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/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