Spoiler warning for Magic Mike XXL (2015) and Homer’s Odyssey. Please proceed accordingly!
It took me two viewings to realize that Magic Mike XXL (2015) is the best reinterpretation of Homer’s Odyssey currently in existence. After some deep thinking and additional rewatches, I feel prepared to explain why. Magic Mike XXL excels in aligning itself with the Odyssey, not just in terms of its storytelling structure but in its themes and ambitions. It then builds on those seminal themes, delivering newer, more radical interpretations of the nature of masculinity, femininity, and the power of journeys to reveal, and does so in a joyful and uplifting way.
Here, I’ll explore the power of Magic Mike XXL’s approach to masculinity and male friendships, and femininity and power, and how that approach flips some of the more negative aspects of the Odyssey on its head. But first, we must begin with the nuts-and-bolts aspects of storytelling to explore why it’s both possible and natural to find a connection between these works!
A Return to a More Ancient Form of Storytelling
Its overall structural similarities with the Odyssey are actually why Magic Mike XXL may seem somewhat bemusing to modern viewers. At the most superficial level, it’s just a road trip movie featuring a cast of male strippers traveling from Tampa Bay, Florida, to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in pursuit of glory at a stripping convention. That’s it! Things do happen in this movie, but they do so in a series of seemingly unconnected encounters that follow a recognizable pattern: Mike and his friends arrive at a new location on their way to Myrtle Beach, interact with the people at that location, and move on. Sometimes they gain something material from the encounter, like a new car or extra help on their journey, but sometimes there’s no clear benefit to be seen. In the context of most of popular culture, which is largely dominated by the long shadow of Joseph Campbell, Mike and his friends’ journey is baffling. We expect them to grow and change radically over the course of the narrative, to hit major setbacks and experience moments of intense despair that they then overcome, finishing the movie as fully transformed, ‘better’ versions of themselves. Instead, they stop at a drag bar in northern Florida, or dance in a gas station, or solve their setbacks using (gasp) teamwork.
Magic Mike XXL is about a literal journey from place to place, but many, many people, critics and casual viewers alike, have categorized the movie as a fluffy, surficial film purely on the basis that the characters in it don’t have clearly perceivable inner journeys. I disagree with this interpretation, even though it often comes from a fun, joking place — people want to celebrate Magic Mike XXL for being harmless fun, with a story that’s just window dressing that exists to provide excuses for men to take their shirts off and dance. But the text and subtext of the movie make clear that it’s actually much deeper than this popular reading lets on. Magic Mike XXL is an incredibly fun and joyful movie, no doubt about it, but it does have a clear point of view and a message it wants to send. It’s simply using a storytelling format that differs from the norm. That is, it’s taking the route of the Odyssey.
As an ancient, epic poem, the Odyssey possesses many of the standard characteristics associated with an older form of storytelling. The clearest and most obvious of these is the “random encounter” format: that is, the series of vignettes in which the story is told that frames how Odysseus and his crew interact with the world around them. They literally sail from island to island, whose inhabitants, once left behind, are never seen again in the narrative. Magic Mike XXL closely mirrors this structure, though it retains several minor characters whose recurring appearances serve as a bridge between a fully ‘random encounter’-type storyline and a traditional three-act narrative arc. These older kinds of narrative structures are rarely seen in movies, and are instead largely confined to longer-form storytelling such as roleplaying games and videogames. The extended time that can be invested in roleplaying or videogames does tend to suit stories like this better! It’s difficult to successfully execute in the ~2-hour timeframe of a mainstream movie, which is one of several reasons why it’s rarely seen — Oh Brother, Where Are Thou? was the last major movie to take a whack at it back in 2000.
The storytelling structure used in the Odyssey and Magic Mike XXL has an interesting corollary, one that I find more interesting than the structure itself. In a story where the outside world is packed with a rapidly changing cast of characters and locations, the heroes themselves are largely static and reactive. There is no need for Odysseus to become a better version of himself within the narrative; instead, the function of the story is to give Odysseus, a talented man who is secure in his abilities, chances to use those abilities in transformative ways. Similarly, the narrative explicitly states that Mike does not and should not change; the narrative of Magic Mike XXL exists to reinforce and popularize his worldview so that it can transform others. In Magic Mike XXL, the only real change that Mike and his friends undergo is that they gradually reveal more and more of themselves to each other. Magic Mike XXL rewards its characters for being who they are, right from the start, and that’s not something most stories tend to do. This approach is what gives the movie its singular joy; it also gives it a unique vantage point to explore conflicts that are more internal than external within the narrative, including the nature of male friendships and the potential for how men can relate to each other.
That’s right. This is the 21st century’s Odyssey.
The Odyssey and the Inversion of Male Friendship Tropes
Masculinity in all its forms is at the center of both Magic Mike XXL and the Odyssey, particularly in how men relate to each other and do (or do not) work together. Each contends with what it means to be a good man, and how to model that good behavior for others. Odysseus and Mike are each presented as good, albeit flawed, men; Odysseus’s infamous hubris leads him to be excessively impulsive, while Mike struggles to fully reject traditional societal expectations of masculinity to embody his whole self. Still, they serve as the primary examples of masculinity for the audience, whose good nature is then contrasted both with overtly negative examples (Agamemnon and Dallas, leaders of previous narratives whose hubris and toxicity became their downfall), as well as the struggles of the men surrounding them, who bounce between negative and positive masculinity with varying degrees of success. Here is where the two stories diverge, however: in the Odyssey, Odysseus is left as the sole good man standing at the end of the narrative, his exploits impossible for any other man. Magic Mike XXL, in contrast, offers a much bolder thesis: with communication and support, a group of men can redefine masculinity together, rather than apart, and end up stronger for it.
The evolution in the interpretation of what a “good man,” and thus what a “good hero” is from the Odyssey to Magic Mike XXL largely reflects the progression of popular thought on both topics. Odysseus’s relationship with his crew is largely absent from the narrative, because the function of the narrative is to focus on Odysseus as a singular, fantastical hero. His crew exist largely to provide an en masse contrast to their leader’s incessant cleverness, and remind us how far removed he is from ordinary men. They rarely make decisions that contradict Odysseus’s wishes, and when they do, the consequences are almost always dire; crewmembers die, are turned into pigs, and ultimately cause their ship’s destruction. The Odyssey’s underlying implication is that these are lesser men, in dire need of a leader who can temper their baser impulses of greed, lust, and hunger, lest they be led to various forms of ruin. They do not learn from their mistakes, and they are punished for it. This, to me, is the most disappointing subtext of the Odyssey — that Odysseus’s men are largely a hindrance to him, rather than a help. But portrayals like these are all over popular culture, even today, and the consequences are reflected in issues that many men have in trying to build interpersonal relationships — worrying that they’re burdening each other, just by trying to connect.
Fortunately, Magic Mike XXL turns this cultural expectation on its head. The men of Magic Mike XXL are a team of flawed individuals working together to improve themselves, and each other. If they run into interpersonal conflict, they quickly work to fix it. When tension between Mike (Channing Tatum) and Ken (Matt Bomer) arises due to their internalized envy, it initially culminates in a physical altercation — the normalized, acceptable manner for men to express disagreements. But violence pointedly fails to solve their problem, leaving both of them just as frustrated as when they started. Ultimately, Ken notes, “there are better ways to handle that shit,” and the two of them have a calm, supportive conversation, admitting their admiration for each other, acknowledging the problems that led to their frustration (jealousy and poor communication), and reaffirming their mutual support. The movie explicitly acknowledges that violence is a problem rather than a solution in men’s relationships with each other, and then goes a step further to model clear and thoughtful communication as a better alternative. Mike and Ken’s relationship isn’t one-sided, either; where Odysseus is trapped in a model of constantly policing his crew from his position as “hero,” Mike and Ken have clear and concrete things to learn from each other, and they’re willing to put in the work to do so.
Mike and Ken’s fight is just one microcosm of the way Magic Mike XXL approaches conflict as a whole, which strongly differs from most popular fiction. This difference is primarily a result of the types of conflicts the movie is interested in. Unlike Odysseus, who faces the ire of vindictive gods that place quite literal obstacles in his way, Mike and his friends contend with problems that are largely internal. Mike and Ken struggle to understand each other’s way of communicating; Richie (Joe Manganiello) struggles with confidence and “putting himself out there”; the whole crew struggles to determine how to put their best, most authentic selves into their art. But Magic Mike XXL rejects the “hero mode” of problem-solving — i.e., the way Odysseus takes down the Cyclops entirely by himself — in favor of showing how each of these problems can be solved relatively efficiently through supportive, thoughtful communication. The solution to Richie’s self-confidence problem is a solo striptease in a gas station, yes; but it works for him because all of his friends are right outside, literally cheering him on. The group successfully pulls together each of their numbers at the stripper convention by working as a team, encouraging each other to abandon ideas that don’t suit them, and literally building costumes and sets together.
In Magic Mike XXL, other men are not a burden; they are the foundation on which success is built. For me, their journey is a much more powerful Odyssey than the original as a result. Where Odysseus arrives to Ithaca battered, bruised, and alone, derailed by the failures of his own men, the entire crew of Magic Mike XXL arrives at Myrtle Beach happy, healthy, and ready to celebrate each other’s success.
Ken and Mike reestablishing their friendship through heartfelt conversation.
The Odyssey and Female Wisdom, Desire, and Sensuality
While Magic Mike XXL can and should be celebrated for its radical take on masculinity, it should also be celebrated for its similarly profound approach femininity and the role of women in traditionally male-centric narratives. One of the things I love most about Magic Mike XXL is its extensive female cast, and their relatively unusual relationship with the protagonists. The women of Magic Mike are powerful, and not in the stereotypical ‘strong female character’ sense; they quite literally possess material and emotional power that they then lend to the protagonists, once properly petitioned. And there’s not just one beautiful, powerful woman, but three: Rome (Jada Pinkett Smith), Nancy (Andie MacDowell), and Paris (Elizabeth Banks) are all successful older women who extend Mike and his team access to opportunities, safe haven, and luxuries. These women are never love interests! Instead they are mentor figures and confidants, managers and friends, women with lives and ambitions that go beyond any of the men in Magic Mike XXL, whose stories will clearly continue on outside the immediate frame of the narrative.
It’s unusual to see older women positioned as powerful in narrative fiction. It’s even more unusual to see older women who are indeed powerful also positioned as good and justified in wielding their power. The presence and characterization of women is yet another area where Magic Mike XXL takes the narrative groundwork of the Odyssey and, in its reinterpretation, launches it into the stratosphere. The Odyssey is famous for the numerous women Odysseus meets on his travels, including the witch Circe, the nymph Calypso, and the princess Nausicaa, who are important parts of his story. That said, the characterization of these women leaves much to be desired; women in the Odyssey are generally either innocent and subservient (Nausicaa, Odysseus’s wife Penelope), or powerful and deranged (Circe, Calypso). In particular, the powerful women of the Odyssey are framed as dangerous and unreliable, primarily using their considerable strength to trap men and strip them of their agency. Circe literally transforms Odysseus’s men into swine, while Calypso forces Odysseus to remain on her island against his will for years. While more modern interpretations of the Odyssey have tried to cast these women in a more favorable light (e.g., Circe by Madeline Miller), the text as it stands is quite explicit: powerful women are bad news.
Thankfully, Magic Mike XXL offers a cleansing alternative. It takes pains not to just present powerful women in their own right, but to encourage women writ large to view themselves as powerful. Rome, the beautiful owner of a similarly beautiful club in Atlanta, is a clear analogue to Circe: she carries herself with an air of absolute majesty, supervises over a club designed to evoke opulence and mystery, and is undeniably in command of all the men in her employ. However, in Rome’s club all transformations are both positive and internal. Her goal is to help women realize they are worthy of being worshipped, and to repeat to them that they were already worthy long before they walked through her doors. As she reminds the women she meets early and often, “every last one of you here is a queen, and don’t you forget it.” That perspective is reflected in Magic Mike XXL’s interpretation of sex work writ large — that entertainers like Mike and his friends can make women feel powerful and venerated and give them joy, that public acknowledgement of sexuality can be joyful and healing. Where Circe isolated herself on Aeaea, Rome built a haven designed to elevate all women to her level, and recruited men willing and excited to follow her lead. Power in the hands of the powerful women in Magic Mike XXL is not used to entrap, but to elevate.
Together, the quietly radical interpretations of masculinity and femininity in Magic Mike XXL combine to produce kind and supportive relationship dynamics, a feat best exemplified by the interactions between Mike and Zoe (Amber Heard), a wandering bisexual photographer whose lingering relationship trauma leaves her hesitant to embrace the positive, affirmative intimacy he has to offer. In her many encounters with Mike, she becomes a friend that he worries about and wants to support, as they mutually agree that she does not want to be a love interest of any kind. When Zoe admits to Mike that intimacy is something that leaves her feeling exposed rather than safe after her recent experiences, he, after happily declaring that his God is a woman (a moment I will never forget), responds by affirming her perspective, offering to share with her how therapeutic sexuality can be when given the right environment, and following up by asking what help she needs. Mike and his friends enthusiastically support and uplift each other as well as the women they encounter, and that kindness proves to be universally healing. Conversely, women are encouraged not just to acknowledge their own desire, but to find joy in it, to be liberated by it when they’re ready to do so.
What elevates Magic Mike XXL over the Odyssey in its treatment of the women its hero encounters in his journey is not just its presentation of them as people worthy of respect, instead of hysterical goddesses or doormats — that’s a pretty low bar to clear — but also that their relationship with Mike and his friends is one of give and take. Where Odysseus spends most of his time outthinking or otherwise impressing the women he encounters to establish his dominance over them, Mike and his friends learn from the women in their lives, accept their help on their journey, and thank them for it.
Mike and Rome having a talk as he asks her for help on the way to Myrtle Beach.
The Odyssey and the Journey is the Destination
And at last, o muse, we come to the end of this tale of two epic narratives, and I think I’ve made my case.
The Odyssey and Magic Mike XXL share many similarities — some of these are derived from the fact that they’re two stories both centered around what is fundamentally a “road trip;” that said, I personally feel they also possess a much deeper bond due to the heavy overlap in their shared themes. Much like Odysseus, the men of Magic Mike XXL meet their obstacles head-on with quips to spare, and they also lose a vehicle but gain the help of powerful women to send them on their way. The differences between the Odyssey and Magic Mike can largely be boiled down to alternative interpretations of the same themes: the Odyssey has a “singular great man” view of heroism and masculinity while Magic Mike XXL’s heroism is collaborative by default. And that singular, fundamental difference in worldview turns the whole story on its head.
I love the Odyssey the way people tend to love things that were formative for them — irrationally and for way longer than I probably should. But I like to acknowledge the flaws in the things I love as much as the successes, and that’s what thrilled me when I watched Magic Mike XXL for the first time — seeing what was (to me) such a radical reinterpretation done with so much joy. These two works might not seem as similar for anyone else as they are for me, and that’s okay! If you still don’t see it after reading this piece, I hope you enjoyed watching me draw some parallels anyway.
Regardless of its potential role as a modern interpretation of an ancient masterwork, Magic Mike XXL builds a world where women are powerful and celebrated for it, and men are empathic and communicative and rewarded for it. That, in and of itself, is worth commemorating. As Mike tells Richie when he’s worried about a new performance: “It’s not about being a dancer! Just imagine what you would do to make someone else happy.” The authentic art made by the protagonists of Magic Mike XXL comes from connecting with themselves and their own desires, and trusting that the truth in that will connect with their audience. It’s no coincidence that the approach of the characters reflects the approach of the movie as a whole — committing to an optimistic story 100%, and watching the results that follow.
Magic Mike XXL is open and genuine with its themes, and those themes are complex and often radical. It’s time to better-appreciate them.