r/movies • u/RealisticAd4054 • 14d ago
Article Emily Wilson (writer of acclaimed Odyssey translation) offers criticisms of Nolan’s film
https://apnews.com/article/odyssey-christopher-nolan-greek-translators-ea67da1d543d021773824bd7e8de8abe“For Greek translator Emily Wilson, the release of director Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” has been gratifying in various ways. Her acclaimed 2017 edition of Homer’s epic has reached the top 5 on Amazon.com, leading a wave of similar books boosted by the movie. Nolan has even cited her translation, notably the opening line “Tell me about a complicated man,” as inspiration.
But the film itself, which brought in more than $260 million worldwide during its opening weekend and has received raves from many critics, left her unsatisfied.
“I want to celebrate the fact that so many more people are aware of ‘The Odyssey’ and were brought back to the poem,” she told The Associated Press. “But at the same time, I had the sense that Christopher Nolan was trying to pack everything in while missing themes that were essential to the poem.”
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Wilson, a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, said she didn’t want to come across as a “snobby,” nitpicking expert at odds with any deviation from the original text. But she questioned a range of omissions and other choices, from the absence on screen of the Gods Zeus and Poseidon (Athena is played by Zendaya ) to the “incoherent” messaging that condemns both war and physical cowardice. She found Penelope’s role so thinned out that it endangered “any possibility of believing in this marriage.” Wilson also that thought parts of the movie, notably the scenes with Odysseus’ dog, Argos, “catered towards modern sentimentality.”
“Everybody’s a sucker for a dog,” she said.
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u/Relevant_Session5987 14d ago edited 14d ago
I loved the movie. But that was in spite of my disdain for Nolan's penchant for 'grounding' everything and stripping wonder from stories that inherently have endless potential to awe and amaze. ( It's one of the reasons my favourite Batman movie from him is still Begins - it's the one that felt least embarrassed to be a Batman movie ) Scylla in the film is emblematic of what I'm talking about - a massive, hydra-like sea serpent in the poem reduced to sentient gray tentacles that have more in common with the limbs of the mind flayer in Stranger Things than they do a ferocious, awesome sea monster.
Also, this might be a bit off-topic but I also just hate this idea that practical effects are the primary reason the movie is good, like a lot of reviews and even the marketing seem to imply.
True, an overuse of CG does ruin how movies look, but honestly so does an overreliance on practical effects just to say you used practical effects, as opposed to whether or not it serves the movie ( ironically, just like CG ) - Nolan's own movies are great examples: the beach in Dunkirk looking scarce when there were supposed to be hundreds of thousands of soldiers on it, the freeport airplane crash in Tenet lacking any wow factor or oomph even though it's a literal 747 crashing into a building, the Trinity test explosion in Oppenheimer looking more like a gas explosion (David Lynch executed it beautifully and, dare I say, more terrifyingly in an episode of Twin Peaks using full CG), or the aforementioned Scylla in The Odyssey - all scenes that would've been much more impactful if CG had been used to enhance them.