How to adapt the Iliad

I’m known to be a hater. And I’m proud to be a hater. And there’s nothing I hate more than Troy. I hate Troy so much that it’s made me genuinely terrified about what Christopher Nolan is going to do to the masterpiece that is the Odyssey. I refuse to believe that he gets it.

A friend recently wrote an excellent, thought-provoking piece on what the Odyssey is really about, and why The Return, directed by Uberto Pasolini, works as an adaptation. But it reminded me of one of my most strongly-held opinions: I am the only person alive who can adapt the Iliad in a way that I would be satisfied with. Because I understand that the Iliad in a way that you do not. Nay, cannot.  

Structure

Firstly, the Iliad can’t be one film. It has to be a trilogy. It’s split as follows: Books 1-9 (vol. 1), Books 11-18 (vol. 2), and Books 19-24 (vol. 3). And it needs to start in the ninth year of the Trojan war, and it must end with the death of Hector. The audience has to be comfortable going in at the deep end.

Let’s break these down.

Film 1 opens with a shot of Chryses going to the first assembly of the Achaeans. We cover the assemblies, Achilles in his ‘bum-out’ era, and the embassy requesting that he comes back to fight. While we have action scenes, it’s primarily a character and dialogue-driven film.

Film 2 covers one day of battle: from dawn rising over the Achaean camp, down to the sundown brought on as Achilles stands, flame-capped, in the trench and shouts for his companion, Patroclus. We also include the doublet of Sarpedon & Patroclus.

So, film 3: there’s a clear 2-part structure within the film: the events leading up to the death of Hector, and then effectively a parallel case-study in grief between Achilles & Priam. And the final shot is it turns from the flames in Troy as Hector is buried to Achilles, highlighting that the cycle of violence is not over, and it must inevitably end in Achilles’ death.

This structure is to serve the primary theme of excess: volumes 2 and 3 end with the tangible consequence of Achilles’ wrath. We also reflect my favourite structural feature of the Iliad: the opening lines of the poem describe the wrath of Achilles which will send many shining souls of heroes down to Hades, and the poem ends with the funeral of Hector which finally releases his soul down to Hades, linking the opening and the ending. To make sure that structural  

Central Themes

In my vision, we explore the characters of the Iliad and their affinity for excess. To do so, we simply adapt the key characters faithfully. Achilles is a man-child yes, but he is also one of the most eloquent characters in the poem. He also has the most emotion out of anyone, and he is not afraid to express it whether it is through tears or… killing people. Hector is the kind family man who protects Andromache, but he is also the arrogant man who boasts he can defeat Achilles in combat, leading to the destruction of his city and his family unit. And Patroclus is kind and caring for Briseis, but it is his over-confidence that leads to his death in Book 16, just as it will in my adaptation. Adaptations do not work when they are ‘Achilles = angry, Hector = cool, Patroclus = inexperienced child’ (by the way, Patroclus is older than Achilles). Their excessive adherence to the traditionally masculine ideals of the poem like glory and honour will trap them on a path that leads only to destruction. It is this nuance which we must capture.

If you’ve read this far, then you’re most likely wondering about how I’ll portray the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. Now, I don’t believe it matters to the Iliad whether they are lovers. But if we want to highlight the excess of both characters in a way which resonates with the modern audience, then I would be tempted to state explicitly that they are lovers so that we can magnify the destructive path the two characters find themselves on.

Helen, Briseis, and Andromache will also play a crucial role in highlighting our theme of excess. Now, they play reduced roles in the Iliad’s plot, but we would want to draw out their personalities to highlight the damaging influence of the patriarchal structure within the poem. The temptation is to turn them into victims (looking at you David Benioff), but that doesn’t serve our theme well enough. Helen’s spirit is essential. We can’t shy away from the violence done against her, but her prescience and resistance to Paris highlights the futility of the destructive actions of the men around her, and their blindness to their own folly. Andromache’s pleas to Hector highlight the stupidity of Hector’s decision – throw away his life for fear of shame that he wouldn’t protect his family, meaning that he can no longer protect his family. Troy made a very simple and reductive mistake: the female characters serve the male characters; but here, they must serve our central themes, just as much as the male characters do. Therefore, they cannot be one-note, and we amplify their personalities to highlight the contradictions within the structures which entrap the characters.

The last question that remains for me is: how do we represent the gods? If I’m honest, I don’t actually have an answer to this one. I changed my mind three times on this as I wrote this, but I think you need them as humanoid entities. We need their conversations about fate to set that undercurrent of inevitability which pervades the poem. But we should use their conversations about fate in a way which highlights how characters like Achilles, Hector, and Patroclus acted in the way that they did because of who they are, and they never would have acted differently. Basically, we need double determination: sure, the characters are fated to die, but their fate is simultaneously driven by their own actions.  

After writing all that out, I can say *with* confidence, that I would watch this trilogy. And I am even more unconvinced by Christopher Nolan. Buddy, I love you – you know I do – but you just do not have what it takes. And as for you, David Benioff and Wolfgang Petersen, I hope that every night before bed, you pray to God for forgiveness for what you did to this wonderful poem.