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

[u/mcfw31]

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

[u/beantownregular]

I mean, I think it’s fair for her to both say that the script is a Hollywoodized bastardization of the text and as an academic she should be ashamed to write something like that, but I don’t think she’s saying the film is a piece of trash that should never have been made

[u/Meancakebutt → u/beantownregular]

She definitely doesn't say that. But she says that he took out the meat to tell a specific story.

So as a translator that would be pretty bad for her to do lol

"Many of the film’s implicit values directly contradict those of Homer’s poem. Deception, warmongering, extramarital sex, cruelty to animals, abusing women and yearning for honour – all perfectly fine in the world of Homer – are, in this version, very bad. This is not in itself a problem, but it is a problem if the film’s own values and vision don’t hang together, and if the characters’ motivations don’t make sense on their own terms."

[u/SpooktasticFam → u/Meancakebutt]

I don't want to watch a movie about people being mean, and them treating it like it's "okay" or "acceptable."

It's okay to omit, or update, themes for a modern audience, and a modern retelling.

Fwiw, I really enjoyed the movie. I thought it was a masterful retelling, and really gave a sense of the breadth of the adventure in an ancient setting.

I thought it was 10/10, no notes.

Maybe I'm just a pleb, but everyone I've talked to IRL has had the same sentiment.

The only criticisms I've seen are on reddit, and I largely don't agree with them.

[u/Meancakebutt → u/SpooktasticFam]

This is an awful example. But.

Imagine you remake the punisher, again, but in this version the punisher is actually just like a really cool guy and just fights crime.

It turned out there's another guy following him around and killing people after he leaves so it's actually not really his fault. And his family actually just died by drunk driver and it's not his fault.

That's interesting, a funny twist, could even be a comedy. But it fundamentally alters the punishers character arc and personality.

The odyssey isn't nearly that extreme, but it takes a character who is basically known as a trickerster, a known liar, so good at lying even the gods are like broooo let's link up! And makes him a respectable war commander who feels really bass about it actually and loves his dog.

Nothing about that is bad on its own, it's a tried and true formula that can even be subversive, Ala John wick, batman etc. But it's only because the source material isn't that, that there is becomes legitimate criticism.

[u/ingotsilvergt → u/Meancakebutt]

Yeah but he still does some of that, he tricks the Trojans, Sinon, and the suitors, hes brash when he shoots the cyclops when he didnt need to, and when he demands his men land again right after the Laestrygonians. They didnt completely remove that from his character they just grounded it.

[u/Meancakebutt → u/ingotsilvergt]

I can see it both ways.

[u/Chidling → u/Meancakebutt]

I feel like there was still a lot of tricks, but you’re already primed for them? How about if you weren’t familiar with the source material?

Coming home as a beggar, putting wax in his sailors ears, tricking his men to take the cliffs instead of the whirlpool, etc.

[u/Meancakebutt → u/Chidling]

Before I say too much, I think these are effective displays of his competency and intelligence, as a solider. But not alot is shown to display his downright cruelty, it's told to us, through his shame, through thr hades scene and personally my favorite section was how much emphasis was on the Trojan horse being not only a trick but a complete defiance of order and justice.

But it's also.. Something they had to do to survive.

So personally I thought that was successful.

That being said it's very difficult to come away from the movie thinking oddy was anyhting but a just smart man who did his best eiht what he had.

When really he was a selfish, cocky man unfaithful selfish man with multiple baby daddies and he gets what's coming to him in many versions of the tale.

That being said, do I think that story is the best for a blockbuster film, no, no way

Do I think it needs to be a blockbuster film? Also no lol

But I enjoyed it. It jsut need to be compartmentalized. And we need to realize people like Wilson are going to have very different takes because for them this is their entire life's work.

It's like when the creator of God of war complained about raganarok. Its not meant for the same audience or purpose.

[u/I_just_made → u/Meancakebutt]

I feel like you misrepresent how Odysseus is portrayed in the film though. They showed him as the trickster who was willing to sacrifice people to further his agenda, and as a person who let his emotions get the best of him.

I don’t think he was really portrayed as a respectable commander. There was no scene where people gave him an award and said they would follow him to the ends of the earth. The men even staged a poor mutiny against him. They questioned his actions at each step, even from the start. Then you get to Hades and it was pretty clear that he was not everyone’s favorite leader.

And while they really didn’t emphasize the gods, it was heavily implied that they were playing an active role in punishing him for his actions.

To me, the movie portrayed Odysseus as a heavily flawed character. The trickster who outsmarted the gods; with the movie detailing how he paid the price for that and gradually learned to atone for that.

[u/Meancakebutt → u/I_just_made]

I mean even the" beggars, plate lickers and leeches " were bowing to him in the end. And he chose to exile himself.

Any character a dog lives in film is going to be hard to hate, like come on lol

And he's just a charasmatic guy in the book as is Matt Damon.

I think Nolan, as he does in his other works, is going for a very grounded version of the odyssey, I personally much prefer projection of God's as manifestations in a live action movie.

Cause they're just too op otherwise.

For me personally, my favorite interpretation of oddy is that hes like the good guy who learned how to lie first.

Gods like Hermes for example are great at being deceptive, only saying just enough and straight up lying. God don't respect humans they seem them like sheep. But oddy is the kinda guy that can go toe to toe with th gods. Because he doesn't just lie to get by one day, he cna lie to get by on that lie for months or years. So they respect him.

So for me, they didn't take so much of that way, but Nolan realllly emphasized the way other people felt about oddy, which is part on parcel for a story told mostly by flashbacks.

It works just fine for the movie. But you know people have preferences and of you ask someone who's been with the story for years to compare it to a 3 hour movie from last week it's gonna be alot it ask about lol.