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A. A. Kostas's avatar

Good essay. The ultimate 'trick on the trick' is Christ dying to kill death, which makes Nolan's reinterpretation more obviously Christian, even if he didn't specifically intend this.

James Taylor Foreman's avatar

Although how could he not, really.

A. A. Kostas's avatar

maybe maybe... we have to remember he was raised catholic and privately educated in the UK at a school which was originally set up to train the ruling class of British India, so the sea he swam in for most of his youth was Christian... whether he believes in any of it now I cannot say... reminds me of Sean Penn's excellent direction of Into The Wild, forming Chris into a doomed Christ Figure

Nick Allen's avatar

The Trojan War began, as well as ended, with a violation of Zeus's Law: when Paris stole his host's wife.

James Taylor Foreman's avatar

That’s right, good point. But Agamemnon is only using that as an excuse to take Troy. Stated explicitly in the movie.

Cody's avatar

Just watched it today. Agree with your read on Ellen page. Feels like this comes in a moment when the west needs to make a decision and hopefully we’ll be able to look back from better days. As a Christian it’s also interesting to watch a hero’s journey type story with a lesser Christ figure and relate to the failures that come when answering the call. Left feeling inspired which i didn’t expect.

James Taylor Foreman's avatar

Similar feelings. A little dry in spots, but overall inspiring.

Christian Baxter YT's avatar

I’m left basically saying - no one knows or can make movies like this anymore… because tictok will be all they have to remember those of us who could direct film…

Ed Brenegar's avatar

Very well said. For the past year and a half, I have been reflecting on time and reality. Our recollection of time is a product of generational memory. Whether it is Homer or the Bible, this may be what we believe about the past, but it is not everything we need to know about the past. We keep reinterpreting and adapting the past to current realities. But reality is more than perception. It is consequential in ways that can only be discovered by living. What interests me is Nolan’s use of the source material, just as the Cohen Brothers use of it for in O Brother … and Jonathan Shay’s use in his two books on the Vietnam War experience. I’ve not seen the film yet. I feel I am now prepared to see it with curiosity and openness.

Mohammad Khan's avatar

This reminds me of a video essay https://youtu.be/gz4yGLojBbU?is=7DOgmNyr-hHlE_HN

That describes the beauty of seeing someone's complete humanity

And the reason murder is a sin or that it impacts us so much that, we see the face of God in each other, so to harm one another is to harm God

Randall Bennington's avatar

When I first saw the trailer I assumed Nolan was playing in Epic Time, hence the casting and out of place armor. I think Nolan achieved his vision, but by the time we see Saint Sebastian I was fully in the land of CS Lewis. I did like Odysseus in Narnia, but that’s what it is. What I thought Nolan was going to do, but I was wrong about, was to make the hospitality rules about colonialism. He colonizes Troy and decolonizes his home from the suitors he’s a complex man.