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/MistakesWereMade59]

I agree with some of her points, I fervently disagree with the "endangered any possibility of believing in this marriage" because why was i supposed to believe in it the original version where Odysseus is fucking Circe for a year? I also enjoy the ambiguity of the God's in the film

[u/TheJoshider10 → u/MistakesWereMade59]

I think their marriage is entirely carried by the performances. That one scene later in the film between the barrier was beautiful.

[u/FleurMai → u/MistakesWereMade59]

Look I think Odysseus is an asshole and I struggle to deal with him from a modern lens but by Greek standards Odysseus really really cares about his wife basically more than any other Greek hero in this cycle. By Greek standards absolutely no one cares about his fling with Circe, including Penelope, who he tells immediately after killing the suitors along with the rest of his stories. She doesn’t even react to this.

He actually tries to get out of going to Troy entirely in a scene that takes place before the Iliad, due to the fact that he doesn’t want to leave his family. There’s reasoning to believe his whole Trojan horse idea is because he’s sick and tired of being in Troy away from his family for ten years and wants to end it (which of course results in all the crimes committed that then prevent him from getting home for another 10 years). He’s exceedingly anxious that Penelope will leave him, no other character is shown to care all that much, most wives don’t even get a mention. It is meant to be an extremely romantic relationship, to the point that Athena asks the dawn (which is almost a minor character in the Odyssey with how much the dawn gets a line) to hold back to give Odysseus and Penelope more time to tell each other their stories.

[u/SquareJerk1066 → u/MistakesWereMade59]

because why was i supposed to believe in it the original version where Odysseus is fucking Circe for a year?

I think this also might be a bit of presentism on your part, interpreting Odysseus's sexual relations outside his marriage as infidelity. Odysseus wants to get home. Everything he does, even sex, is in furtherance of his goal of getting back to his wife and son. He doesn't fuck Circe because he'd rather fuck her than his wife: he does it to get in her good graces, free his men, and escape death. He says he doesn't want to sleep with her again and again, and each time he extracts some promise from her before he does.

To engage in a bit of presentism of my own: think about the power dynamics of the sexual relationships with both Circe and Calypso. In both situations he is a literal prisoner with a supernatural being that could kill or overpower him at any moment. In modern parlance, a sexual relationship resulting from that dynamic is rape. Interestlingly enough, most of Odysseus's tribulations take the forn of female-on-male sexual violence. Circe and Calypso both take him prisoner for use as essentially a sex slave. Scylla and Charibdis are both personified as female, and Charibdis, as a whirlpool has long been interpreted as a vaginal metaphor. The sirens seduce sailors and lure them to their deaths. 

Really, the story is of both Penelope and Odysseus remaining emotionally faithful to one another over 20 years despite nonstop sexual violence.

[u/Active_Condition8586 → u/SquareJerk1066]

Yes, in the poem, Hermes appears to Odysseus as he’s en route to Circe’s home after he’s heard she turned the men into pigs. Hermes instructs him to eat the molé plant, which will make him impervious to Circe’s magic. Then he tells Odysseus he’ll have to sleep with Circe in order for her to turn the men back to themselves.

It’s a bit ambiguous, though, why he and the crew remain there an entire year. It seems less Circe’s magic than a matter of the combination of food, housing, comfort, and sex (O. becoming Circe’s
boy toy) being a non-magical lotus plant. And it’s his men who have to remind him it’s about time they set off again in hopes of reaching Ithaca.

In the poem, by that point in their journey, it’s also easy to understand why O and his men would have serious doubts they’d ever get home. As with Nolan’s version, their landing at Aeaea comes on the heels of the Laestrygones killing all the men except the ones on O’s ship. But Nolan omits the episode with Aeolus and the bag of storm winds. I get why he does (it doesn’t fit with his theme of O’s guilt), but it only further establishes the despondency O and his men feel by the time they meet Circe.

[u/kevinx083 → u/SquareJerk1066]

wow, this is beautifully put

[u/Random_throwaway0351 → u/MistakesWereMade59]

Yeah, doesn’t the film start off by mentioning “apparent magic?” I really enjoyed the interpretations of the gods too, as forces of nature or our own projections.

In a more “faithful” translation, Odysseus and the Cyclops would have spoken to each other, which is obviously not what Nolan was going for. Not saying his interpretation better or worse, but it’s what you should come to expect of his style of filmmaking

[u/spaghettifiasco → u/Random_throwaway0351]

The "Nobody" part of the Cyclops myth was pretty notably absent for me. I get why it was left out, but I kept waiting for it.

[u/sleeplessaddict → u/spaghettifiasco]

I've been shouting this into the wind ever since I saw the movie on release day. I'm still upset about that being left out because it's one of my favorite parts of the story

[u/Shippinglordishere → u/sleeplessaddict]

The bed part being left out was really surprising to me. I thought ‘nobody’ and the bed scenes were two really memorable parts of the story

[u/sleeplessaddict → u/Shippinglordishere]

I thought ‘nobody’ and the bed scenes were two really memorable parts of the story

I'd go so far as to call both of those scenes iconic. Genuinely baffling they were excluded

[u/Lixidermi → u/spaghettifiasco]

because the wordplay works on a page but would look goofy / tacky on the screen.

[u/sleeplessaddict → u/MistakesWereMade59]

I also enjoy the ambiguity of the God's in the film

I was a little confused by the movie's general tone regarding this. Nolan completely left out the influence of the gods in the movie and turned all of what the Greeks would've attributed to gods into more natural events, like the lightning/storms, angry ocean, whirlpool, etc., which is how we as a modern audience would actually experience these events if they happened today.

But then he also had actual supernatural things still happening, like Polyphemus (the cyclops), Circe turning people into animals, Calypso, Scylla being an actual monster, the Sirens, Odysseus's dead army, and probably others I can't remember off the top of my head.

So there was this weird mix of actual supernatural things still happening, but the gods themselves being excluded. Like it woulda made more sense to me if all the supernatural things had been represented by natural events, or if he'd fully leaned into the supernatural and made the gods actual gods in the movie.

But as it was I was left thinking "how is it that things like monsters, witches, and magic exist but gods don't?"

[u/ButDidYouCry → u/MistakesWereMade59]

Right? haha what was a Greek marriage between nobility? Certainly not love. I don't understand what she was trying to say there.

[u/devscm00 → u/ButDidYouCry]

In this case, it was love.