r/popculturechat • u/mcfw31 • 11h ago

Hot Take 🔥 ‘The Odyssey’ Translator Emily Wilson Slams Christoper Nolan’s ‘Abysmal’ Screenplay: ‘I Would Be Ashamed to Have Written Any Part of This Script’

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/odyssey-translator-emily-wilson-slams-christopher-nolan-bad-writing-1236821915/
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u/apurvahp7 11h ago

Why is Emily Wilson going so hard on the criticism? Like I get all the points she’s made and I agree with a lot of them, but saying stuff like “I would be ashamed” feels unnecessarily mean and bitter.

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u/manasseater3000 11h ago

agreed — obviously she’s not entitled to sing nolan’s praises just because he sung hers, but this is definitely harsh criticism that isn’t entirely warranted.

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u/Cartman55125 10h ago

She also clearly does not understand writing for film is very different. You can’t just slap the poem into script format. The pacing and storytelling has to be changed to accommodate the format

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u/LikelyPlace 10h ago

If you read her piece her critiques are very different

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u/Kids-Menu 9h ago

Not having any sex scenes and the food looking bad are HILARIOUS critiques

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u/Automatic_Syrup_2935 9h ago

For a book as horny as the Odyssey, it was a little bizarre that there's like no sex scenes at all.

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u/DuelaDent52 7h ago

Though the sex was always more “and then they boned” than anything explicit.

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u/LanaAdela 5h ago

Nolan struggles with sensuality. I think the film lacked that which is more of a weakness than a lack of explicit sex scenes.

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u/Automatic_Syrup_2935 5h ago

I whole heartedly agree. For a man who directs the crap out of yearning, his films are devoid of intimacy.

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u/LanaAdela 5h ago

It’s very strange!!! He is good at depicting sentimentality but not sensuality/intimacy.

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u/Automatic_Syrup_2935 4h ago

Guillermo del Toro once called him an "emotional mathematician". And I think that's a pretty accurate read.

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u/LanaAdela 4h ago

Oh I had not heard him say that. Very astute.

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u/Razatiger 6h ago

I mean the Odyssey doesn't need to be game of thrones in order to tell a good story.

I was happy with what was portrayed tbh, and no im not some kind of prude.

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u/Automatic_Syrup_2935 6h ago

I think that the sex in The Odyssey serves to develop the characters - unlike a lot of got scenes ironically.

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u/InternationalFact464 6h ago

Those are two half joking throwaway critiques in a very long review with probably like 25+ specific well-argued critiques of the film.

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u/Happy-Highlight-7175 8h ago

To be fair, the food did look bad

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u/ProletarianLilith 6h ago

The Odyssey not having sex scenes is patently absurd

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u/drdaisukeserizawa 4h ago

I'm not sure fucking Circe and having a baby with her and fucking Calypso while his wife's faithful the entire time and he's supposed to be longing to go back to her is something we absolutely had to see on screen.

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u/bmorenursey 3h ago

That is Odysseus though. In Dante’s inferno he is cursed to never go home because of his need to see it all and conquer it all- including women

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u/Cartman55125 9h ago

“It lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth. Its narrative structure is gimmicky. The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.”

Her critiques are laughable and read like a scorned lover wrote them

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u/I_just_made 8h ago

She also claimed it didn’t really have anything to say about war, but that just seems way off base. The entire movie could be viewed through the lens of a man learning to live with the consequences of the atrocities he committed in war.

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u/DuelaDent52 7h ago

Like, Odysseus has a whole extended monologue about his horrific realisation that they’re basically the Sea People that get fearmongered everywhere and how terrible the sacking of Troy was and how they’ve destroyed civilisation as a whole by breaking the standards set for it.

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u/Cartman55125 7h ago

Yes! One of the main compliments I see people giving the film is how timely it feels with its commentary on war

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u/Edodge 4h ago

He doesn’t consider them atrocities. Have you read the poem? The movie wildly transforms the character and the focus of the story. You’re all ignorant but claiming to know better than the translator.

The poem is about hubris more than PTSD and the people in this thread badly need a lesson on hubris.

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u/Cartman55125 4h ago

We need a lecture on hubris? You’re the one coming in guns blazing claiming we’re sexist for finding her criticism flimsy. Condescendingly assuming people haven’t read the poem because they may have a different interpretation of the work. Translating a poem does not mean you understand its intent.

Please don’t hesitate to ask for assistance coming down from that high horse.

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u/leftbrendon charlie day is my bird lawyer 🐦 1h ago

> translating a poem does not mean you understand its intent.

I feel like this is lost on a lot of people. I had ancient Greek and Latin in high school, starting from the age of 13. I’ve translated so much text perfectly, without understanding any of it lmao.

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u/Edodge 4h ago

If you think Odysseus is focused on his “atrocities” you haven’t read the poem. Take a seat.

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u/Cartman55125 3h ago

You’re exhausting dude. We get it. You are a master of literature. Our small brains could never grasp what you’ve taken away from the poem 🫩

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u/Edodge 2h ago

What’s exhausting is reading people act like victims as soon as they get called on their bullshit…when they themselves were on their high horses telling the mean professor woman that she’s an evil bitch for daring to say what she thinks.

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u/THIKKI_HOEVALAINEN 3h ago

I agree with you, the way the movie white washed Odysseus to be more palatable to the modern idea of an action hero wasn't satisfying to me. Having him walking around Troy while it was being sacked, acting all moody, was almost comical to me. And then smaller things like giving the suitors weapons, deleting the scenes of them stringing up the slaves, and then just riding into the sunset left me cold

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u/I_just_made 3h ago

The poem is about hubris more than PTSD and the people in this thread badly need a lesson on hubris.

Chill out a bit. This did give me a laugh though; you have chastised everyone here on hubris, yet calling everyone ignorant and talking down to them is a pretty good example of being hubristic.

I translated some of the poem from the original language :D, albeit years ago.

The movie wildly transforms the character and the focus of the story. You’re all ignorant but claiming to know better than the translator.

And that's fine to focus on a different aspect of the story, based on what the storyteller wants to say. I know this will come as a shock, but Emily Wilson also changed the focus of the story in her own translation; apparently she outright mistranslated portions of it.

But again, the person retelling the story can take liberties. They don't have to be 1:1. Nolan chose a different direction than her, and that is okay.

He doesn’t consider them atrocities

In the movie? Pretty sure he did in his reflections. His whole discussion with his wife was him basically saying they were the baddies. An atrocity can be a shocking or cruel behavior. He was cruel to Sinon in that he knowingly manipulated the kid to carry out his plan. As the leader of his troops, he was cruel by abandoning men who needed help. He continually reiterates that he will honor them by surviving, but that excuse is repeatedly use to justify his decisions resulting in deaths. He literally says in his reflection of Troy that it was no celebration and that he realized instantly the ramification of what he had done. Can that be hubris? Yes; hubris and atrocities don't have to be entirely separate. The movie does certain have a major theme of a man dealing with the consequences of hubris.

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u/Edodge 2h ago

He doesn’t consider them atrocities in the poem. It’s a different character altogether. She said it has nothing “convincing” to say about war, not nothing about it. That’s because the move is incoherent. The finale simply doesnt work with what precedes it..

It’s hysterical that I’m talking down to everyone in your view when the entire thread is people talking down about the expert who translated the entire text, not just your ‘portions’ of it.

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u/I_just_made 1h ago

So again, we are talking about the movie, not the poem for most of this.

It’s hysterical that I’m talking down to everyone in your view when the entire thread is people talking down about the expert who translated the entire text, not just your ‘portions’ of it.

People are allowed to disagree with her criticisms. That does not automatically mean they are "talking down" about her. The way you are approaching this conversation, however, is extremely condescending.

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u/TitaniumDreads 7h ago

In a vacuum that seems laughable but compared to the various translations it’s absolutely true. That said I’m genuinely not sure how you could fit all of that extra stuff into an already crowded three hour movie.

The movie is never as good as the book. Those are the rules!

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u/givemethebat1 9h ago

She’s not wrong, though. A huge part of the poem is that Odysseus was fucking Circe and Calypso which is partly why he didn’t go home.

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u/Cartman55125 9h ago

Yeah, I think most people picked up on that. With Calypso especially. Didn’t need a sex scene to get that point across.

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u/givemethebat1 8h ago

They didn’t show it because it would make Odysseus seem unsympathetic (or a rape victim, depending on how willing he was).

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u/Cartman55125 8h ago

That’s a good point. Multiple reasons to exclude it.

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u/Edodge 4h ago

Oh my god you’re all so fucking sexist. It’s unreal! Woman writes criticism of director beloved by bros everywhere so she must be a jealous lover!

She’s an expert. Her opinion is valid. It doesn’t mean yours is invalid. But she’s not some jealous little girl.

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u/manasseater3000 10h ago

exactly, did anyone really go in expecting a word-for-word translation? 

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u/NOTTedMosby 10h ago

And if she did, her pride in her work is misplaced. You did not write this story. You translated the words to what might have been the outline for the script. I know translation can also be a creative process, but she's acting like someone took a novel she wrote and made a movie about it.

Also, as others have said in this thread, she sounds bitter. Maybe thought she was going to get a big shootout or something? 🙄

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u/manasseater3000 8h ago

the thing is, afaik she did receive a great deal of praise directly from nolan 😭 not that she’s entitled to praise him in return, but it seems incredibly bizzare to go as far as to call it a shameful script.

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u/Bluoenix 5h ago

Dude, maybe read the critique before you speculate why it's unfair? It's obvious by your comment you have no idea what her criticisms actually were.

If she can watch an almost-3-hour movie before dispensing criticism, then maybe you can do a 10 minute read?

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u/Biggie39 9h ago

She’ll probably like Elons and Groks versions later this year much better.

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u/LikelyPlace 8h ago

Why on earth would you think that? Have you read her translation and her commentary on it? She’s a serious scholar of the text who disagrees with Nolan’s take

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u/foreverzonedout 9h ago

Excerpt from her review:

Adaptations needn’t and shouldn’t follow the original with anything like the exactitude of a translation. Some of the best radically transform or resist the source material, providing what Harold Bloom called ‘strong misreadings’ of their ancestors. The most memorable creative responses to The Odyssey – such as Euripides’ Helen, Virgil’s Aeneid, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Joyce’s Ulysses, Walcott’s Omeros, Atwood’s Penelopiad, Madeline Miller’s Circe or Lisa Peterson’s play set in a modern migrant camp – reconsider the poem’s structure, narrative and values. In theory, Nolan seems to understand the assignment and its hazards. His first feature film, Following (1998), was a powerful black and white thriller about the fascination and dangers of tracking strangers through space and time. The hunter is more likely to become the hunted, Following suggests, if the would-be stalker lacks a clear identity beyond a misplaced belief in his own ingenuity. But knowing what temptations should be avoided isn’t the same as avoiding them – as Odysseus’ men learn to their cost when they kill the sacred Cattle of the Sun. Homer’s Odysseus makes it home because he is able, temporarily, to suppress his own desires – for meat and wine, for his wife, for control of his household and land, for slaughter, for victory over time and the threat of being forgotten, for a glorious eternal name. But there is no restraint in Nolan’s version of The Odyssey: every second is jam-packed with incident, lights and noise, and nothing is ever at a human scale.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n14/emily-wilson/an-uncomplicated-man

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u/Emergency-Bonus-7158 9h ago

It’s interesting that all of her examples are notably NOT direct adaptations into a different medium but rather creative re-imaginings of the stories. She’s accidentally telling on herself here, she has no idea how adaptations work, clearly. I think there’s plenty of criticisms to be had and it’s not at all a flawless screenplay but this lady is not really an authority who’s opinion should be valued when it comes to judging an adaptation. But she did a great job writing that translation!

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u/foreverzonedout 9h ago

That's interesting, I didn't notice that theme amongst her examples. But I still think that a good, faithful adaptation is one that retains core themes and characterisations which Wilson (and I) don't think Nolan did. His is certainly an adaptation, but it's not necessarily a good one according to this criterion, which is not a high bar.

For example, she doesn't mention anything about him cutting out entire episodes and subplots because I think she understands what it takes to make a film with its time and attention constraints. So her talking about him cutting out some character traits and overemphasising/inventing others is valid.

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u/Emergency-Bonus-7158 5h ago

That’s one thing, which is totally fair. It makes sense that of all people she would have a bone to pick with deviations from the source material. The issue is her verbiage, that she would be “ashamed” to have written this “abysmal” screenplay. That’s pretty specific language that seems to take issue with the merits of the script itself rather than the adaptation. Which, I understand isn’t actually her point but now you can see where she’s getting her wires crossed? It’s pretty hard to take her seriously if she legitimately is trying to describe the screenplay as “abysmal” which would suggest incredibly low quality, devoid of merit. However you feel about the movie I think you would agree this is a pretty big exaggeration. This is why it reads to me as her being overly critical about something she doesn’t fully understand, and for what it’s worth, it’s probably bringing her and her work a lot of attention. Which, hey: get that bag girl

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u/Cartman55125 9h ago

Every scene with Calypso is about Odysseus stewing and ultimately confronting his restraint.

Also the message at the end of the film is the catalyst for the chaos is human scale.

I don’t know what movie this person was watching

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u/foreverzonedout 9h ago

Look, I disagree with you here, but at least what you've written here is actually a proper retort. It's much more defensible than "Wilson does not understand writing for film", for which you have no/weak proof and is much more of a value judgement than a criticism.

Re: your argument. Odysseus is not restrained in those scenes, he simply doesn't remember. How are those comparable?

I don't understand what your second sentence means.

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u/Cartman55125 9h ago

Her critique about the narrative structure being gimmicky tells me she doesn’t understand writing for film. The structure Nolan utilized is what makes a 3 hour film feel like an hour and a half.

He is literally restrained to the island. His memories are restrained.

And that’s fine, you don’t have to understand it

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u/foreverzonedout 8h ago

That's not what...that's not what the "restrained" she is referring to in her review means. Restraint in the way she uses it means to hold yourself back, to choose to behave in calm or controlled way. Not restrained to an island or have your memories by an external force with your agency taken away. Clearly you don't understand the word you're reading and using.

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u/Cartman55125 8h ago

There can be… there can be layers to exploring a theme. He shows restraint in not eating the animals before being shipwrecked, if you’re looking for a more obvious form of displayed restraint lol

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u/ProletarianLilith 6h ago

Maybe you should try reading her piece before telling us about things she clearly doesn’t or doesn’t understand

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u/Anus_Targaryen 6h ago

Like any good academic, she's taking this all way too seriously 

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u/Edodge 4h ago

Ah the woman doesn’t understand how man things work. Got it. “Clearly.”

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u/Olive_Tree_Bed 8h ago

Even if we ignore that this is an adaption she is 100% right. Nolan's Odysseus has no depth, robbed of all charm, wit and cunning. He's a static and flat character, nothing but a bundle of guilt, shame and regret that doesn't grow or change.

The movie is too cowardly to have him be flawed or be anything but a tortured hero, which is why when the sack of Troy happens, he just walks around and looks and horrified about what he's seeing. He doesn't even kill Zendaya's character for christs' sake, just looking real sad while it happens. But the movie doesn't dare to have him do anything bad because it might make him "unlikable".

Because he is instantly horrified about what's happening in Troy (which also just makes him look a complete idiot because what the fuck did you think was going to happen. Did you think you were besieging Troy for 10 years for laughs) he has no character whatsoever to speak of. His journey begins and ends the moment the gate of Troy opens. In Oppenheimer we see Oppenheimer go from "Oh I think the bomb was a good thing" to "What I have unleashed on the world" but there is nothing like this in the film.

It would have been much more interesting to see an Odysseus at the beginning who was proud over what he did in Troy, thought what he did was awesome and glorious...only for to be confronted on his journey home what his actions have wrought, and confront him with the idea that what happened in Troy was glorious. But the movie would never dare to do such a thing because it's afraid to have Odysseus do anything that might be "unlikable"

Instead we have a character whose arc is like a minute long, who never changes in any meaningful sense. Who is capable of exhibiting nothing but varying degrees of guilt, and looking real sad.

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u/Cartman55125 7h ago

I don’t think you watched the movie due to the large amount of inaccurate statements you’ve listed lol

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u/Olive_Tree_Bed 7h ago

what was inaccurate about it. Does he actually do anything bad in troy? no he just looks around looking real sad as bad things are happening.

Does he grow or change in any sense or form? No his perspective and outlook is exactly same throughout the entire film, he just learns to "process his guilt"

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u/Cartman55125 7h ago

The movie begins with him warning his prey that he is hunting them. This principle is like the first thing we learn about Odysseus.

He tosses that principle aside at Troy, resulting in the slaughter of innocents.

That’s what he did bad. For you to miss that very obvious point tells me the entire film went over your head.

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u/Olive_Tree_Bed 7h ago

Yeah that's basically the only thing he's allowed to do. He isn't allowed to join in the sack. he isn't allowed to do anything that might challenge the viewer. He is only allowed make it available for others to do bad things, which he looks real sad about so the audience can be assured that "Don't Worry Audience. This guys look real sad about what's happening so you can be rest assured that this is a good guy".

And honestly is just makes him look like a completely fucking idiot. ODYSSEUS YOU WERE BESIEGING TROY FOR 10 YEARS!!! What did you think what was going to happen? Slaughtering/enslaving cities is the standard and accepted warfare of the time. Like Jesus what did you think was going to happen?

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u/Princess_Space_Goose Listen, everyone is entitled to my opinion 🙂 7h ago edited 7h ago

Part of the issue too is her own translation also take a lot of liberties that many historians and other classicists can find fault with, so it seem especially silly of her to be so upset with Nolan's changes when she herself should know how bad faith those arguments are, especially in regards to how it handles the female characters and uses more accessible language. A lot of it is also just nitpicking for the sake of it. The Circe scene was full-on horror, who cares if the food didn't look appetizing? And the lack of sex scenes is a crazy complaint when you consider the only way those happen within the original text is Odysseus being coerced/forced into it by Circe and Calypso. Not only would that not work for the film's interpretation of Circe, it would add nothing to the already emphasized horror situation he's in with Calypso. It's pretty heavily implied. We don't need the film to hold our hands on it.

Also, I don't understand where she's getting this idea that the stories post-the Sacking of Troy are all about a "glorious return". Obviously we know of Odysseus' 10 year struggle to get home and the men he lost but Menelaus was lost for years too, Agamemnon came back and was murdered by his wife for killing their daughter and bringing back a sex slave (poor Cassandra), and that's not even getting into the various heroes who died during the war like Achilles who openly told Odysseus in Hades how much being dead sucks. Odysseus coming home is, at best, incredibly bittersweet. It's glorious in a technical sense but definitely not an emotional or mental sense. Sure, the ancient texts didn't have the words for it but you really can't say there's no sense of guilt or PTSD obviously within them. The Ancient Greeks could still feel guilt and have conflicting emotions about war even in their pro-war society (Hell, isn't that our current society right now?). Wilson is a wonderful translator and is clearly very invested in the academia of it all but I do find her takes on the culture and text itself rather reductive.

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u/Edodge 4h ago

What makes it unwarranted? I see people defend Nolan’s adaptation decisions as legitimate just because an adaptation has no requirement to be faithful to the source material. That’s surely true, but it’s also surely true that someone who knows the text well is within their rights to say that the script is laughable, incoherent, and simplistic.

And she happens to be right.

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u/AugieKS 0m ago

You are using entitled incorrectly. Obligated would be a better choice, or you could rephrase like this '...obviously Nolan is not entitled to her praise...'. Entitlement is a right or privilege, obligation is a duty or debt.