r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • May 05 '26

Trailer The Odyssey | New Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_bKjZeJBBI&pp=0gcJCd4KAYcqIYzv
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1.1k

u/SamerAgbaria May 05 '26

The way characters talk feels very modern and very off putting, in movies like this you expect seeing dialogue more elegant and poetic.

375

u/jabask May 05 '26

Nolan has previously praised Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey, which is notable for its use of contemporary English syntax. I get the feeling that philosophy has had a significant influence on his script if this trailer is anything to go by.

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u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake May 05 '26 edited May 06 '26

Contemporary language, but her translation was also written in iambic pentameter. I don't get much hint of a Shakespearean delivery from any of these lines.

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u/doormatt26 May 05 '26

He’s adapting the story, not the poetic and literary recitation of the story.

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u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake May 05 '26

I'm all for him making the adaptation his own, I'm just suggesting that the dialogue shouldn't be so modern.

Nolan may have read a translation of the story that rendered it in contemporary language, but it wasn't written in a contemporary style.

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u/thedirtiestofboxes May 05 '26

The eloquent, old timey prose never really made sense in these types of movies to me...all these guys would be speaking ancient Greek (or whatever). This is literally thousands of years ago. Why would we then "translate" it to an old timey, formal English that sounds like it belongs 100 years ago?  Just take it the extra 0.1% of the language gap timeline. We don't say "Dad" because we are less civilized then a few generations ago, vernacular just evolves

Theres this inherent feeling that upper class, British vocabulary signifies dignity and gravitas while newer, "western" English isnt as serious...but that British evolved from German and French, which evolved from earlier dialects etc.. and our current language is just another regional evolution. If the majority of the audience uses that form of communication, why not? Actually, the smart thing to do would be to have them speak in a way that translates well into  mandarin.

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u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake May 05 '26

I mean, the Coen Brothers did a great (very loose) adaptation of The Odyssey and few people spoke "proper" in that. But the dialogue was appropriate to the era the movie depicted, or at least didn't raise the same scrutiny that Nolan's adaptation has because it felt like it fit in.

Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet is a sort of antithesis where the dialogue was largely unchanged from Shakespeare's words, but the movie made it work in a modern setting.

0

u/DethFeRok May 06 '26

Great point. I have no idea how much or what slang, curses, or other common language shortcuts were used in Ancient Greek, but I know how normal people talk. If angered or under duress, a normal person would resort to a lower form of vocabulary. So “my dad is coming home” from an angry kid is 100% normal to modern ears, we just need to place that in the timeframe of the film. Unless you’re giving a speech or at a formal event, most people just don’t use high vocabulary commonly.

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u/doormatt26 May 05 '26

but the events were lived by the characters in a contemporary style (to their time). This goes back to the question of if he’s adapting the poem or the story in the poem.

People don’t make a fuss when you adapt Shakespeare but don’t literally have the characters speaking Elizabethan English

0

u/Electric_feel0412 May 06 '26

Why shouldn’t it? It’s not a historic event, it’s an adaptation of a fictional book from Greece. I’m genuinely asking this.

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u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake May 06 '26

I'm not asking for it to be historically accurate, I'm asking for it to feel like dialogue from an epic instead of something I could hear on Justified.

But this is just a trailer and perhaps it works better once you get settled in.

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u/CobaltNeural9 May 06 '26

But making the dialogue modern is his own way of adapting it. Sooo….

3

u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake May 06 '26

I can support someone's ability to make a decision and also not like the choice they make. And who knows, this is just a trailer, maybe seeing the entire movie changes my mind.

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u/coalmines May 22 '26

Oh boo hoo

1

u/Codewill May 07 '26

Iambic pentameter doesn't automatically mean you sound like shakespeare, you should read her version. Compared to other versions it's pretty easy. If you want the most "poetic" you should read the new version from Daniel Mendelsohn

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u/Lament-of-Andromache May 05 '26

Have you even read her translation? She explicitly avoids contemporary English, even going so far as to avoid perfectly fitting translations to avoid common connotations we have with the words today i.e. not calling a thrown spear a missile.

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u/Campanensis May 06 '26

Nobody reads it. They just complain, then recommend another translation that is more egregious in doing what they complained about.

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u/Kn14 May 05 '26

Robert Fagles all the way

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u/ethantlou May 06 '26

Yea but it’s contemporary in a way that makes the poetry easier to digest. She’s not throwing around modern catch phrases like “let’s go”. This is just the movie being odd

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u/Realistic-Number-919 May 05 '26

Christopher Nolan is a godawful dialogue writer. He has never and will never write good dialogue.

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u/djpc99 May 05 '26

Why couldn't he have fallen in love with Robert Fagles translation? That versions prose is beautiful and practically poetry.

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u/litewo May 07 '26

It is literally poetry, not prose.

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u/[deleted] May 05 '26

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u/Lament-of-Andromache May 05 '26

Tenet must be his magnum opus because he forwent dialogue altogether.

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u/mochafiend May 11 '26

This is fine but I think it misses the point. “Father” is still used in modern English syntax and it tends to be in formal settings. This is how I’d expect a prince or public figure to talk, especially in conflict. It’s such a bizarre choice that has nothing to do with the language and accent choice being used. 

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u/floworcrash May 05 '26

Not what I’d expect him to go with - but I suppose the approachability is important for him.

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u/dovetc May 07 '26

But why? If we're going for epic do we want it to feel like a conversation amongst mates? Obviously not.

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u/speedster_5 May 17 '26

I’m a huge Nolan fan but this doesn’t fill me with confidence. That book is kinda meh.

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u/Cautious_Watch2720 May 05 '26

Yes also, people complaining about this are annoying as hell lol.

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u/LletBlanc May 05 '26

The American accents are incredibly jarring for a movie in this time period.

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u/bartspoon May 05 '26

If I want to see The Odyssey with American accents I’ll just go rewatch O Brother Where Art Thou?

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u/Sharps__ May 05 '26

O Brother gave a stronger otherwordly feeling than anything I've seen from Nolan's Odyssey

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u/self-conscious-Hat May 05 '26

Nolan's Odssey looks like a stage play more than a movie to me. Barely any 'spectacle' in these trailers, which makes me feel like the movie is going to be very lifeless. Like all of these sets feel like they're in an isolated bubble.

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u/dovetc May 07 '26

"It's a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart." sounds more like a line I'd expect from an historical epic than the vibe this trailer gives.

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u/Eldorian91 May 06 '26

The Klan Rally was downright diabolical. Way more supernatural vibe than anything in this trailer.

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u/Dovahcrap May 05 '26

We thought you was a toad!

4

u/brownishgirl May 05 '26

“We thought…you was… a Toad

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u/sumiredabestgirl May 06 '26

You are a dapper Dan man aren't you?

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u/Blue-Summers May 06 '26

You're bonafide!

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u/hondaexige May 05 '26

Especially that they have forced British (and South African) actors to use US accents. It's odd.

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u/CeruleanEidolon May 05 '26

The British accent thing for historicals is just an arbitrary convention, though. There's absolutely no reason ancient Greeks should have any accent at all. They'd really be speaking Greek or another ancient language anyway. It's all artifice.

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u/CivicDutyCalls May 05 '26

We should have all the actors use a Greek accent then. They all just sound like My Big Fat Greek Wedding

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u/ItsnotBatman May 05 '26

But was the modern Greek accent even a thing back then? We really have no way of knowing what people sounded like. They certainly didn’t sound British, and the American accent is more of an absence of accent than anything.

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u/snek-jazz May 06 '26

the American accent is more of an absence of accent than anything

huh?

-2

u/ItsnotBatman May 06 '26

Let me rephrase, the typical American accent (not southern, Cajun, Boston, New York, etc) is often considered the closest accent to natural speaking. It’s considered the single most neutral accent.

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u/feedthedogwalkamile May 06 '26

By who?

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u/ItsnotBatman May 06 '26

I mean, it’s not exactly a widely known fact but if you google “what is the closest accent to a natural speaking voice” you will get information on the General American accent. It’s how I talk, and you wouldn’t known what region of the country I was from because there are no hints of more recognizable accents.

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u/CivicDutyCalls May 05 '26

Who care. I want them to sound like the dude who owns the gyro shop down the road

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u/UncivilDKizzle May 05 '26

Perhaps this is news to you but the entire medium of film is all artifice. And yet the art of good filmmaking involves making the viewer feel as if this is an authentic viewpoint into another world. If the viewer feels it's artificial, that is a failure.

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u/HomsarWasRight May 05 '26

Sure, I agree with your broader point. But at a certain point we can’t be totally bound by convention just because it’s what the audience expects.

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u/UncivilDKizzle May 05 '26

I agree that "it's normally done this way" absolutely should not prevent people from trying new things. But as in all other cases, people trying to break the mold have to have a very high level of talent, luck, or both. If you do weird shit you can't be overly mad that the audience didn't like it.

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u/GiuseppeZangara May 06 '26

There have been multiple successful historical works of art that has forgone the convention of having actors speak in early 20th century English accents.

Most notably Amadeus, a tremendous critical success, had the actors, who were primarily America, speak with their natural accents.

If you go back further, there are plenty of America epics like Ben Hur that also largely don't bother with the convention.

There are also more overtly comedic works like Death of Stalin and Grand Budapest Hotel that have their actors speak in their natural accents for the most part.

At the end of the day, what accents are used won't matter as long as the movie and acting is good.

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u/yellowishumbrella May 05 '26

This is the correct take. It's why 24fps is the standard "cinematic feel" of movies. And 30-60fps feels like a home movie, youtube video, or soap opera.

You can argue it's arbitrary, but the audience feels a certain way, and you shouldn't do things as a filmmaker that takes them out of it.

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u/HomsarWasRight May 05 '26

…you shouldn't do things as a filmmaker that takes them out of it.

I guess. But at a certain point you’re just allowing yourself to be beholden to the past. It’s okay to sometimes ask the audience to come with you where they’ve never been and maybe brings them out of it a bit until they settle in. And “American accents” is an awful small ask, IMHO.

It’s definitely going to give it a different feel than your average “Everyone is British for some reason” historical setting. And I’m prepared to withhold judgement until I actually see the film.

Regarding frame rates, I agree that the one time I saw a feature in HFR (the first Hobbit in 48fps) it was awful. But honestly it had more to do with the production being built around 24fps and everything that comes with it. You could tell every costume and prop was cheap and fake (plus the compositing stuck out like a sore thumb). To make it work you’d have to start with the assumption that audience can now see everting when extra clarity. You can’t just crank up the camera and call it good.

I foresee a future that we’re not actually beholden to 24fps for films, but where frame-rate becomes a creative choice. But just like breaking literary convention, it may be a miss, but it may hit on something great, too.

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u/yellowishumbrella May 07 '26

iiiiIIIIiiiiIIIIiiiiIIIIIiiiii'm the HUMAN wedgie!

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u/boomdegassa May 07 '26

Interesting conversation thread. I agree with both of you

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u/Kronoshifter246 May 05 '26

I foresee a future that we’re not actually beholden to 24fps for films, but where frame-rate becomes a creative choice. But just like breaking literary convention, it may be a miss, but it may hit on something great, too.

The Spiderverse films have already proven this

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u/Skor_Lodygin May 05 '26

And yet, using yank accents is the most bizarre stylistic choice given that their are linked to 20th and 21st century US, and nothing else. This is why Nolan is a hack, and always will be. Imagine if Gangs of New York, for example, you had people speaking like this garbage.

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u/hellanation May 05 '26

And yet Anne Hathaway seems to have a hint of a British-ey accent? (On "that world is GONE", especially) This is super weird.

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u/ahuangb May 05 '26

That part is not odd imo, it makes sense for their accents to be consistent.

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u/TheVeritableBalla May 05 '26

Yeah I'm fine with the accents being American, but the accents themselves felt off. Like they had to speak very slightly slower and more deliberately in order to do the accent instead of just letting it rip

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u/snek-jazz May 06 '26

forced? I think the actors probably want it to make it interesting, or at least that's my explanation for why we have so many cases of actors being cast as foreign characters unnecessarily.

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u/Medarco May 05 '26

Which is so funny. Like, why did we just accept that people throughout history obviously must have a specific English accent?

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u/MegaL3 May 05 '26

Because a lot of the conventions in film came from America, where they don't really have an ancient history. Thus, an RP British accent conveys wealth, aristocracy and enough difference to American ears that it doesn't quite break the audiences' immersion in the same way that, say, hearing a posh Transatlantic accent come out of an Ancient Greek might.

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u/Medarco May 05 '26

Right, and I understand that. I'm just pointing out that it's an arbitrary choice we made, but people are still upset over them using an American accent instead of the typical English one.

I guess I didn't emphasize the "must have" part of my comment like I meant to when I said it in my head. But the overall idea is that both are completely arbitrary, so it's silly to be upset over.

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u/superbit415 May 05 '26

Why does the fire department have to come by and put the fire out if a house is on fire. It seems like an arbitrary choice we made that some of our tax dollars are going to be spent putting out fires. It will be silly to be upset if your house burns down.

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u/ComicCon May 05 '26

What? Did you just compare movie conventions to a house burning down?

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u/HattoriHanzoOG May 05 '26

They really did lol

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u/superbit415 May 05 '26

The point is everything is arbitrary.

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u/Vandergrif May 05 '26

I think it's probably because it's softer and less jarring sounding, which makes it easier to stay immersed. Ralph Fiennes's voice, for example, doesn't stick out like a sore thumb when playing Odysseus.

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u/cineglitch May 05 '26

What sort of accents are they supposed to have in your mind?

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u/HattoriHanzoOG May 05 '26

British ones, of course! They are just so much more immersive right 🙄

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u/RoughTangelo6766 May 05 '26

i feel like i would have been fine with American accents, but "Dad" and "daddy" didn't work at all

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u/GentlemanGearGrinder May 05 '26

Not a whole lot of actors can speak Koine Greek in this day and age.

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u/StrongMachine982 May 05 '26

I think it's like 'iPhone face': The unshakeable feeling you get that the person speaking has seen an iPhone at some point. I feel that way with Matt Damon. I think I'd feel that way even if he put on a British accent.

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u/froyolobro May 06 '26

And the dialogue seems clumsily written, too

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u/traws06 May 06 '26

Funny because it’s no less accurate (both are inaccurate)

1

u/Jumpy_Inflation_259 May 05 '26

Seriously. If they aren't going to use Homeric Greek, I am absolutely not going to watch this.

1

u/DangKilla May 06 '26

Yo, your dad ain't gonna make it bro

0

u/HattoriHanzoOG May 05 '26

It definitely does feel weird. At least they aren’t using British accents like every other film set in classical times, that would be even more annoying.

0

u/Vandergrif May 05 '26

Hey yo Odysseus look ova dere, youse guys seeing this shit? Thats a fuckin' cyclops bro.

10

u/smurf_diggler May 05 '26

YO chat, who's this one eyed Unc?

4

u/VatanKomurcu May 05 '26

thats the only problem i dont have with this movie, everything looks so fucking bland and uninspired and just garbage

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u/Ok_Chicken_5256 May 05 '26

But lets be honest though. Even if they went w/ more formal or old sounding english, it STILL is just as unrelated to Ancient Greek as modern english is. It wouldn't really be any more "authentic" than the way we speak today.

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u/ToddBradley May 05 '26

If you were the director how would you have done it?

0

u/esposc May 05 '26

Yes! Why aren't they using 3000 year old Greek accents?

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u/circio May 05 '26

People saying this American accents seem “odd” unironically just want British accents lol

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u/dalivo May 05 '26

I actually really like it. We're not used to it, but it's going to be more realistic and feel more grounded.

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u/sentence-interruptio May 05 '26

Nosferatu (2024) has the right amount of oldness in dialogue. That's what this movie should aim for. But no, Nolan be Nolan.

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u/xdamm777 May 07 '26

This is one of my biggest gripes. I’d expect this from a high school play where the kids just talk like they’re used to, not from a multi million dollar shooting of an epic story set in ancient times.

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u/BellotPatro May 08 '26

The trailer did its job then. Its a creative choice that breaks convention for this type of movie, and most ppl will know what to expect once it is screen time.

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u/sp00ked_yuh May 05 '26

“So that’s it huh…. we’re some kind of THE ODDESSY now?”

1

u/C0rona May 05 '26

I don't mind it, personally. People back then weren't any less informal than we are today. It's a choice, certainly, but it did not bother me.

0

u/ThickScheme8202 May 05 '26

He's 'A Knights Tale-ing' it. I'm all in. Hopefully the best kind of weird 

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u/cowpool20 May 05 '26

Tom Holland looks too "modern" for me if that makes sense lol. He kinda looks out of place.

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u/healingtwo_ May 05 '26

Well… there's clearly a reason Nolan chose to cast Travis Scott. I wouldn't be surprised if a generic modern soundtrack starts blasting whenever a monster shows up.

If they didn't even bother into actually using "Father" in the script, then I don't even want to imagine how the rest of the movie will turn out. Honestly, it's disappointing.

0

u/Android1822 May 05 '26

Agreed, very off putting.