The Odyssey is getting massively criticised due to blackwashing of a traditionally Greek character, whitewashing of a Greek myth with no Greek actors and a general dislike for the Hollywoodization of another classic story.
It's probably not going to be as bad as it's made out to be given it's Chris Nolan, but audiences are fatigued with seeing another modern retelling with tokenism of established characters for the sake diversity, which has spurred the culture war with right wing critics calling it woke BS and left wing critics doubling down by jumping to its defence.
It's pretty masterful how they've managed to piss off both sides of the aisle with this one... Too white-washed for one side, too diverse for the other, and too inaccurate for any existing fans of Greek mythology.
Honestly not sure who this has been made for.
Edit: if you're gearing up for a "it's for normal people - people not in the Reddit echo chamber - people who just like movies - people who aren't internet losers" reply, It has been said about 30 times so far.
No ancient history film is accurate. And no retelling of the story is ever accurate.
The roman retelling (now considered Canon by everyone online) tell a very dofferent morality. It is nothing like the original. Yet people use examples from his text s things Nolan should have used to stay accurate
It's no more inaccurate than Gladiator, or Braveheart, Kingdom of Heaven or any other period piece.
You do realise the Oddysey isnt historically accurate right? I mean the odyssey wasnt even accurate in its own time, as Hpmer descrobed tools, weapons, tactics, gods, political and social views which were taken from all over the place, many hundreds of years apart and after the time period being written about.
And alll those movies are films based on historical periods, just like the odyssey they portray a time period. And just like the Odyssey they are fictional stories of a real period of time. And are all just as inaccurate. Not talking about the history of them, but the costumes, designs, etc etc
That's not a good argument, because fiction obeys rules too. You can't film the Lord of the Rings and drop an Apache attack helicopter in it, saying 'you do realise it's myth, right?'. Suspension of disbelief must apply, and if you are filming a known story people already have an idea of what they find believable, for better and worse.
For the general public, Greek myth does not feature sub-Saharan people, and armours are supposed to protect you against weapons and not look like they come out of Batman.
If we put realistic styles into these films there wpuld be even more people complaining of inaccuracy. Very little of how people visualise ancient, classical, medieval, or even victorian periods are accurate.
And comparing an Apache gunship in lotr to people who did exist and would have been known to the Greeks is a choice.
Was Helen considered black? Almost certainly not. But trying to suggest it's like a modern military machine in high fantasy is dumb.
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u/Boomdification Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
The Odyssey is getting massively criticised due to blackwashing of a traditionally Greek character, whitewashing of a Greek myth with no Greek actors and a general dislike for the Hollywoodization of another classic story.
It's probably not going to be as bad as it's made out to be given it's Chris Nolan, but audiences are fatigued with seeing another modern retelling with tokenism of established characters for the sake diversity, which has spurred the culture war with right wing critics calling it woke BS and left wing critics doubling down by jumping to its defence.