Odysseus in Detroit
I have this theory that if you go down any major list of the best films of all time, say the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest American Movies of all Time, you will find parallels in mythology for each film, not exact, mind you, but enough to show that the filmmakers of the last (and this) century developed themes and plots similar to stories our ancestors had been telling for generations.
The Wizard of Oz, a story of a girl’s adventures as she finds her way home, is little more than a retelling of Books 5 to 12 of the Odyssey, the part most people recognize as the Odyssey, Odysseus’s adventures as he tries to get home from Troy. Brando‘s Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront is Prometheus on the loading docks. Orson Welles‘s Citizen Kane is Oedipus–as that unfortunate Theban King’s story was understood before Freud.
I just returned from a film which borrowed (perhaps unconsciously) from the main theme of the Odyssey, that which lay at the heart of the story as the Greeks understood it, but with which people today are less familiar. Only eight of the epic’s twenty-four books focus on Odysseus’s adventures on his way home from Troy. The remaining sixteen deal with his son Telemachus’s search for his father, the story of their reconciliation and their battle with the suitors to regain his own, then to pacify his island kingdom.
It is this paternal theme to which Clint Eastwood turns in his latest masterpiece, Gran Torino. While the dialogue is at times clunky, the story lines are near perfect. Eastwood’s Walt Kowalski, the grizzled war veteran, while (unlike Odysseus) long since returned from his battles, still must rid his kingdom, er, neighborhood, of a clan of rowdy men who make it difficult, if not impossible, for a boy, on the cusp of manhood, to find his way in the world.
While Kowalski devises different strategies than did Odysseus to face his woes, like that ancient Ithacan, he uses his wits more than his strength to confront the usurpers. And that is how the mythic theme repeats itself in this recent release. It’s too soon to tell whether this flick will join any list of the top films of all time, but it is certainly one of the best films of this year.
Once again, Eastwood amazes us with his knowledge of this medium. And his understanding of the human condition–and human emotion. And once again, we see a story from the ancients retold on the silver screen.
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I’ve not seen the new Eastwood movie, but I’ve always been taught that the Wizard of Oz is a telling of the free silver/gold standard debate. More apparent in the books because Dorothy’s slippers were silver. The farmlands (scarecrow) and steel industry (tinman) supported free silver, while the west and east coast opposed it.
Comment by The_Livewire — December 29, 2008 @ 5:42 am - December 29, 2008
If the flick is as good as your review, I’ll have to check this one out.
Comment by The Old Man — December 29, 2008 @ 6:31 am - December 29, 2008
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is my favorite Homeric retelling to date. The first time I saw it, I was surprised how consistent it is with the original. Good music and very funny, too.
Comment by Ignatius — December 29, 2008 @ 9:55 am - December 29, 2008
An historical note: there was a famous wrestler named Wladek (Walter) “Killer” Kowalski. He lived (and recently died) in Malden, Massachusetts.
Comment by Julie the Jarhead — December 29, 2008 @ 11:04 am - December 29, 2008
I haven´t seen Gran Torino yet because it hasn´t come to a theatre near me (San Salvador). Clint Eastwood has been a favorite of mine going back to thedays of the spaghetti westerns. I have collected his Dirty Harry series. San Francisco is too liberal to have a police force with the philosophy of law enforcement of a Harry Callaghan. As for Citizen Caine, I thought of it as being like the older episodes of Law & Order, ripped from the front pages. When I studied cinema the opinion was that it was supposedly based on the life of the late publisher, William Randolph Hearst. While Hearst had a penchant for actresses, I believe it was Gloria Swanson who gave him low marks for his sexual prowess.
Comment by Roberto — December 29, 2008 @ 12:20 pm - December 29, 2008
Well, this may not be the best post to make this comment, but I think that it is very sympamatic that Detroit as a city, and an economic power is in a freefall of decline. The city once had over 1,000,000 in 1950, now barely has 900,000. The once vaunted auto industry is in a similar freefall. Also, the 0-16 Detroit Lions football team-owned by the Ford family. It is as if the inmates have taken the asylym. Oops, forgot to mention that the mayor had to resign because he cut a deal due to having a felony. You get the point. It is a miracle that there are not more frustrated souls as Mr. Eastwood’s charecter. I have to see this movie.
Comment by Mark J. Goluskin — December 29, 2008 @ 7:02 pm - December 29, 2008
is little more than a retelling of Books 5 to 12 of the Odyssey,
Yeah, but can you sync up Darkside of the Moon to the Odyssey?
Fixed it for ya.
Inmates, liberals what’s the diff?
Comment by ThatGayConservative — December 30, 2008 @ 12:47 am - December 30, 2008
The city once had over 1,000,000 in 1950, now barely has 900,000.
It’s actually worse than that. The population was 1,800,000 in the 1950′s, and 900,000 today. But Detroit has many more city employees now than it did then, and indeed, far more employees and departments than any city in its population class. Opening a new business in the city can require as many as 62 separate approvals according to the Mackinac Center.
Small wonder, then, that Detroit is America’s Most liberal city. Detroit has “enjoyed” more than forty years of unbroken, liberal Democrat rule… and yet, for some strange reason, is not the peaceful, prosperous, utopia leftists always promise.
Comment by V the K — December 30, 2008 @ 6:50 am - December 30, 2008
Citizen Kaine has absolutely nothing to do with Oedipus. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. They are totally unrelated. I have no idea why anyone would look at these two things and see any connection.
Comment by Anon Imus — January 4, 2009 @ 7:54 am - January 4, 2009
Pride, Anon Imus, pride. That is the similarity between both stories.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — January 4, 2009 @ 11:16 am - January 4, 2009