He makes very valid points about some of these scenes

Favorite line in the movie, ‘Why would a god speak to ants?’

I will always think of Clytemnestra as being Irene Pappas, as portrayed in the Cacoyannis movie "Iphigenia."

It´s more about symbolism and how it relates with the modern world than recreating the literature.

Vanessa Williams, a light brown beauty contest winner, played Calypso in the '98 Odyssey.

I actually agree about Dunkirk. I pretty had no idea what was actually going on.

Minor point - Charlize Theron, the actress who played Calypso, is South African, not Australian.

The Odyssey is a perfect libertarian film (it works for the center-right, too). You can't really call it left-wing because it still leans into the traditional gender roles you'd expect from ancient myths, but the far-right would absolutely hate it. The whole thing is basically a cautionary tale about how society is losing its moral compass and falling apart.

At first, I didn't get why they threw in a line like “our Bronze Age is collapsing”—something ancient people would obviously never say. But after thinking about it, I realized this movie is fundamentally made for a modern audience. Half of its themes are actually about the world today (which totally explains the casting choices). After showing the tragedy of the ancient Greek city-states, the film essentially takes the perspective of a modern historian and breaks the fourth wall to give us a warning:

“We are living in a time just like the transition from the Bronze to the Iron Age. Conflicts are escalating, everyone is stabbing each other in the back, and our capacity for empathy and understanding has been completely replaced by division and prejudice. If we keep pushing these deep divides in the 2020s, if we keep deceiving each other and trampling over basic decency and order, our entire global civilization is going to end up in ruins, just like Troy.”

Watch out for the “Sea People,” and make sure you never become one of them yourself.

To me it sounds like Victor Davis Hanson is actually the one who misses the point of Homer. Let's start from the fact that Homer's Odyseey is a retelling of a fraction of a story that was circulating in antiquity (remember, this only a surviving fraction of a series of epic poems). Second, the memory of these stories is retold later in different forms with different takes, just a few centuries later; let's just look at the Oresteia. What about this: Iocasta is alluded to in the Odyssey, but is really only developed later by Sophocles. Oh, and there is the Aeneid, which is not even in Greek. "Virgil's 'Odyssey' misses the point of Homer."  Was Agamemnon killed by Aegisthus or Clytemnestra? See what I mean? I have read the Odyssey at least three times (in different translations [my knowlegde of Greek does not extend to Epic Greek, so I would not even dare]), and as much as I may have some quibbles about some of Nolan's decisions of inclusion or ommission in the film. I feel that Christopher Nolan's addition to the canon of the narrative of Oddsseus coming home is a valuable one. It falls within the spirit of this ageless narrative, for which we have no access or knowledge to the very original discourse, if it exists. Every storyteller, or groups of storeytellers make his/hers or their own. Victor Davis Hanson, lamentably you are the one who misses the point of Homer.

There was a mini series called the Odyssey from 1997. 3 hrs long it was way closer to Homer's poem the this.

I agree. Thank you, Victor.

Thank you Victor

The Kirk Douglas 'Ulysses' still beats them all.

Thanks Victor

In Dunkirk, they do have "map scene" though.  It comes from the falling flyers from the sky at the beginning, showing the enemy almost surrounding them.  Film is visual storytelling, not necessarily dialogue to explicit lead the audience down the primrose path.

He didn’t miss the point- he made an interpretation, which is what anyone would adapts any work of literature does.

4:28 Odysseus’s intelligence was made clear to the audience throughout the entire film. Not falling for the witch’s trap, avoiding the sirens, not to mention, coming up with the Trojan horse trap. Also, the movie was nearly 3 hours long. Adding dialogue with the cyclops would have unnecessarily increased the run time.

4:59 she’s also hatched from an egg. Mythology aside, “white armed” was used to describe women of high status. Similar to men without calluses on their hands being recognized as noblemen or of a higher social status.

8:45 he’s remembering little by little which is ultimately why Calypso tells him he has to remember. So yes, he may not literally cry in the movie, but his memory is clearly addressed.

What point has Nolan missed?  I agree that Nolan certainly took creative liberties, but the point was not lost.

Why was Helen's face disfigured?

Why was this cut off? Where's the rest?

As a Brit, Nolan should have done a movie about the Minotaur myth. The Brits have plenty of experience with rounding up poor girls and offering them up as sacrificial lambs. Nolan does not employ Greeks, but certainly the UK can supply any number of magistrates, police and social workers who are skilled in the art of human sacrifice.