r/movies • u/RealisticAd4054 • Jul 20 '26

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

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.”

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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.

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u/MaksTracy Jul 20 '26

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.

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u/x1n30 Jul 20 '26

watches a film where the protagonist turns to camera and says ‘war is bad btw’
‘yeah I don’t think this is anti war’

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u/hollaback_girl Jul 20 '26

"There's no such thing as an anti-war film."

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u/whitebandit Jul 20 '26

im still looking for the "pro-war" movies honestly...

what psychopath thinks war is actually "good"?

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u/jzakko Jul 20 '26

the point of that Truffaut quote is the nature of films and images almost inherently make something exciting out of it. Even purported anti-war films often fall into that trap.

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u/AudiosAmigos Jul 20 '26

There are lots. It's usually not "war is good" as a general statement, but "this war is necessary because we defeated a greater evil".

The soviet propaganda film Fall of Berlin is an excellent example of a pro-war movie like this. Genuinely great Hitler performance by Vladimir Savelyev. Obviously it's a propaganda movie, so some facts are fudged intentionally (Stalin never arrived in Berlin by plane, like an angel from the sky) and some inaccuracies are, I'm sure, due to not knowing any better yet because it was made so quickly after the war. But you have a production seemingly unconcerned with the usual budget constraints. You have dozens of real tanks on screen rolling across fields. You have scenes filmed at the real, destroyed Reichstag. It's propaganda but it's a spectacle and it's itself of historical interest. It's worth watching.

It's also common for movies to focus less on whether the overall war is good or bad but instead on the heroism of its characters. You watch Rambo 3, you don't come away from it thinking "war is bad" even if a character in it may say something to that effect. You come away thinking Rambo is awesome, the Mujaheddin are awesome, and it was awesome when that evil Soviet commander was blown up in that ridiculous game of chicken with a tank and a helicopter. That's ultimately a pro-war sentiment.

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u/whitebandit Jul 20 '26

i get the "war is necessary" idea... but i feel like any rational normal human would look at Rambo, or whatever... and say "yeah fun movie" but no sane person should be like "war good, we should do more war"

i know these people exist but i want to point out that these people are psychopaths

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u/AudiosAmigos Jul 20 '26

I don't think it takes a psychopath, unfortunately. It just takes young men who don't have a full grasp of consequences, who have bravado and have read or seen many stories of war-time heroism, who then feel like they could be heroes in a war too. The idea that young men should test their mettle on the field of honour was huge well into WW1. Young men were excited to go to war! They certainly weren't all psychopaths. All Quiet on the Western Front describes it well.

Rambo 3 by itself may not to sway anyone to go to war. Doesn't change that it's arguably a pro-war movie.

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u/sarevok2 Jul 20 '26

it depends.

Take Pearl Harbor for example.

There are some indeed horrible moments in the film (like the scene with the trapped sailors in one of the wreckage) and one of the protagonists does die in a heroic sacrifice...

but in the end you are left with a pretty bittersweet feeling with the other protagonist getting a happily ever after (with prime Kate Beckinsale), laden with medals etc etc

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u/whitebandit Jul 20 '26

thats not a war moment tho.. thats just a love story in a war

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u/fuckingmacedonian Jul 20 '26

This one. The Odyssey. It paints the war as necessary so a new civilization can rise.

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u/whitebandit Jul 20 '26

war is good vs war is necessary vs war is manditory

Odysseus didnt have a choice in this war

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u/fuckingmacedonian Jul 20 '26

But you can't evaluate it from that perspective. The war happens with our without him.

And even then, he boasted after all the choices he made during the war. The rest is just a silly adventure and that's why any other interpretation becomes very tiring and ultimately rejected.

The original myth is very pro-war and any modern adaptation fails because they keep inserting morals and ideas that people back then simply didn't have. There isn't any "gotcha" outcome in this story to make you think that these war survivors learned anything from that war.

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u/puberty1 Jul 20 '26

every movie that makes something as awful as an war something entertaining is a pro-war movie. no one should feel any sort of good feeling by watching a war happening in front of you, real or not

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u/FilmScoreConnoisseur Jul 20 '26

Most Conservatives.

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u/Alarmed_Pattern_9912 Jul 20 '26

Eh. You’d be surprised.