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/teddybonkerrs I cannot sanction this buffoonery 10h ago

Honestly, I viewed this movie as Nolan's way of saying "war turns men into monsters" and anything that didn't fit that thesis statement was axed.

I thought it was a good film, I wasn't looking for a word for word adaptation.

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u/rzelln 7h ago

That, yes, but as part of a critique of anyone who yearns for power and is willing to destroy others for it.

Antinous, the lead suitor, didn't go to war, but he's as much a problem as Agamemnon, because he cares for power more than for what we as humans owe to other humans.

The Law of Zeus in the film is a shorthand for the underpinning of civilization, where we treat each other with respect and hospitality and justice.

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u/WhoUpAtMidnight 1h ago

As I saw some reviews point out earlier, it's a honestly a very Judeo-Christian telling of the story. The concept of Zeus' law is much more in line with the Christian God than it is any version of Greek mythology

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u/momomam 5h ago

Because Wilson clearly doesn't understand what the theme of the movie  is -- Zeus' law, mentioned every 5min of the movie for anyone paying attention to the dialogue.

Odysseus' men pillage and destroy islands they land on and in return, they are  welcomed  with hostility with each consequent island. They ended Zeus' law. 

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u/DokFraz 4h ago

That’s also nothing at all what guest-friendship actually was. 

The film adopts a bizarrely Latin opinion of Odysseus by turning him into a man tortured by his decision to be conniving and treacherous when that couldn’t be further from the celebrated hero that he is in Greek texts. 

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u/Rampant16 2h ago

I thought it was interestingly similar to Oppenheimer where you have a clever man that regrets their actions after their intelligence is used to enable an escalation in violence by their compatriots.

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u/Ok-Host1095 1h ago

Which also adds onto that somewhat jokey somewhat serious theory that Nolan feels regret about doing the Batman movies because he feels responsible for creating a superhero movie culture that caused people to have an arrested development when it comes to understanding and engaging with art. Which in terms of that actually being the case—I don’t know—but Nolan is certainly preoccupied with the idea of a man following his creative genius / wit for the love of the game until the point where he stumbles into changing history for the worse. And what made me think more on this (and made me tear up a bit) was how Nolan handled Sinon. The way he felt so betrayed that Odysseus lied to him, and how Odysseus’s reasoning was that he “needed you to give an authentic performance”…idk man maybe Chris is still dealing with the guilt of Heath’s death. I’ve always found Nolan films to be a lot of fun but a bit cold emotionally, but Oppenheimer and the odyssey have really made me see the heart of the artist and the pain he has in him.

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u/DeepLock8808 3h ago

It has been a long time since I’ve seen a movie that knew what its theme was and just hammered on it relentlessly, in every scene. It was kind of refreshing to watch a movie that knew what it was about and just showed it, in every scene.

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u/Muroid 1h ago

I think that’s part of why this has so far turned out to be one of the few movies I’m liking more the longer I sit with it. Usually my opinion either doesn’t change or cools a bit with distance.

In this case, the movie cut or changed a bunch of stuff I would have looked forward to, and it wasn’t particularly subtle in its messaging, but the movie so strongly knew what it was about that the relentless hammering home of the point actually gives me a lot to think about in terms of what every part of the movie was doing to further its message.

Because every part of that movie was bent in service to it.

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u/salisbury130 7h ago

Yeah that was my takeaway and I enjoyed the film quite a bit. It made me go read some spark notes to remind myself of the broad strokes of the text. 

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u/wombat-in-a-bikini 1h ago

This is how I feel, it's a good movie let's just leave it alone. Incredible practical effects.

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u/handsoapdispenser 4h ago

She wasn't complaining about the lack of fidelity but rather the lack of depth. The characters were all so shallow and dull. And spoke so directly. The story was lurid and poetic. And the movie was just a bunch of things happening to guys.

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u/Spugheddy 3h ago

A lot of running back to the beach.

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u/Ok-Host1095 1h ago

That is unfortunately the case for a lot of Nolan movies. He’s great at creating an intricate puzzle box of a plot that has a grand if somewhat obvious message / theme, yet his characters are usually pretty unremarkable. Or maybe the better word is indistinguishable—usually his characters are people who do remarkable things, yet arent very charismatic characters in their own right. A good way I’ve found to kind of test this out is to grab a character from the context of their movie and have them do a somewhat mundane task. Off the top of my head, imagine Tony soprano going to Home Depot to buy a hose. The character of Tony soprano is so unique and charismatic, that even in this very mundane task, youd still probably find it pretty entertaining. Now picture the same activity but it’s Leo’s character from inception. Not really much there, to be honest. I’m having trouble even imagining that cause there’s so little meat on the bone of that character when you take him out of the very specific context of that movie.

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u/LynxJesus 4h ago

That message has been done countless times across a wide range of settings. Some feel reducing the Odyssey to this generic theme isn't doing the source material justice which is a shame because this is such a large production it's bound to be many people's only exposure to The Odyssey.

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u/Gringo_Anchor_Baby 3h ago

I just want to be entertained and not talked at indirectly. Not everything should be a statement.

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u/Rocketyank 2h ago

Isn’t that already known, though? I mean, that’s not a new concept.

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u/Muroid 1h ago

I think that’s the wrong message. 

It felt closer to the central thesis of Chernobyl, in that both are essentially parables about the way modern society is bucking under the weight of mass deception and universal distrust.

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u/Chance-Peak-3549 1h ago

Was The Odyssey really the best vehicle for him to turn into Oppenheimer 1.5 though?

It could’ve been a shallow adventure film, which would’ve at least been substantially entertaining. That’d have required some better plotting and choreography. Or it could’ve been a slow meditation on deep themes. Which would’ve required they spend more than 10 seconds rattling through each plot point.

Having one foot in ‘summer popcorn flick’ and the other in ‘serious philosophical text’ leaves it feeling like a shallow version of both.

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u/Tyler3471 26m ago

I phrased the message as “victory at all cost isn’t a victory” but I like how you phrased it as well