#14 Momentous Movie Review: The Odyssey Part 1
Checkout a movie review of The Odyssey through the lens of Momentous Leadership
Steve Steele
8/3/20267 min read
"It told you what you most want is what you most can't have and that the most you can't have is what you already had and lost. It was a song of all the promises I failed to keep. And it told me I don't really want to go home."
- Odysseus
Sometimes in life plans seemingly make themselves out of nowhere. You are going about your day, and next thing you know, plans come to you. Such was the case this past week in getting an opportunity to go checkout a non-kids' movie, Christopher Nolan's new movie, The Odyssey.
Before you keep reading, if you don't already know the story from reading The Odyssey or seeing this movie, there are plenty of spoilers to come. Next, as much as I tried to just enjoy the movie (I love historical/epic type movies from this time period), I couldn't help but see it from the lens of Momentous Leadership. Much of this was because the main antagonist, Odysseus, is a leader in every right and the movie follows his journey (literally) to hell and back, learning lots of leadership lessons along the way. It was a roughly three-hour movie, so there is a lot to unpack here, so this week will cover roughly half of the movie, with next week completing the rest.
So, if you are okay with some spoilers, enjoy the read. And if you know me, it will be told through movie quotes!
"You're not always going to be the strongest or the fastest so be the smartest" - Eumaeus
This scene is early in the movie. Telemachus is training in combat with Eumaeus serving as his coach. Telemachus struggles and is redirected often by Eumaeus. First, he adjusts too slow, then he adjusts too fast. Then Eumaeus pulls Telemachus aside and drops the line above on him. It is delivered perfectly and was given in the context that it was something that Telemachus' father (Odysseus) had once told him. It's hard not to love that line as a coach, or really any leader. In everything we do, the odds are that we won't be the strongest or the fastest, but we can always find creative ways to look at solutions and think our way into a better position.
Much of what Odysseus is known for by the people of Ithaca is legendary strategy. He was the creator and executor of the Trojan Horse that won the war. He was known just as much for his brain as he was his bow. This was a great tidbit for all leaders to find ways to encourage and motivate their own team, full of different people who often have to creatively problem-solve their way to success in some capacity.
"The power of the sacrifice is in the cost of the person making it" - Odysseus
This truth bomb gets dropped by Odysseus in a discussion with his wife Penelope when talking about leaving to join Agamemnon's war. As they go back and forth, Odysseus informs her that Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter in an attempt to get favorable winds to sail to Troy. In that, he sought to prove the point that resisting joining this campaign was not possible because Agamemnon was so dead set on this plan, he willingly sacrificed his own daughter to complete it (which would be his own downfall after his return). While this line is extremely deep, it is also thought provoking through the lens of leadership.
One of the heartstrings this pulled on was Odysseus' dedication to his wife and child. The discussion ends with Odysseus responding to Penelope's question of "can you promise you'll return" with, "what if I can't?" He knew that he had to go, or else Agamemnon would take his own son. He also knew that in doing so he was most likely going to miss the majority of his son's childhood or not going to return at all. In many leadership positions, or in coaching, you accept a similar sacrifice (although not as severe) in giving up time with your own family. It's never easy as we approach the season, knowing how much more work your wife will inherit with the kids and on the home front. It's a sacrifice losing 1-2 hours of the 4-5 you normally get with them each day for a few months. However, you know that your calling is to work with those kids and help build them. You allow them to see the sacrifice you are making, hoping they come to understand the power of that sacrifice, and also the importance of the people they are making it for.
"Is this a mutiny?" ... "It's up to you." - Odysseus and Eurylochus
If you know the story, things don't go well on their return home from Troy. After getting stuck in Polyphemus' cave and losing some men, then landing on the beach of Aeaea and losing even more men and two boats to the Laestrygonian giants, the men begin to doubt in Odysseus' ability to lead them. With supplies depleted, and manpower dwindling, Odysseus tells them to head further up the coast and back to shore so they can resupply, hopefully in a safer location on the island. They see a structure on the hill and make for shore. This exchange happens as they get ashore and Odysseus tries to take the lead in heading up to the structure, being told to stay and watch the boats. It is at this moment with the tension building between him and his men, you see his own confidence dwindle.
As his men make their way up the hill to Circe's house, Odysseus stays and looks to hunt. Humbled and clearly disappointed that his men have lost confidence in him, there's a moment as he walks away thinking maybe hunting would be a good reprieve from leadership. It's hard not to see that happen in our own leadership journeys. No matter how much we succeed, it is never a straight, smooth path to the top. There are bumps and drops along the way. When we get in those moments where people may think we as leaders have lost our way, and don't know what we are doing, how do we respond? Do we go back to things we are confident in like Odysseus pulling out his bow and hunting? Do we sulk? In his case, it worked out and led him to find out what would happen to his team if he didn't rush up to Circe to save his men. It was a reminder to him, that no matter if his men lost their belief in him momentarily, his job as their leader is to never lose his belief and faith in them, or his responsibility to them.
"It told you what you most want is what you most can't have and that the most you can't have is what you already had and lost. It was a song of all the promises I failed to keep. And it told me I don't really want to go home." - Odysseus
Before they got back on the water, Circe had warned Odysseus of the path ahead, telling him about the Songs of the Sirens and that anyone who heard them would stop in the islands and never leave them. She also forewarned of a whirlpool that would claim all of them or a narrow path that would only claim six of his men. As they are back on the water approaching the islands of the sirens, Odysseus has his men tie him to the mast and then put wax in their ears. He wants to be the first person to ever hear the Songs of the Sirens and live, while protecting his men. After they make it through and Eurylochus asks him what the song was like, Odysseus' response ends in the line above. Damon gave a great emotionally charged performance in this scene and really let the words hit home.
Not even just as a leader, but as a human those words hurt. Without putting thought to them, they instantly make you feel like a horrible person. As you have time to process it through the next few moments in the movie, it's hard not to think of your own failures, and also the regrets and what ifs from the line "the most you can't have is what you already had and lost." By no means is this what Nolan was going for necessarily, but the way my brain and this lens took that scene with the Sirens is an example of what we will do to ourselves if we constantly live in the past or the future (to an extent). If we continue to dwell on the what ifs of life and leadership, it distracts us from being present in the moment now. At the same point, if we are focused on what we want most but currently can't have (too far into the future), it also distracts us or maybe even could change us into someone we do not want to become.
The line to me was the most haunting line (and most successful by Nolan) in the entire movie. I am sure I was not alone in being distracted fighting my own sirens in my head, thinking of exactly what Damon portrayed Odysseus as thinking of as he heard the Song of the Sirens.
PART ONE FINAL THOUGHTS
Odysseus's journey of leadership is much like many. Moments of fear, triumph, glory, despair, anxiety, and horror. Matt Damon does such a great job demonstrating all of those complicated feelings throughout the movie. I had myself feeling the pressure he was under in different parts of the movie, from being tasked with the future of his kingdom, to the safety and well-being of his crew, to the future of his family. You can see it all weighing on him as he makes the best decision he can with the information he has in each predicament. Regret creeps in at times, feelings that he can't catch a break, to outright despair that he has led his men to ruin. Next week, part two will cover the rest of the movie and the MOMENTOUS lines that come across his journey for redemption.
PARTING THOUGHTS
Odysseus was known just as much for his brain as his bow. In his darkest moments, it was creativity and strategy, not strength, that brought him through. When you face a problem that feels too big for your resources, are you reaching for your bow or your brain?
Think of sacrifices you have made in your life, or more recently. Are your sacrifices in-line with the cost of them to you? Can you think of anyone making (or who has made) a sacrifice for you? Have you thanked them for that sacrifice?
The Song of the Sirens pulled Odysseus toward what he most wanted and most regretted: past failures, unkept promises, roads not taken. What are the sirens in your own head that pull your attention away from the people and the moment right in front of you? What would it look like to hear them, acknowledge them, and keep sailing?