i was smack dab in the middle of my graduate class on Homer reading through The Iliad and the Odyssey when Barbenhiemer weekend happened. i saw both movies on separate days but they hype and the storylines reminded me so much of Homer’s classic epic that i used them both in my final essay for my class on Homer. seems there is nothing new under the sun. or in the darkness of a movie theater…
HUM 503: BarbenHomer
Thousands of years ago, a skilled poet entranced an audience on a Grecian hillside. They were in for an afternoon of epic storytelling as a performing artist wove mythical yarns from The Iliad and The Odyssey. All heard tales of heroes seeking honor and heroines watching for homecoming. Included was humor, a great deal of hubris, and hopefully, everyone left the hillside, understanding more about what it means to be a human enduring suffering and setbacks, still able to forgive and forge a meaningful life. A few weeks ago, audiences gathered at movie theaters to spend the day entertained by two newer and just as epic tales, Barbie and Oppenheimer. It became a full day of movie watching, quickly dubbed Barbenheimer on social media. Proving audiences still hunger for stories of heroes and will trade a day for a skilled narrator to take them on a journey on sunny hillsides and darkened movie theaters to examine the questions of the ages.
Christopher Nolan's film about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, mimics The Iliad in exploring the two issues at the heart of creating a radioactive weapon. Nolan separates his film into two sections, woven seamlessly together in a jagged back-and-forth timeline throughout the film. Moreover, he gives those sections nuclear names, fission and fusion. Fission divides an unstable nucleus into two parts, and those scenes are the political and personal battle between two powerful men, Oppenheimer and Strauss, much like the disagreement that is the focus of The Iliad between Achilles and Menelaus. All four characters are unstable, not at home, and in wartime. This fission involves bickering, backstabbing, and revenge plots. Political power makes the personal vendettas more unstable (as it always seems to happen). Strauss is a modern Menelaus in his pursuit to have the upper hand and maintain control of his honor and status at any cost.
Meanwhile, Achilles, with all his physical strength, is a weapon in waiting; he is a literal ticking time bomb throughout the story and is unleashed late in the story. Oppenheimer, with his mental genius, also contains a weapon within the recesses of his brilliant and tortured mind. Oppenheimer and Achilles' are both technically perfect. However, strengths and subsequent victories come with regrets and recriminations. Both men have the power to end a war, but at what cost? Entering the war will cost Achilles his life soon after The Iliad closes, and the audience watches Oppenheimer lose his psychological peace and, eventually, his career and honor. Once unleashed, the weapons cause destruction and devastation upon the humus and humans of other nations. There are scenes of intense patriotism as the visiting team cheers from the sidelines after the pyrrhic victory of Hektor's death and the bomb dropped on Japan but lurking closely behind those cheers are the cries of terror and sorrow from the losing side. Winning a battle has uncalculatable costs to humanity and main characters. The danger is within and beyond us. The devastation is private and public. The destruction is personal and national.
Are these men heroes? Or are they just humans with the curse of hubris? Are they playing God or do the gods play with them? The audience, hillside or in movie theaters, must follow the creation of celebrities and witness that the higher the pedestal, the more potential to destroy, both personally and publicly, on small and large scales. They watch how infidelity creates fissures in friendships and working relationships. There is nothing new under the sun in the breaking of trust between brethern. Wounded egos still drive humanity to unspeakable acts.
The Iliad and Oppenheimer are larger-than-life stories of national war, and war is always a story of power. Who has it? Who can take it away? What will end it? Fusion is the storyline driving the larger war narrative of both epics. Combining two powerful entities releases vast amounts of energy at home and abroad. Nations at a nervous standstill waiting for news of their soldiers. Individuals fighting and dying in these wars for ideals. Moral quandaries are inside the heart of each character and action. War is always the most devastating on the home team; that is where the earth will be scorched, void of humanity. At the end of The Iliad, the war is not over. Neither do all wars cease because countries have nuclear weapons. Oppenheimer ends with an image of ripples in a pond. Wars and weapons create these endless ripples. Ask Agamemnon; he will tell Odysseus all about it in Hades. The final scenes with Einstein and Oppenheimer are mirror reflections and refractions of Achilles and Priam's last moments of connection as characters and audience experience the painful cost of war for all involved. Personal psychological effects of fission occur, as well as destruction through the fusion of powerful nations clashing. It is a nuclear explosion. The audience is left to examine their hearts for answers to the questions of the cost of private and public wars and the overwhelming suffering and death both bring to humanity.
If The Iliad and Oppenheimer represent the war and wrathful side of our human experience, perhaps the other half of this storytelling equation leads to a brighter dream homecoming experience. Director Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie begins, shockingly, with nary a speck of pink; it is a graphic grayscale scene of smashing baby dolls which seems oddly reminiscent of the ending of the Trojan War. A female narrator states that Barbie has solved all women's problems, or so they think. Barbie starts her day on a beach, and the first sight of Odysseus in The Odyssey is also on a beach. The Trojan War ending favorably for the Greeks does not mean that all of Odysseus' (Menelaus' or Agamemnon's) problems are in the past. Barbie and Odysseus will take journeys filled with twists and turns to find their true home and discover what it means to be a human amid the epic questions of death and suffering.
Both heroes start on pedestals for the audience. Barbie is the perfect and unattainable ideal for femininity physically and in the myriad opportunities afforded her (as Doctor Barbie, President Barbie, Grad School Essay Writing Barbie). Odysseus is the epitome of the wisest and bravest man, superior in his physical, adventures, and crafty successes. However, soon into their tales, both realize they have flat feet (Odysseus' are metaphorically tied by Calypso's obsession and Poseidon's revenge plots) and thoughts of death they cannot escape. Barbie falls from grace instead of floating from her dream house, and Odysseus has his graceless flaws with a lack of hubris in kicking a blind Cyclops when he is down and napping when he most needs to be monitoring his crew. Not every day is the “best day ever” for either of these characters. Eventually, both heroes at low points of introspection existentially question their purpose as they talk with two seemingly different goddesses. Athene is the beautiful goddess of war and wisdom, and Weird Barbie is the always-in-the-splits goddess of being played with too much (a type of war), leading her to an understanding and wisdom beyond other Barbies. These goddesses can only partially answer questions presented and help the questioners along their journeys with some maps and a small amount of protection along the way. The journey is essential to being human and can’t be missed.
How do these two wandering and wondering heroes show what it means to be human? Perhaps in their wandering and wondering. They are always searching for their people and their home. Odysseus can't be fully Odysseus on Calypso's island. He is a shell of a man, passive and trapped. A man who can't be happy on an island with a goddess is akin to a stereotypical Barbie with existential angst surrounded by all the ideals of feminism. Odysseus won a war, and Barbie cured gender inequality toward women in the utopian Barbieland, yet both are unfulfilled. They aren't settled, even in a dream house. Home, for both our wayward heroes, is a place where one is fully human and loved. So, if The Iliad is about wrath and war taking away the spark of humanity in its fissions and fusions of power, then The Odyssey is about how finding a witness to listen and love us through our stories gives us home, humanity, and hope beyond our sufferings.
Both Odysseus and Barbie must travel to the underworld on their journeys. In Barbie's case, it is a penthouse view board room at Mattel, filled with men in suits who want to put her back in a box and take away any humanness she is experiencing. She has a moment of clarity and makes a run for it. Odysseus is in the mythical Hades. He faces his demons, regrets, mistakes, and warnings about his future. He leaves Hades will his mind set homeward armed with information from Tiresias, a blind seer. Barbie meets up with her ghost guide in Mattel. Ruth, her creator, gives her a cup of tea (much nicer than the blood offered to Hades' guests) and a way out of this fresh hell. Barbie grabs a ride with her “owner”, Gloria, who will accompany her back to Barbieland. Eventually, the Phaiakians gracefully bring Odysseus home and lay him on Ithaca's shore.
Once they finally arrive home, Barbie and Odysseus must deal with rude men/Ken taking over in their absence. Leave the dream house for a few days or twenty years; one may not like what fills the void. Squatters have wrecked the place and claimed it as their own. There are even not-so-subtle reminders of the Trojan War throughout Kendom as he is obsessed with horses, and horse imagery is the primary décor trend in the “Kendom”. It seems that men from ancient times to the modern day are constantly reminding themselves of “honor” filled victories over enemies in trophies, tales, or a substantial tacky mural of horses. There is a difference between telling one's story and lording a conquest over enemies (a lesson Achilles learns in The Iliad.) Barbie and Odysseus must use tricks and disguises to fool these gatecrashers and bad decorators. While The Odyssey does not feature a huge dance number for the suitors, the beach war of the Kens does hold a bit of what it might have been like in Ithaca for those moments of terror, without all the blood and guts. The Barbies end up ruling the kingdom again through a democratic vote back into power, and on a hopeful note that Ken will find himself apart from Barbie and realize his worth as more than just Barbie-and-Ken. The suitors are not given a second chance, and Ithaca must endure the loss of two generations of men. Barbie extends humanity towards Ken in a way reminiscent of Achilles' humane extension towards Priam in returning Hektor's body at the end of The Iliad. Barbie welcomes the outsiders (Kens and Weird Barbie). In killing both suitors and a dozen of the women servants, Odysseus still does not see how revenge creates the cycle of hatred afresh. Watch out for those ripples, Odysseus. It seems Barbie contains both Odysseus' polytropic (wandering widely) and Penelope's peripheral (circumspect, thinking all around) in ways that show even more complete human hope. Perhaps Odysseus will now rule his kingdom in partnership with circumspect Penelope, using their strengths to create a more perfect union.
Is there a happy ending after homecoming? Barbie ends by starting on another journey, a very uniquely human and feminine journey; she goes to the gynecologist. Odysseus will also be heading off with his oar (no additional commentary here) to an unknown destination. Barbie embraces being fully human, even with unanswered questions about gender, purpose, sorrow, and death. Odysseus is dealing with the ripples of his revenge, and Athene must stop the never-ending fighting this time. Both endings fully encompass humanity. There is a positive fusion of growth and change that heals and the cyclical nature of fissuring faults that remain. So, there is a hopeful and human ending. There is a beautiful reunion of Odysseus and Penelope finally holding each other and telling their stories in the bed Odysseus built for Penelope. So also does Ruth, the creator, tells Barbie her story and lovingly grasps Barbie's hands to convey to her the feelings and beauty of being human. These visuals and emotions come crashing on Barbie precisely as is described in the moment of Odysseus and Penelope's tearful touching reunion moment. This is the happiest endings we can hope for as humans, someone to fully listen to our stories. Humans need someone who will listen through the long night and let us feel what it is to connect. We need someone to hold us through our homesick journeys toward healing, even though they are filled with twists and turns.
"Do you guys ever think about dying?" asks Barbie at the beginning of her exploration of humanness. Yes, Barbie, as evidenced by The Iliad, The Odyssey, Oppenheimer, and Barbie, humans think about and tell stories about dying. We constantly explore what it means to live from one breathtaking moment to the next. The modern films contain moments where all the audience hears is human breath. At Oppenheimer’s explosive moment of the testing of the first atomic bomb, the only sound heard was breathing. As Ruth, the creator character, imparts the realness of true human womanhood, we hear Barbie take a singular breath. Ruth tells Barbie, “Humans only have one ending. Ideas life forever.” Being human means living from the most horrific moments where every breath is a struggle and beautiful moments where one catches their breath on the sheer wonder of life. These ideas of war, wrath, fission, fusion, home, hope, and humanity are still worth our breath in the living and the telling. While “the Destinies put in mortal men the heart of endurance” to keep breathing and asking questions of life's meaning amidst the ever-present reality of death and sorrow, the Destinies have not answered those questions. Whether on a hillside in Greece or a movie theatre in Florida, humans give breath, breadth, and depth to the questions in their hearts, communities, and art. Furthermore, as Homer, Christopher Nolan, and Greta Gerwig show, part of the human experience is the journey through one’s actions and agency, the experiences of holding on and letting go, wandering and wondering, destruction and construction, loss and gain, holding someone’s hands and showing them something beautiful, and in the joy of finally being held and loved through all our breathtaking stories.