Today marks the highly anticipated theatrical release of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of The Odyssey. Starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, the film is generating lots of discussion across the global classics community. As people everywhere head to cinemas, academics from the Faculty are already exploring how this modern, big-screen adaptation handles Homer’s nearly 3,000-year-old epic.
Retelling the Odyssey
In an official feature for the University of Cambridge, Professors Richard Hunter and Rebecca Laemmle share their hopes and anxieties for Nolan's film. Together, the professors are editing a new 'Green and Yellow' edition of Odyssey Book 11 (the famous underworld scene), set to be published by Cambridge University Press in August 2026.
Their main hope? That Nolan does justice to the epic's crucial underworld scene and its "unrivalled showcase of strong female characters". As Professor Laemmle explains, Homer’s underworld is far more of a psychological, emotional, and conversational event than a place of ghouls and monsters:
“The underworld contains everyone who ever lived and died... meaning the past is never fixed. This enables dialogues between completely different periods of time. It’s amazing.”
— Professor Rebecca Laemmle
You can read their thoughts in the full University of Cambridge article.
Or watch their conversation- filmed in 360° - here:
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The Ultimate "Idiot's Guide" to the Epic
If Nolan's film has inspired you to tackle the original text but you are feeling a bit intimidated, The Guardian has published an incredibly accessible starting point.
The piece, A voyage of discovery: an idiot’s guide to reading The Odyssey, features practical advice from Cambridge’s own Professor Rebecca Laemmle. To prevent getting lost in the epic's massive cast of characters, Professor Laemmle shares her personal strategy: "Whenever I read a book with a big cast of characters, I map out the relations on a sheet of paper." She also recommends trying out audiobooks if the repetitive nature of the oral poetry feels heavy on the page- it's closer to how they would have originally been enjoyed after all!
"Great, But Where are the Jokes?"
Writing for The Guardian and The Times, Professor Mary Beard has also shared her first impressions of Nolan's interpretation. While she praises the film as a "brisk, pacy, and contemporary" introduction to Homer that successfully avoids archaic, "cod-epic" language, she notes a crucial departure from the source material: the tone.
"In practice, [Homer] heralds an Odysseus who throughout the poem is playful, ironic, witty, dangerously deceptive and sometimes an out-and-out liar... [Nolan's] hero is much more one-dimensional, single-minded, even stolid than in Homer."
— Professor Mary Beard
If you are looking for a comprehensive guide before heading to the cinema—or a deconstruction afterwards—the latest episodes of the Instant Classics podcast are an excellent place to go. Co-hosted by Mary Beard and journalist Charlotte Higgins, the podcast has launched a dedicated two-part series exploring the poem's major themes: the costs of war, post-traumatic stress, and the boundaries between civilisation and barbarism.
Want more reaction?
Tim Whitmarsh was joined by Emma Greensmith (Oxford) and Ben Kruchiò (Yale) to discuss their first thoughts on the film.
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Join us for a special webinar on the 4th August where a panel of Cambridge Classics Academics will discuss their reactions to the film. All Welcome!