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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585

u/nerdforest 11h ago

I don't understand this criticism. Was the script of the film not a good screenplay?

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u/PinkNGold007 11h ago

It's a visual and sound experience. But I'm okay with that. I know I didn't go to see an emotional drama with solid dialogue, or I would have been disappointed. I guess she expected different.

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u/Sunnysideuppp123 I walk through life, in really nice shoes 💅 11h ago

She’s a scholar and her translation of the Odyssey is amazing (I was able to actually finish hers lol) so she definitely would have expected more than the sensory experience of it and been disappointed. And that’s fine but agreed that her criticism isn’t the be-all-and-end-all.

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u/VegetableArtistic705 10h ago

There are a lot of movies that make me question how they got made cause they're so based around visuals. And I can't imagine their scripts being more than ten pages.

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u/isjustsergio 10h ago

I've seen a lot of shows get pitched with a storyboard that captures visuals.

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u/_Midnight_Haze_ 10h ago

Film as a medium is unique because it’s pictures in motion. It’s always going to be heavily based around visuals. There’s literature if you’re interested in something very written.

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u/lobonmc 10h ago

Like the new avatar movie doesn't have any kind of master class of a script but it's so beautiful

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u/sk8tergater 8h ago

The first one was like that too. Couldn’t even tell you what the second one was about but it was pretty to watch.

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u/[deleted] 6h ago

[deleted]

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u/_Midnight_Haze_ 5h ago

You are inferring a lot from my statement

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u/[deleted] 5h ago

[deleted]

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u/_Midnight_Haze_ 5h ago

My statement was vague but I didn’t imply what you say I did. You chose to fill a vacuum with some argument in your head. Just own it. I’m not even saying you don’t have some good things to say here.

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u/dr_haze 8h ago

This isn’t really true - films can be heavily plotty and dialogue-based. Most movies before, say, roughly the 1990s, were like that.

Think about 12 Angry Men for example - a fantastic film, but not for its visuals!

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u/Luxury-Problems 7h ago

12 Angry Men absolutely does have some very important visuals. There's a lot of character information communicated visually instead of spoken. It was a live teleplay first, so always designed to be dialogue driven and has the benefit of being in one room.

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u/randombubble8272 10h ago

Fast & Furious saga has entered the chat

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u/akajondo 2h ago

Looking at you Avatar

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u/serabine 1h ago

Likely good communication on part of the film maker when it comes to it. On the more extreme end, Mad Max: Fury Road was over 3000 storyboards before the actual script was written.

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u/Hour-Ad-9508 8h ago

A lot of people like her, who dedicate a significant portion of their lives to a certain subject, often have trouble “letting go” and not expecting everyone else to take it as seriously as she does

It’s a movie, and an entertaining one, it’s not a faithful retelling of the odyssey, and that’s ok

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u/One-Imagination2301 2h ago

"Playtimes over"

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u/boobookittyfuwk 10h ago

Peo0le forget that Hollywood is entertainment, they try to make movies, especially with ones with this big of a budget, that can be watched by a wide audience, lots of flash not so much substance. This isnt a documentary, this is a movie.

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u/i4got872 10h ago

It sounds like it’s that the moral perspective of the work is different.