There’s a clever reason Christopher Nolan almost never shows Agamemnon’s face in The Odyssey

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is packed with huge characters, but somehow one of the most memorable barely even shows his face.

Benny Safdie’s Agamemnon spends almost the entire film hidden beneath towering black armour, giving him one of the most intimidating presences in the entire movie.

It feels like a strange choice at first. You cast Benny Safdie and then… never really let us see him? But once you know the story behind Agamemnon, Nolan’s decision starts to make a lot more sense.

Rather than making him feel like just another king, the film turns Agamemnon into something much bigger. He’s less of a person and more of a terrifying symbol of war itself.

Agamemnon was the King of Mycenae and commander of the Greek forces during the Trojan War. While he led the Greeks to victory, his legacy is anything but heroic. His life is defined by ambition, pride and one horrifying decision that would ultimately destroy his family.

To get favourable winds for the Greek fleet to sail to Troy, Agamemnon deceived his wife into sending their eldest daughter, Iphigenia, to Aulis by claiming she was going there to marry Achilles. Instead, he sacrificed her to the goddess Artemis.

It’s that moment which defines how Nolan presents him. Throughout The Odyssey, Agamemnon towers over almost everyone around him.

Instead of remembering him as just another soldier, Odysseus seems to remember him as the living embodiment of the horrors of war. Endless violence. Endless bloodshed. Endless destruction.

The only real glimpse we get of Safdie’s face comes later, when Telemachus hears the story of Agamemnon’s death. After returning home from Troy, he was murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, who finally took revenge for the sacrifice of their daughter.

Keeping Agamemnon hidden behind that towering armour makes him feel less like a man and more like a walking nightmare, and somehow gives him even more aura every time he appears on screen.

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Featured image credit: Universal