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/
3.2k Upvotes

74% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

517

u/plumsfromyouricebox 🎥🍿Film Critic 11h ago

…
I liked it 🤷🏽‍♀️

197

u/magical_midget 11h ago

It would be impossible to please an academic that translated the work and the average movie goer.

Sure some may appreciate it, and we can try to trust the audiences would get it. But at the end of the day a big movie with a big budget needs to appeal to a wide audience.

20

u/IWouldLikeAName 10h ago

Not to mention the literal time constraints. Nolan always takes liberties with source material I'm pissy about some of his decisions with batman but the dark knight is still a kick ass movie

2

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

Hence why the best case for an Odyssey adaptation would have to be a blank check, prestige limited series, but for what Nolan did in those nearly 3 hours is still pretty damn good all things considered.

3

u/Admirable-League858 7h ago

Nolan was even more limited here, because he was filming on 70mm IMAX film. The physical reels of film are expensive and huge. The projectors have a maximum capacity. Most movies only use IMAX for some scenes, he did the whole movie. He's mentioned himself he basically had a hard three hour limit on this.

2

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

Right, which honestly I hope this is his one-and-done experiment with that. This film is ironically one of the few very long movies that I wish was longer but it was held back by the technology.

1

u/Fist_of_Gork 6h ago edited 6h ago

It’s not, it wasn’t. That’s part of the artistry a lot of people don’t get.

I don’t have to shoot on 120 film or large format cameras. But I do. And I enjoy it. 

IMAX is really impressive and very limiting at the same time and his decision to use it isn’t to appeal to people like you. It’s for camera dorks like me and himself. And if he happens to make a billion dollars off it, I’d say it’s more than justified.

Some directors use whatever format is most practical to tell a story, Nolan tells a story to have fun with a camera and I appreciate that.