The Odyssey: An Anti-War Movie Where Leaders Are Held Accountable For Their Decisions
By
Leonard Zwelling
It was my wife who first said, as we left the theater after seeing Christopher Nolan’s latest film, that it was an anti-war movie. But it is more than that, and that is why it is a perfect film for our time. Not only does it show the cost of foolish wars, but also it insists that the men who lead such unnecessary carnage must be held to account for their actions. While this couldn’t have been known when it was being made, it is an apt metaphor for America’s current war in Iran, if, and only if, Mr. Trump, Mr. Netanyahu, and Mr. Hegseth are held responsible for the death and destruction their decisions have produced.
It is very clear that Lyndon Johnson was held to account for his mistakes in Vietnam, even as the initial foray into Southeast Asia by American troops was not his idea. Thousands died for nothing because of LBJ’s decisions. The fates did not look upon him favorably. He was driven from office in 1968 and died in 1973.
Richard Nixon did not fare a whole lot better in Vietnam. The price he paid may not have been directly related to any decisions he made prosecuting the war, but the gods do work in strange ways. They may well have held Mr. Nixon to account using Watergate as their vehicle.
George W. Bush took us into Afghanistan and Iraq. Both of these were disasters. I am not sure he paid much of a price except I do not think he will be viewed favorably by history. 9/11 occurred on his watch and his response was lame and worthless. Many died under his command and he did not make the world safer, only Saddam-less.
As I recall from fifth grade (and unlike all the rest of those who have written about this film, I do not care whether or not it adhered to the original material), the Trojan War in The Illiad began when the Greeks invaded Troy to bring back Helen who was taken by the Trojan Paris from her husband Menelaus of Sparta whose brother led the Greek invasion of Troy. That brother was Agamemnon. In the poem, Paris was asked to mediate a debate as to who among three goddesses was the most beautiful—Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite. He chose Aphrodite who promised him the love of the world’s most beautiful woman. That was how he came to abduct Helen.
It’s a myth, of course, as is Homer’s version of the Trojan War, but infidelity too is a pretty lame reason to go to war.
In Homer’s poem, Odysseus is the clever strategist who devised the Trojan Horse ruse that ultimately led to the defeat of Troy after a ten year siege.
The crux of the Nolan’s film, The Odyssey, is the horrible cost of war (there is plenty of gore on the screen) and the price that Odysseus pays for not being able to get his men home alive. (Agamemnon pays a price, too.) In essence, the fates had it in for them. Rather than die, Odysseus has to live with what he saw, what he experienced, and the lives his decisions caused to be lost.
This is the perfect metaphor for Donald Trump’s war on Iran. Prior to this war, the Iranian economy was weak. The Strait of Hormuz was safely open to all ship traffic. Last year’s bombing had buried much of Iran’s nuclear material. How exactly did President Trump think this war would benefit America?
Instead, because of this war, our economy has taken a terrible hit with high fuel and fertilizer prices. The Middle East is more unstable than ever. Iranian proxies are still wrecking havoc on Israel and even on shipping in the Red Sea and perhaps, most critically, the American supply of munitions has been depleted for no reason, our sailors are enduring terrible conditions at sea, and our bases in the area are under significant attack interrupting supply lines and endangering our own troops. Would the United States be able to defend Taiwan, the source of the best AI chips, if China invaded? I doubt it.
To complete this metaphor, Trump needs to be held to account for his folly. So does Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. For Trump, a just scenario would be the electoral loss of at least the GOP majority in the House of Representatives in November followed by another impeachment and trial for his financial shenanigans—using the White House as his personal piggy bank. For Netanyahu it would mean defeat at the polls in October and a trial for his misdeeds along with an inquest as to how his government failed to protect the country on October 7, 2023.
I did not think Nolan’s film was great. The first hour was a C. The second, a B. The third, and best, a B+. There was no character development. The script using vernacular English was tired. Anne Hathaway was hopelessly miscast as Odysseus’ wife Penelope, and Matt Damon, while adequate, was neither heroic nor doubting. He was actually pretty dull until the end.
That being said, this is a film for our time, I believe. I did not see it in 70 mm IMAX as no such theater exists in Houston. My son went to San Antonio to see it that way and said it was spectacular. Regardless, Nolan has once again given us a protagonist who has to make tough decisions. I think in both Oppenheimer and Interstellar the lead characters’ changes were better depicted. Even in these two movies with spectacular visuals, the humans did not get lost as I thought they did in The Odyssey.
In The Odyssey, despite showing only one god (I think Zendaya was Athena), it was the gods that will haunt Odysseus forever. These are the same gods that haunted LBJ, Nixon, and George W. Bush.
I am not sure Donald Trump can be haunted, but if he can, his decision to bomb Iran should haunt him forever. Surely it will haunt the rest of us every time we go to fill our gas tanks.
Even today, the gods hate hubris. If Donald Trump is anything, he is hubris. He may yet pay a price for his foolishness.
