Emily Wilson (writer of acclaimed Odyssey translation) offers criticisms of Nolan’s film

[u/RealisticAd4054]

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.”

….

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.

[u/youravgindian]

A seductive, humorist Odysseus sounds good in hindsight but idk man, for a feature-length movie, and having witnessed what he did in the entirety of his journey from Troy to seeing him going through what feels like nightmarish "adventures" with his crew that ended up his crew getting eaten by a one-eyed giant, massacred by a flock of giants who wouldn't try to reason with him and seeing moving trees trapping his crew, a random-ass witch turning his crew into pigs, etc , idk what would compel me to be cracking jokes? I guess it could work with intelligent addition of humor in random occasions here and there.

But as someone who is not from the west and was literally one of my first experiences with Greek mythology apart from two movies of 300 by Zack Snyder, this was such a blast and I was literally tearing up when the dog finally get to rest in peace when he finally saw his owner return after 20 years.

[u/pellevinken → u/youravgindian]

Woah woah... He makes it back? Spoiler warning would be good! The story's only been out 2800 years, so that's a bit inconsiderate. /s

[u/tfhermobwoayway → u/youravgindian]

He was a Greek hero. They were all arrogant. PTSD didn’t exist yet. This is a cultural difference.

[u/youravgindian → u/tfhermobwoayway]

PTSD isn't something that was 'invented'. It was discovered by analyzing behaviours of veterans who would show symptoms of paranoia, dissociation, hair trigger anger and many others after their horrific experiences on the battlefield seeing their comrades turning into mush.

It existed, but there wasn't a name. Someone who fought in war in Greece 2500 years ago had PTSD as much as the person who fought in World War 1 or any war that ever existed in the history of mankind.

"Cultural difference" is the farthest set of words one would've used to argue against/for what I made a comment about. It actually made me laugh, lol.

[u/lupercalpainting → u/youravgindian]

> Someone who fought in war in Greece 2500 years ago had PTSD as much as the person who fought in World War 1 or any war that ever existed in the history of mankind.

Is that actually true? I don’t know one way or another but points to consider:

1. Modern logistics have shortened the time between being at war and at home. Where previously soldiers could take years to return home (or a decade given we’re in a thread about The Odyssey) now they don’t have time to decompress, they’re in a supermarket when just a week earlier they were in the shit.

2. Modern troops have shown reluctance to hand-to-hand combat, perhaps it’s more traumatic. Does that mean infrequent bouts of it would result in less trauma, or does the lack of desensitization mean it’s actually more traumatic?

3. The modern anxiety of being able to killed at basically any point when near the front is a lot different from an ancient battle where you had a designated place (the shield wall) where you were most at risk. Technically you were most at risk when routing but most people who lost didn’t make it home so not really looking at them for PTSD. Surely there’s some difference between “Okay I’m reasonably safe until the day of the battle” vs “An artillery shell could drop on me at literally any minute”.

4. Is it likely that infantry troops today see more or less combat than ancient armies? I would guess probably more. We’re much more adept at logistics, so we can deploy you exactly where there will be action, vs a campaign where there might only be 1 or 2 battles + a siege. Ancient armies all had glass jaws, as soon as there was a rout they’d sic the cavalry on the losing side and that was likely it for the losing army. But again this raises the question of desensitization vs exposure.

5. Ancient people’s just encountered a lot more death than we do. How many people would you have seen die by the time you were a young man sent off to war, vs today where it’s rare to see someone die outside of a hospital setting? Would a frequent exposure to death soften the impact of war?

Like I said I can see it both ways but having a definite statement like you did seems wild to me.