The most important theme of “The Odyssey”
Christopher Nolan’s cinematic treatment of Homer’s Odyssey stirred up a hornet’s nest among conservatives, both good and bad. [Watch the trailer above.]
Conservative luminaries at The Daily Wire were all over the map.
Matt Walsh blasted the director for being a “coward” and making a woke movie that used diversity quotas in casting.
Ben Shapiro called it a “masterpiece.”
Michael Knowles said despite it’s flaws, “it’s still a pretty good movie and you should go and see it.”
Andrew Klavan criticized elements of the scripting, but observed that its huge box office success proves that “audiences are starving for foundational Western Civilization stories.”
Trent Horn comments on “The Odyssey”
Catholic podcaster, Trent Horn, had an entire episode on “Why I refuse to see the Odyssey,” asserting that supporting the film normalizes transgender ideology.
The always cheeky cultural conservative commentator, Peach Keenan, said The Odyssey was “Bad. Shockingly, laughably bad. And not because it was “woke.” That was, at worst, a minor nuisance. No, it was bad for old-school movie reasons: atrocious writing. Some of the worst acting ever committed to the screen. Stilted dialogue …”
You get the idea.
So how does the public like this $250 million epic? If box office is any indication (and it is), quite a lot. It’s already grossed over $700 million globally.
Not bad. Only five films have done better so far this year, and they’ve been out longer. The Odyssey will most likely blow past them.
This blogpost is less interested in the relative merits and demerits of the film itself than in its timeless theme: the desire to go home. The entire film is about Ithaca’s King Odysseus’ quest to return home after a 20 year absence. As Odysseus, portrayed by Matt Damon, says,
“No one can stand between me and home, not even the gods.”
God has hardwired his creation, mankind, to desire home. We see this burning passion for home presented in many different creative ways in the following films.
The Wizard of Oz
Who can ever forget Dorothy clicking the heels of her ruby slippers together as she says, “there’s no place like home?”
Citizen Kane
Or who can forget the last word spoken by Charles Foster Kane on his deathbed: “Rosebud.” Citizen Kane’s powerful protagonist wants nothing more than to return to his childhood home at his death.
Gone With the Wind
Home is the emotional anchor in so many films. Scarlett O’Hara wants nothing more than to preserve her family’s home, “Tara,” in the classic “Gone With the Wind.” The ‘Tara’ theme song dominates the music score.
It’s a Wonderful Life
Is there anyone with a heart that didn’t have a lump in their throat when Jimmy Stewart’s character, George Bailey rushes home in the last scene of, “It’s a Wonderful Life?” He has just discovered the meaning of his life and what is truly important: home and family.
Think about it: if you were kidnapped by communists and imprisoned in Siberia for twenty years, what would be your daily thought? To return to home and family.
The Odyssey is but the latest cinematic entry acknowledging the irresistible draw of home.
The spiritual significance of home
The idea of home is rich with its spiritual significance. In their book, “The Theology of Home,” authors Dr. Carrie Gress and Noelle Mering explain that “we find our home in God, which is a foretaste of what heaven will be like … Our goal is to get home to heaven.”
The journey of life begins in our first and most significant home, our mother’s womb. Abortion is more than a physical attack on the unborn child, who is a complete human being at its conception. It is a spiritual attack on the universal longing for home that God implants in each of us at fertilization. As Gress and Mering put it:
“We are incarnation. We want to unite the tangible to the intangible. We want this life we’re living to be beautiful in a deeper way. There’s a reason people write songs and make movies about going home. It’s a universal longing.”
Abortion is an attack on home and family. The violence of the act redounds on the child, the mother, the father, the siblings, the grandparents, the community, and the world.
As Pope John Paul II expressed it,
“As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.”
The Odyssey is one of a long line of films extolling the universal allure of home and family.
Let its theme invigorate pro-lifers in our efforts to end abortion and create beautiful homes and families bursting at the seams with love.
