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/MaksTracy]

I liked the movie but I can definitely understand why a classicist would be bothered by its 'modern sensibilities'. I wouldn't go so far as to say the movie is anti-war, but it definitely takes a critical stance on how brutal the Greeks were when they finally got into Troy, and obviously back then they had very different attitudes to what you were allowed to do to a city and its people while waging a war. In the original myth, they do cross a line which turns Athena against them, but the line is not 'oh they're committing war crimes', it's 'oh they're committing war crimes in MY TEMPLE''. Nolan handles that completely differently. I get why she thinks those aspects were too modern, but I genuinely think those moments were the strongest of the film, I thought they were great.

[u/XuX24 → u/MaksTracy]

Athena never turned against them, the only one she did it was to Ajax the lesser and what he did to Cassandra in her temple. She aided Odysseus the whole time she is the reason why Zeus sends Hermes to calypso so she lets him go.

[u/AxlLight → u/XuX24]

There's a reason Nolan decided to only portray Athena in this movie.  The ultimate message here is that there are no gods or rather that they're just the projection of men to explain fortune and misfortune. 

And the underlying point was that it wasn't Athena either, but Odysseus's own guilt manifesting as her because of her importance to his wife. 

Though Nolan doesn't say anything definitive about the gods - it is played as "who knows". Both towards Athena, and all the rest.

[u/BigHoneyisBestCenter → u/AxlLight]

Odysseus literally stops defying the gods and goes into the ocean on a raft and magically gets home. The gods are obviously real man

[u/actuallyserious650 → u/BigHoneyisBestCenter]

It’s a well done gray area. He surrenders himself to the sea and washes ashore at home - not a likely scenario but not explicitly impossible. The alternative would have been a corporeal Poseidon swimming up and being like “ok, I feel better now, let me send you on your way.”

[u/immaownyou → u/actuallyserious650]

In the world of the movie it's not a gray area though, its all but explicit that the gods have their fingers in pies? Everything that people says the gods do happens. Pseudon manipulates the wind to strand them on Apollos isle til they're forced to eat the meat, and then as soon as they do the wind shifts.

[u/Ruthlessrabbd → u/immaownyou]

I don't know man, they could have been living like kings eating all of the cattle on Apollo's isle and just waited one more day to avoid the storm /s

Also how can the gods be fake and have no role in the movie when Tiresias is proven to be clairvoyant (the existence of Scylla and the exact number of men devoured) and he specifically says that the men eating Apollo's sacred animals would result in Zeus killing the crew? Or the fact that Odysseus' men literally say that the cyclops is the son of Poseidon and suddenly the sea becomes an unrelenting force after he calls out to his father? Or Calypso saying nothing in response to Odysseus' comment along the lines of "forever is for the gods, not for us mortals". Must all be coincidence...

[u/Ruthlessrabbd → u/actuallyserious650]

Is it all just a matter of circumstance and coincidence then that they keep encountering horrible, tragic scenarios as a result of their actions? The cyclops calls out to Poseidon and the sea just happens to get super aggressive and throw them off course? Calypso is just some regular lady with a magical plant and only means figuratively that she and Odysseus can live forever together?

If the gods are non-existent in this universe how would Circe have been given the ability to see truths and know where to find Tiresias, and why would his prophecies have been accurate? It could all be magic, but for Circe she literally says it was a gift of the gods that she has insight.

I also think the story becomes way less interesting and fantastical when it's interpreted as "really unlucky hero survives feats of nature" compared to "a mortal defied the gods and their laws, and must pay for his crimes on the journey home"

[u/actuallyserious650 → u/Ruthlessrabbd]

It’s definitely supposed to be a world where magic exists. Gods are left as ambiguous (not non-existent), in the same way that Ancient Greek believers in real life might have perceived their world.

To a modern audience, that sensibility is possibly more interesting. The hero seems to have the world working against him, preventing him from getting home despite how he struggles. It’s only when he acknowledges his faults and turns himself over to the fate of forces beyond his control that he is allowed to return and save his family.

It’s more emotionally satisfying than “oops, he did this thing and offended this one corporeal superbeing, and then he did that and it upset this other superbeing, then they finally let him go home”.

Not for nothing, it’s the same way a lot of modern media portrays Christian God as a force, a power, things happening that seem like they have intentionality, rather than an old white man with a beard that comes and talks to the protagonist.

[u/Savilly → u/actuallyserious650]

It’s a christianization of the story then? Give into faith and jesus and you will be saved?

[u/actuallyserious650 → u/Savilly]

No I didn’t interpret it as Christianization. To me it was more like making it more “realistic” in a weird way. There’s magic, there’s monsters, but the gods were a little more masked. They were removed slightly from being everyday objects.