Christopher Nolan Defends The Odyssey After Historical Accuracy Concerns

We’re still months away from Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey hitting cinemas, but that certainly hasn’t stopped people from sounding off about it on social media.

Since the first trailers for the big-screen epic debuted last year, people have been raising questions about its historical accuracy over everything from its costumes to the American accents used by its cast.

Indeed, during a new interview with Time magazine, it was pointed out that some critics had taken issue with the suit of armour worn by Benny Safdie as King Agamemnon, showcased in The Odyssey’s latest trailer, which was compared to Batman’s costumes in his Dark Knight trilogy.

Nolan insisted that research was thorough when putting together every aspect of his new movie, pointing out that our knowledge of the Bronze Age is based on “very fragmentary archeological records”.

As he put it: “There are Mycenaean daggers that are blackened bronze. The theory is they probably could have blackened bronze in those days. You take bronze, you add more gold and silver to it and then use sulfur.

“With Agamemnon, Ellen [Mirojnick], our costume designer, is trying to communicate how elevated he is relative to everyone else. You do that through materials that would be very expensive.”

The Oscar winner continued: “The oldest depictions of Homeric characters tend to be depicted in the manner of people living in Homer’s time.

“So there’s a pretty strong case there for portraying things that way because that’s the way the first audience received the story.”

Of the sceptics among classicists, he added: “Hopefully they’ll enjoy the film, even if they don’t agree with everything. We had a lot of scientists complain about Interstellar. But you just don’t want people to think that you took it on frivolously.”

The Odyssey is Nolan’s first film since the mammoth success of Oppenheimer, which was a box office smash as well as winning seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Cillian Murphy.

His adaptation of the ancient Greek story boasts an all-star cast including Nolan regulars Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway and Robert Pattinson, as well as Tom Holland, Zendaya and Oscar winners Charlize Theron and Lupita Nyong’o.

The Odyssey will hit cinemas worldwide on 17 July. Read Christopher Nolan’s full interview in Time here.