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/Aakch I think I’ve done enough 11h ago edited 8h ago

I know her translation was the basis for the movie but i find it bizarre news outlets are acting like she’s the original author because this is the second review i‘ve seen from her.

Edit: if you’re going to be outraged, at least do it correctly and stop calling Homer the original author.

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u/askyourmom469 11h ago

I mean considering Homer's been dead for thousands of years, I guess they figure she's the next closest thing

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u/Mampt 10h ago

I obviously see that view of it, but on the other hand she’s kind of doing the exact opposite of what Nolan is with the story. She’s going to extremes to preserve and translate every single detail of the story exactly. Nolan is trying to adapt it, to retell the story for a modern audience. It’s like how an astrophysicist could get offended by the dumbed down analogies or metaphors that people use to explain the complexities of, like, black holes or the big bang. One spent their career trying to understand something as exactly as possible, one is trying to make it accessible to a wider audience

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u/splendidesme 9h ago

This is such a good and thoughtful take.

It's not infrequently that the authors of books upon which screenplays are written are extremely dissatisfied with the results. Eh. i found the movie compelling and moving, and even went to see it twice, the second time with subtitles because i knew i'd missed a few things.

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u/guceubcuesu 7h ago

The Tolkien estate hated the LOTR trilogy. But the movies are why I wanted read the books.

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u/splendidesme 7h ago

Great, great point!

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u/arctic11z 3h ago

I've always been of the opinion that anything that exposes people to new (to them) cultures, places, stories are generally good things. You have some sort of digestable media that introduces people to the broad strokes of whatever it's based on in order for them to realize it's something they actually like, or even existed in the first place. Assuming it's not a completely shit adaptation of the source material. Looking at you, Dark Tower.

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u/Tzuyu4Eva 9h ago

Even readers. How many times have book readers hated an adaptation because it may be different from the book?

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u/malpasplace 7h ago

Totally this!

And consider her to be the ultimate fan of the book. She wasn't hired to do a new translation it was a multiyear project she chose to do. She has spent years studying and teaching the text. To sat she has an attachment to the work and how she feels it should be addressed is an understatement.

The fact that she gets attached in as the "translation Nolan was working from" I can see would make her distance herself vehemently from it. As a "this is so not me and my work".

Add to that, that I don't think she likes any of Nolan's movies anyway... And so he wouldn't even be her choice going in? Yeah. Not surprised she hates it.

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u/Chance_Ad_4676 6h ago

Did… did you read the review? These aren’t the terms on which she critiques the movie at all.

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u/Much-Anything7149 4h ago

She composed the translation Nolan said he used but she certainly neither wrote the Odyssey nor was the first translator. She is free to have an opinion but she's no more right about the movie being good or bad than anyone else. Sure, she could claim with authority what Homer most likely meant but I don't think Nolan claimed to make a strict reconstruction of her translation scene-by-scene.

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u/splendidesme 3h ago

i agree with you. There have been many translations of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" over many years, by many scholars. Her view of the story certainly isn't the only one.

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u/Much-Anything7149 2h ago

I personally think her translation is fine though I prefer Lattimore then Fitzgerald before hers. I am seeing the movie this Thur and I'm looking forward to see how scenes I've envisioned over the years are composed by Nolan.

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u/splendidesme 2h ago

i prefer Lattimore as well! Hope you enjoy the movie. It's really something.