I made my holiday read a translation of the Odyssey.* It’d been sitting unread on my bookshelf for 30 years and I was determined to form my own opinion before watching the film. Here is one of many thoughts:
Notwithstanding arguments about translations, I couldn’t help reacting against the sanitised version of Odysseus in the film (eg what happened to the maidservants at the end?) and the loss of the aspects of the plot which assume both the reality of the transcendent (the gods are in control at all stages) and the fantastic teamwork in the penultimate chapter.** Instead, it smacks too much of a bland superhero movie in which everything depends on one man’s superhuman heroics.
If ever there were a case for situational leadership, this is it 😉
*EV Rieu (1946) The Odyssey
**Odysseus, Telemachus, Eumaeus and Philoetius