva-branns-helen-part-ii I'm presently drafting my review of Nolan's film, which is mixed-bag: "Happy First Impressions, Melancholy Aftertastes" will be the title. Forthcoming at Dissident Conservative.
I disagree with your claim that the ambush/slaughter of the suitors is unjustified. You also seem to veer towards understanding Odysseus as purely trickster, a guy who seeks to "get away with everything," though I can't tell if that's you on Homer's O. as opposed to you only on Nolan's O. If you're speaking in that mode of Homer's O., I join Jenny Strauss Clay in disagreeing
You make an excellent point about Nolan making Helen irrelevant given the twin-sister thing.
Overall, I think the framing that your interlocutors gravitate towards here of a Christian re-understanding v. the original Homeric one, isn't that helpful. You try to make the best of it, but one can only do so much, scrambling to situate Nolan vis-a-vis Christianity and Dante vis-a-vis Ulysses also! I guess it's natural that they brought it up with you, since you mentioned Augustine's City of God in your suggestive little review. Oh, well, you did get your case for Nolan in there at the start, and nicely. Oh, and one last thing...where are you getting this idea you mention about the Olympians shifting gears and now (in Homer) wanting to take over everything, with the "plant an oar in an inland state" mission as a key to that? Or is that mainly you?
I know everyone's tired of the many pieces on the film--my wife just told me "the film that launched a thousand think-pieces" joke--but mine is now out, and I do have a bit more expertise with the epic than most, and I do make a few references to Titus's commentaries on it. https://dissidentcon.substack.com/p/happy-first-impressions-melancholy