Perhaps, a Straussian reading of this would be that, Nolan indeed trying to point out this exact thing, of how consumed we become by our own narratives, that we forget to take into account the people on the recieving end of the attrocities.3/5

#Movies#The Odyssey

“Any serious depiction of violence, ancient or modern, must show the perspectives of the victims as well as the perpetrators, and the Homeric poems easily clear the bar – but Nolan doesn’t. The Trojans are dehumanised by their masks; we know none of them by name or face. The hands of Odysseus and Telemachus are bloodied only by the most righteous, computer-game modes of killing, and we feel no pity or horror at the deaths of their victims, whether Trojans, giants, suitors or slaves. During the sack of Troy – which he supposedly organised – Odysseus gazes around in bewilderment and horror, as if he has never seen a massacre before.Emily Wilson · An Uncomplicated Manlrb.co.uk

Eurylochus: What was the song of the sirens like? Odysseus: All the things you want it to be. Then, all the things you wished you never wished for. It was the delicious itch you go to scratch but find it's under the skin. You can't reach it. So the delicious itch becomes unbearable. Told you what you most want, is what you most can't have. And what you most can't have, is what you already had, and lost. It was the song of all the promises I failed to keep. And it told me I don't really want to go home.2/6