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Christopher Nolan has made an Odyssey for our times – by sacrificing the delicious darkness of Homer's epic | Charlotte Higgins

There’s no denying the power of the film on the big screen. But how far should modern moral sensibilities influence adaptations of classics? Everyone knows how dumb it is to be this person: the one who mourns the film adaptation of a favourite text because it misses out this scene, or misreads that particularly beloved character, or has a slightly “inauthentic” take on some detail. Of course I’m talking about Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation of the Odyssey, a poem I have loved since I was a teenager. I enjoyed the movie, in common with a huge number of other people. It seems remarkable, even dizzying, that the adaptation of a nearly 3,000-year-old poem took $264m (£196m) at the box office over its opening weekend, has sent translations of the Odyssey surging up the bestseller charts , and is sold out (for instance) at London’s BFI Imax screen deep into September. We are living in an O

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There’s no denying the power of the film on the big screen. But how far should modern moral sensibilities influence adaptations of classics? Everyone knows how dumb it is to be this person: the one who mourns the film adaptation of a favourite text because it misses out this scene, or misreads that particularly beloved character, or has a slightly “inauthentic” take on some detail. Of course I’m talking about Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation of the Odyssey, a poem I have loved since I was a teenager. I enjoyed the movie, in common with a huge number of other people. It seems remarkable, even dizzying, that the adaptation of a nearly 3,000-year-old poem took $264m (£196m) at the box office over its opening weekend, has sent translations of the Odyssey surging up the bestseller charts , and is sold out (for instance) at London’s BFI Imax screen deep into September. We are living in an O

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According to The Guardian’s linked report, Christopher Nolan has made an Odyssey for our times – by sacrificing the delicious darkness of Homer’s epic | Charlotte Higgins, There’s no denying the power of the film on the big screen. But how far should modern moral sensibilities influence adaptations of classics? Everyone knows how dumb it is to be this person: the one who mourns the film adaptation of a favourite text because it misses out this scene, or misreads that particularly beloved character, or has a slightly “inauthentic” take on some detail. Of course I’m talking about Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation of the Odyssey, a poem I have loved since I was a teenager. I enjoyed the movie, in common with a huge number of other people. It seems remarkable, even dizzying, that the adaptation of a nearly 3,000-year-old poem took $264m (£196m) at the box office over its opening weekend, has sent translations of the Odyssey surging up the bestseller charts , and is sold out (for instance) at London’s BFI Imax screen deep into September. We are living in an O

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The development sits in VINI’s Global coverage for readers following international affairs, institutions, conflict, diplomacy, economics, and cross-border consequences. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The linked report is dated 2026-07-25T05:00:33+00:00.

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Primary source: Christopher Nolan has made an Odyssey for our times – by sacrificing the delicious darkness of Homer’s epic | Charlotte Higgins via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.

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