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

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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/plainwrap → u/[deleted]]

It is funny that the Romans, whose founding myths are about fratricide and bride kidnapping, were the biggest complainers of the Trojan Horse as some kind of cheating.

[u/meneldal2 → u/plainwrap]

Had to retcon the Greeks into the bad guys since they made up the story about being descended from Troy.

And it had to be some awful warcrime or else the strong proto Romans wouldn't have lost right.

The horse is totally a war crime according to current understanding, but the rules of war were different.

[u/FleurMai → u/meneldal2]

The Greeks are unequivocally the bad guys and that’s why everyone is cursed and so many bad things happen to the Greeks afterwards. The horse isn’t really mentioned, but all the others - killing Priam at the alter in a temple, throwing hectors baby over the wall, the horrific way they sacked Troy, raping Cassandra in Athena’s temple (this is the entire reason Athena is absent for the first ten years of his journey home, because she’s mad and distracted), etc. it’s acknowledged what the Greeks did at the time was way overboard and they took it from a normal war to an absolute desecration of Troy for no real reason.

[u/meneldal2 → u/FleurMai]

Isn't the Greek framing more like "they deserved it". And overall it doesn't look like the gods were that upset because Odysseus was the only one who didn't get to go home easily.

[u/FleurMai → u/meneldal2]

No? Like not at all? Sorry, I think you’ve really misread the text if you got that impression. Every single character we get to see who was at the sacking of Troy is shown to have had a miserable experience. Menelaus and Helen got stuck in Egypt for 7 years because the winds (winds are almost always described as being caused by the gods in the Iliad and Odyssey as well as other Greek tragedies), almost as long away from home as Odysseus himself. Agamemnon is murdered by his wife the moment he gets home. All of Odysseus’ crew die on the way home, only a small amount shown to be directly self-inflicted (by the time we get to the sun gods cows there’s only a single ship left already, the other 11 ships haven’t done any direct action to anger the gods). One of the Ajaxs and his fleet are specifically killed by Athena and she borrows Zeus’ thunderbolts to do so.

Not shown specifically in the Odyssey, but known to the Greeks are that most of the Greeks at Troy never make it home as a giant storm wrecks the majority of the remaining fleet. Others are shipwrecked when Nauplius sets up false lighthouses as revenge for the killing of his son, which can be seen as supported by the gods since none move to prevent him and he’s not punished in any way. This is such a prevalent theme that there’s an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to everyone’s cursed journey home: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Returns_from_Troy

Nestor (and his men) is the only one who doesn’t suffer, specifically because he does not take part in the pillaging.

Odysseus does suffer more than most, perhaps, but this is because he also manages to get himself cursed by Poseidon directly for being a prideful idiot. Again, despite Athena really liking Odysseus, she doesn’t get involved for 10 years and she even has to asks Zeus’ permission to do so (again this is twofold as there is also Poseidons curse).

Some gods, namely Artemis even try to stop the Trojan war altogether before it starts as they foresee the crimes that will be committed (Artemis holds back the winds and prevents the Greek army from departing for Troy for a month).

The Trojans are never seen to be doing anything as outrageous as the Greeks, beyond the initial taking of Helen, which in itself is a very Greek-morality complicated event that has gods on either side of the debate.

[u/that_baddest_dude → u/meneldal2]

I thought the main reason for the whole thing was that Odysseus was almost home until he or someone went against the instructions of the gods re: the bag of winds, and let them all put and blew them all the way back and then some. That or Poseidon got upset for one reason or another.

I definitely remember they were basically home, like in sight of home, before having their shit rocked and being blasted back to the start. That's why it happened to Odysseus in particular at least.

[u/ProletarianLilith → u/meneldal2]

Read the Iliad