Whether you have seen Christopher Nolan’s cinematic adaptation of the Odyssey or not, one thing is certain: this film could not have arrived at a more opportune moment.
Across the globe, universities have been reassessing priorities and closing down what they perceive to be underperforming programs. And in the crosshairs have been the classic disciplines of the humanities—philosophy, ancient history, and classical literature.
This curricular downsizing has been largely motivated by the mistaken perception that we no longer need these subjects, because the lucrative jobs of the future—assuming AI does not take all of them—will be in the STEM disciplines. Nolan’s film enters this scene as a kind of Trojan Horse: what is presented as a summer blockbuster slips one of the foundational works of the humanities past the gates of contemporary popular culture and the watchful eyes of the academic gatekeepers.
And the effects of this are nothing less than transformative.
Young people who had been written-off as lacking the attention span to watch anything longer than a 30-second TikTok now sit in rapt attention for more than three hours. Emily Wilson’s recent English translation of the epic poem has sold more than one million copies. And social media are suddenly saturated with conversations about literary interpretation, Mediterranean culture, and the minutiae of ancient history. Thus, at this precise moment—when the humanities are under siege and tasked with justifying their place in the curriculum—this epic film demonstrates that their relevance is far from over.
I'm David Gunkel and that's my perspective.
