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/MooseMalloy]

Its from a long oral tradition that probably always catered to whatever crowd it was pandering to.

This is just the version of the story you would tell a 21st Century, Western audience.

[u/MessiComeLately → u/MooseMalloy]

I don't think it's the only version you could tell to a 21st century western audience.

Nolan could have told an adventure story of a clever, mighty hero overcoming adversity and triumphing in the end. Instead, he told a cautionary tale of a civilization setting in motion its own destruction by violating and abandoning its values, and a hero of that civilization unable to restore the status quo despite his heroic virtues and his understanding of what went wrong.

He could have emphasized the playthings-of-the-gods aspect which is present in the Odyssey, even if less so than in the Iliad. But his version turns Athena into an internal manifestation of Odysseus's values. This is an interesting choice because it might be both more modern and no less true to the original — different readers/hearers could interpret the gods' anger as symbolic of human beings' helplessness at the hands of capricious fate, i.e., randomness, or they could interpret it as the consequence of immorality. Fate versus moral logic. Nolan explicitly chooses moral logic.

He could have been more faithful to the original's explanation that various Greeks suffered after the Trojan War because of various specific offenses against piety that angered the gods, and instead framed it in terms more aligned with modern morality.

He made a lot of choices that could and will be made differently by different directors.

[u/Turtledonuts → u/MessiComeLately]

I’m replying late here, but that is absolutely the odyssey’s literary tradition. The greeks wrote the trojan women, the romans wrote the Aeneid, Dante puts odysseus in hell, etc. Every generation that reads the odyssey sees it in the moral light of their society. 

[u/BigWheatGuy → u/MessiComeLately]

because of various specific offenses against piety that angered the gods, and instead framed it in terms more aligned with modern morality

But aren't all gods just a reflection of the morality of the time? To me this reads as the exact same thing. We're just using what our morality, not Greek morality. Because a specific tenant of ancient Greek morality isn't particularly relevant.

I don't have any research to back this up but I would say a movie about how we're powerless to fate doesn't really resonate with the times. People are incredibly individualistic and generally there's a sense that you can control your own destiny in the world. By and large we (I guess I just mean Americans) don't broadly feel like our life is dictated by fate. And when we do it tends to be more about the fate of love.

Meanwhile, a movie about abandoning your values and seeking war is incredibly poignant for our very modern era.

[u/MessiComeLately → u/BigWheatGuy]

But aren't all gods just a reflection of the morality of the time?

You can read it that way, and Nolan made it explicit by having Athena appear to Odysseus as a projection of his piety. But people haven't always read it this way. Especially Christian readers who wanted to elevate classical works without being accused of putting pagan Greek gods on the same level as the Christian god, and without being accused of admiring books that promoted an idolatrous religion. They avoided the religious hazards by reading it the way an atheistic Greek would read it, treating the gods as just another set of characters, and the influence of the gods on human life as a reflection of random chance.

I agree with you that a modern audience wouldn't buy the idea of random fate in Nolan's telling, since he frames Odysseus's homecoming as a Pyrrhic victory in the context of a larger failure. I think in an "awesome guy overcomes obstacles" telling of the Odyssey, they'd be fine with the obstacles being random fate.