Okay so, this post is going to be a little bit more informal than my last few, but its been something I’ve been thinking about. A few weekends ago I went to see the Odyssey with my brother, sister, and dad. My brother had already seen it but was eager for us to go again which made me even more excited for the film. My dad is Greek, so we were all kind of raised on Greek mythology and still take great interest in it, so we already knew the story of the Odyssey. The anticipation of a highly rated film mixed with our previous familiarity with the source material, I had seriously high expectations for this movie; only for it to leave me not only disappointed in the writing, but honestly kind of offended with the it’s portrayal of women. Like wow, it’s 2026, and one of the “greatest” writers and directors of all time can’t write ONE compelling female character. How is the 8th century ancient Greek epic more progressive than a 2026 film? Its baffling. Athena, characterized by her wisdom, strategy, and strength, someone who in the original Odyssey trained both Odysseus and Telemachus, and overall played a much bigger part in the story had ZERO screen time. At most, she was used as a vessel for Odysseus’s guilt and trauma about Troy. Penelope is basically useless, while her only lines being about missing her husband rather than being one of the smartest, most cunning characters in the original Odyssey. I have more to say about Nolan’s handling of other female characters in not only the Odyssey, but across his other films, but thats not what this post is about. This post is more about the conversation I had with my family when we left the theater.
We exit the theater and my brother asks us what we thought, and my sister responds with, “The effects were cool, but the writing was awful, especially when it came to the women.” And my brother (no shade) was very surprised by that as was my dad. I however, found myself agreeing with my sister, and we spent the rest of the car ride home discussing it.
Something from that conversation that stuck with me was my brother and dad’s inability to notice how shallow the female characters were. I think this is due to the fact that we as a society view movies or stories about men, for men, as the default. They don’t notice when a movie is geared towards them because the majority of “great films” were made by men, starring men, for men, with women pushed into the love interest or supporting roles. Men just don’t notice because they are watching something that is relatable to them or catered to their perspective. However, it’s very noticeable to women–at least it is for me.
Movies written by women, about women are usually seen as niche or needing special interests based which is so weird to me. Like, why are movies about men seen as for everyone, but movies about women seen as ONLY for women. For example, I can watch 6 seasons of “The Sopranos,” great show, but VERY male centered, but my brother can barely watch an episode of “Fleabag,” a show written by and about women. All of a sudden it’s too girly to watch?
This post wasn’t particularly philosophical, but it’s something that I’ve been noticing.
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