Cinema VinesWhen Sam Wall was assigned Homer’s epic in high school, he skipped the text and only studied enough to pass. Now, 21, he’s back at the book in preparation for Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation, which will see Matt Damon portray Odysseus on his decade‑long trek home after the Trojan War. Wall says he read the University of Pennsylvania classicist Emily Wilson’s translation in a few days, then reread it to ensure he understood the details that Nolan will bring to the screen.
Wall isn’t the only fan diving into the poem. TikTok is flooded with videos of readers holding up copies of Wilson’s roughly 500‑page edition, which Nolan has cited as a source. The book saw a significant sales jump last year, according to publisher W.W. Norton, as people rush to learn the story before the film’s Friday premiere.
Classics professors have welcomed the surge in interest. Bard humanities scholar Daniel Mendelsohn, who has published his own translation, called the film “a Rolls‑Royce” that invites people to experience Homer in a new way. Trinity University’s Lawrence Kim added that any effort to get people reading or listening to Homer is a win for educators.
Some viewers, however, only just discovered that the $250‑million production is a retelling of a poem written over 2,000 years ago. Comic book creator Matt Ramos, known as “Supes,” posted a screenshot of a search result that described the work as a “retelling of a poem written in ancient Greece more than 2,000 years ago,” prompting disbelief from fans who had never Googled the title. 21‑year‑old film student Cole Wojewoda said he hadn’t considered the poem until after seeing the announcement.
Other fans are taking a more measured approach. Jayren Reyes, also 21, said he was not planning to read the entire text but had skimmed the Wikipedia page. Meanwhile, 42‑year‑old marketing professional Duncan Rengozzi‑La Barre in Wales decided to read the whole poem, seeking the “smug feeling” of knowing the source material before watching the movie.
