Christopher Nolan Tries Making a Blockbuster Worthy of Homer

“Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways, who was driven far journeys … longing for his wife and his homecoming.” So begins Homer’s “Odyssey” (in Richard Lattimore’s translation), the poet recounting Odysseus’ travels back to wife, kin, and homeland after 10 years’ battle in Troy.

The epic is, above all, a story of...